STAND-UP GUY GRONK
STAY TUNED: Will the Juice get loose? That's the question when O.J. Simpson goes before the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners on Thursday. The hearing will be televised live (of course), from Lovelock Correction Center, where Simpson has been a guest of the state since 2008. The 70-year-old ex-football star was sentenced to nine to 33 years for armed robbery and kidnapping after a plot to steal sports memorabilia, which Simpson claimed belonged to him, from a room at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas. That sentence was handed down exactly 13 years after he was acquitted on charges of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Simpson's former criminal defense attorney said his chances of getting out early look good, as he's been an ideal inmate for the past nine years. “It's based on his behavior in prison and that certainly hasn't changed,” Yale Galanter told the New York Daily News yesterday. If the parole board gives Simpson the high sign, Simpson could walk out of prison Oct. 1.
GAME TIME: Another reason to love Julian Edelman: He's a “Game of Thrones” fan. The New England Patriots wide receiver was pumped for yesterday's season seven premiere of the HBO hit. How much? He tweeted a photo of the Stark banners hanging once again from Winterfell and the words, “the north remembers #tonight.” But he improvised a skosh, subbing the direwolf sigil with the Pats logo. Hey, if Edelman were part of House Stark, you bet he would have taught poor little Rickon to run serpentine.
YO!: There's a new hotel in town, and it's unlike any other kind of accommodation around. YOTEL Boston, which the Track toured alongside GM Chris Hartzell, opened at the end of June in the Seaport and it looks like a touch of luxury fell from the sky — intentionally. Inspired by VIP air travel, the building boasts 326 swanky cabins where guests sleep, a tech-ed out “Mission Control” lobby with a restobar reminiscent of an airport watering hole, as well as a 12th-floor Sky Lounge with 360-degree views of Boston Harbor and the Seaport. Now, if only we could cash in on frequent flyer miles at the bar ...
JUST FOR LAUGHS: Well, he’s learned what NOT to do during an evening of comedy, especially one that’s being taped for TV, so hopefully when New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski hosts “Unsportsmanlike Comedy,” a night of stand-up at Showcase Live on July 21, the oh-no-he-didn’t-meter will be dialed way, way down.
As you’ll recall, his blue-and-then-some set for retired Red Sox DH David Ortiz’s June 22 roast at the House of Blues was deemed so vulgar, NESN decided against airing the event.
This time around, Gronk is hosting, not roasting, and the lineup includes New Hampshire native Juston McKinney, Finesse Mitchell, John Caparulo, Stoneham son Jay Larson and Cambridge’s own Lenny Clarke.
If you catch the gig at Patriot Place, look extra sharp — it’s being taped.
Gronk hyped the gig on Twitter: “Get tix, trust me!”