Superstar

YouTube is killing me," Renee Fleming says. On stage Renee Fleming will perform with the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, conducted by Ya-Hui Wang, at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. Limited ticket availability. 410-727-6000 or baltimoreopera.com.

Soccer superstar David Beckham, about to make his Major League Soccer debut last summer, was talking about the advantages of playing on the grass field at Washington's RFK Stadium. He said he loathed FieldTurf, a brand of artificial surface that is popular in the United States and is used on the Toronto field where Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy had played its previous game. He said FieldTurf stresses athletes' bodies. Oops. It turned out that three fields at Beckham's California youth academy are FieldTurf.

Obesity is the reality show world's cause du jour since overweight people, it seems, make for good TV. We've already had NBC's Biggest Loser, TLC's Honey We're Killing the Kids! and Big Medicine, and VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. Coming later this summer is ABC's Fat March, in which contestants lose weight by walking hundreds of miles along the East Coast. And now this: Shaq's Big Challenge, in which Miami Heat basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal sets out to save American youths from eating themselves into oblivion.

Mark McGwire came far closer yesterday to dropping off the ballot than entering the Hall of Fame. In an apparent repudiation of baseball's so-called steroid era, just 23.5 percent of Hall of Fame voters endorsed McGwire, the seventh-leading home run hitter in major league history, in his first turn on the ballot. He needed an additional 281 votes for induction, and came within 101 votes of being dropped from the ballot. Among other candidates, longtime closer Rich "Goose" Gossage fell 21 votes short of the 409 needed for election, receiving 71.2 percent.

The uniform number says a lot about Gilbert Arenas. Zero. That was how many minutes some recruiters told him he'd play for a major program. And he never wanted to forget, so he slapped it on his chest as a freshman at Arizona. But these days, the number is a big part of his "superhero" identity. He's Agent Zero, the phenomenon who bursts past the fastest guards, floats shots over the fingertips of the tallest centers and swishes three-pointers from the remotest environs of a basketball court.

If you could be another athlete, who would you be?Grant Hill, forward, Detroit Pistons: I would be my dad, Calvin Hill. He was an NFL running back from 1969 to 1981. He excelled on and off the field.Tino Martinez, first baseman, New York Yankees: Michael Jordan. He does things on the court no one else can do.Brooke Bennett, Olympic gold-medal swimmer: Tiger Woods. Golf looks a lot less strenuous than swimming.ON YOUR MARKATHLETES vs. ANIMALSTrack superstar Marion Jones of the U.S. ran the 200-meter sprint in 21.62 seconds.

Superstar" is sweet, a little bit poignant and, in its own slapdash way, even endearing.What it is not is funny.But then, isn't that what we've come to expect from films based on characters from "Saturday Night Live"? When Chris Rock, at last week's big bash celebrating the show's 25th season, noted that the talent assembled there was responsible for some of the worst movies ever made, he wasn't exaggerating."Superstar" brings repressed Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher (Molly Shannon)

NBA games lost yesterday: 8.Total games missed: 225.Earliest estimated date season can start: Jan. 8.Projected player salary losses (through Jan. 8): $390 million.Negotiations: The sides had a fruitless 10 1/2 -hour bargaining session Thursday and have promised to speak by telephone. No contact was made yesterday.Exhibition: Agents Arn Tellem and David Falk will announce Monday that an exhibition game will be played Dec. 19 in Atlantic City, N.J., featuring members of all four Dream Teams -- the 1992 and '96 Olympic teams and the '94 and '98 world championship squads.

Pop superstar Stevie Wonder will perform a free concert outside Ravens stadium on Saturday night, filling in for Aretha Franklin, who was originally scheduled for the event, but fell ill.Wonder will perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on the plaza and parking lot north of the new stadium, beginning at 8 p.m.The show will cap a day of events celebrating the official opening of the stadium on Sunday.The Ravens contacted a number of artists after Franklin dropped out, and were happy to find Wonder available on such short notice, said Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne.

The streak began on a soggy Sunday afternoon 20 years ago this week. It began with little fanfare at Pine Ridge Golf Course in Timonium, at a long-forgotten LPGA tournament called the Greater Baltimore Golf Classic, with a 21-year-old rookie beating veteran Donna Caponi by three shots.Nancy Lopez doesn't recall much about the week or the win."I remember we putted on a temporary green," she said last week.But the victory for Lopez was just the beginning of her march into history.Her streak of five straight victories in tournaments she entered broke the record shared previously by LPGA Hall of Famers Kathy Whitworth and Mickey Wright, and was the third-longest run in professional golf behind Byron Nelson (11 in 1945)

Despite Michael Jackson's efforts to ensure it would not happen, many Americans tuned out long ago. A lot of us stopped watching some time in the 1990s. It's not only that he became too strange and freaky, and even creepy; it's that he became tragic. And if there's one thing we can't bear to watch, it's the transformation of greatness - in this case, that of an extravagantly talented American superstar - into tragedy. A team of psychiatrists might one day conclude that Michael Jackson suffered from a profound mental disorder.

Penguins@Red Wings 8 p.m. [Chs. 11, 4] It's Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and either the Red Wings repeat or Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby earns his first championship.

ORLANDO, FLA. -- One piece of movie theme music is played more often inside Amway Arena than any other. It is the familiar refrain from the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, and it blares over loudspeakers whenever Dwight Howard throws down a dramatic dunk or initiates a thrilling three-point play. In Orlando, Howard is considered the real-life Superman. But, nationally, that doesn't make him a superstar. At least not yet. The NBA Finals, which get under way Thursday in Los Angeles, will give the Orlando Magic's 23-year-old center the greatest national exposure of his burgeoning pro career and his best opportunity yet to reach the superstar status of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

The Orioles get another shot at slowing budding superstar Evan Longoria, who leads the American League in doubles, RBIs, total bases, extra-base hits and slugging percentage, and is second to teammate Carlos Pena in home runs. Longoria is hitting .476 (10-for-21) with three doubles, four homers and nine RBIs in five games against the Orioles. Carl Crawford hasn't been thrown out in 22 steal attempts. Center fielder B.J. Upton is looking for his first home run of the season. The Orioles are 3-2 against the Rays and are one win from eclipsing their win total against them during all last year.

Randy Orton scored the pinfall on Mick Foley in a star-studded handicap match at WM 20 that helped make him a superstar. ... Orton's match against the Undertaker at WM 21 was one of the Undertaker's best WrestleMania matches. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ ringposts)

News item: Utah improved to 13-0 with a solid, 31-17 victory over No. 4 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl on Friday night, which should further energize calls for a playoff system to determine the Football Bowl Subdivision national championship. My take: I think so. The Utes soundly defeated a team that was No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25, the USA Today coaches poll and the Bowl Championship Series rankings for five of the final six weeks of the regular season. If you take the "C" out of BCS, you'll get my opinion of the current system.

Reality competition American Gladiator 8 p.m. [chs. 11, 4]: It's the season finale, people! And unlike on Nashville Star, which follows, the winners don't have to wear cowboy hats. Awards show Teen Choice 2008 8 p.m. [chs. 45, 5]: Sports is among the categories, and skateboard/snowboard superstar Shaun White is a nominee. If Mr. Flip had been eligible to vote, he would have cast his ballot for White. A Flying Tomato crosses all lines of age and a total lack of hipness. Movie Fab 5: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal 9 p.m. [Lifetime]

Alicia Keys has aspirations of being a rock star, belting over screaming guitars. She also sees herself as a jazz chanteuse, elegantly dressed while scat-singing and improvising melodies on her beloved piano. Then she wants to do more acting -- some drama, maybe comedy -- and establish more charitable efforts. The list of things she wants to accomplish goes on and on. But it's not as if the pop superstar with the seductive, camera-ready face hasn't done a lot already. At 27, with a career that's barely a decade old, she owns 11 Grammys and four multiplatinum albums.

R&B superstar Alicia Keys comes to Baltimore, hot off the success of her new release, As I Am, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album's first single, "No One," peaked at the No. 1 spot on the charts, and Keys has been filling venues with her soulful style at every stop on the tour. R&B star Ne-Yo and 2007 American Idol winner Jordin Sparks will join Keys at 1st Mariner Arena, 201 W. Baltimore St., on Sunday. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $39.50-$100. Call 410-347-2010 or 410-547-7328 or go to ticketmaster.

Flyers@Penguins 7:30 p.m. [VERSUS] The opening game of the Eastern Conference finals features Philadelphia - which battled one superstar in its first postseason series, Washington's Alex Ovechkin - tangling with another in Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.