NBC is coming out in the fall with a U.S. version of the British cop show "Prime Suspect" (already familiar to PBS viewers). In the original version, Helen Mirren played Jane Tennison at various ranks in London's Metropolitan Police. The U.S. version - Maria Bello in the lead role - will be set in New York and it also follow the career path of a woman named Jane who battles her way up the ranks in the boys club world of top copping.
New York Jane isn't a Tennison, but a Timoney. And that will mean not a few viewers in the New York area casting a thought back to John Timoney, once the NYPD's number two.
IF contacted Timoney, who still lives in Miami where he was chief under Mayor Manny Diaz, and the Dublin-born top cop was tickled pink by the thought of his family name being up there in Thursday night lights (the show will air Thursdays and is directed by Peter Berg, the hand behind "Friday Night Lights").
All we need now if for Timoney to return to New York in real life to succeed Ray Kelly - should the NYPD commissioner, as some believe, make a bid for the mayor's job. At that point we will have JT in her show at ten, and JT on the news at eleven.
You never know.
AH, HERE WE GO
Didn't take long. No sooner had Rory McIlroy effectively created the sovereign sporting nation state of Northern Ireland than we have the man and the place sucked back into the British maw.
This in an AP story out of London: "British golfers hold the top three spots in the world rankings for the first time in their 25-year history after Rory McIlroy rose to third Monday following his triumph at the U.S. Open."
Now to be fair, there is a reference in the following paragraph to the "Northern Irishman," but we're going to have to be on highest alert in the weeks and months ahead as McIlroy competes in the British Open, Irish Open and PGA.
Wins in any and for sure all three could threaten the very existence of the sovereign wee North in sporting terms. Of course, if the Holywood swinger comes down the field in all three, the Northern Irish tag is certain to stick.
So we are faced with a conundrum. What to do? Oh stuff it. Go Rory!
BRIAN AT LARGE
Hard to keep up with attorney Brian O'Dwyer, a man who wears many hats indeed. The senior partner at O'Dwyer and Bernstien was recently appointed to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, the United Nations environmental and scientific arm, by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
O'Dwyer will serve as one of the commission's "At Large Members," which is appropriate given the fact that he's out and about in the broader world so much.
O'Dwyer, by the by, is currently representing actress Rosie Perez in a case taken by the fiery actress who suffered an injury during the filming of an episode of "Law & Order: SVU." IF is big into crime shows this week.
Anyway, Perez reportedly suffered a herniated disc that required two surgeries after an extra forcibly shook her while shooting a scene back in 2009, the lawsuit charges.
"The thing to do was taking someone who knows what he's doing to make it look violent without being violent," O'Dwyer recently told the Daily News after filing a suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court on behalf of Perez.
"This person was not a stuntman, he was just an extra. I guess he got carried away with the scene."
As a result of her injury, Perez, feeling a good deal less than rosy, was out of work for a year. Attorney O'Dwyer, citing the high earning power of the actress, is seeking "very substantial" damages.
IF should give him a call. There's got to be serious repetitive motion injuries associated with being lashed to a desk writing columns.
