D20: What a Difference …

The last time I saw IndyCar driver Scott Dixon, I was at the 2009 Long Beach Grand Prix reporting THIS story on the long-held belief that having children slows down drivers. He and his wife Emma were about to have their first daughter, he was coming off the best year of his life and his second championship and I asked him if having a baby meant the end of his championship runs.

Today, I met up with Scott again to interview him for our annual Interview Issue. He and Emma now have two daughters and last weekend, he clinched his third IndyCar championship. He’s sure proving that theory wrong. Stay tuned for our interview in December.

20131031-135404.jpgTonight, I went to the Tribeca Grand for a screening of a new documentary, “The Armstrong Lie, directed by Alex Gibney and produced by Frank Marshall. In 2008, Gibney set out to make a doc about Lance Armstrong’s return to competitive cycling. He thought he was making an inspiring comeback story. Instead, Armstrong’s PED scandal rewrote the history of his sport, and the script of this movie. Gibney, who also directed and narrated the ESPN: 30 for 30 film “Catching Hell” about Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman (one of my favorites), decided to not only narrate the film, but put himself in it and take the audience along for his ride as he bought into Lance’s story, questioned it, bought in again and eventually convinced Armstrong to sit down for a final interview this March, several months post-Oprah. It’s a great film.

After the film, Gibney, the producers, Jonathan Vaughters and Betsy Andreu stood on stage and answered questions from the audience, which was filled mostly with NYC media types. Andreu could use her own talk show. Not sure her guests would get a word in edgewise, but I’d tune in.

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