Last year, John-Paul “JP” Flaim of The Sports Junkies announced his new book Still Barking on the show this morning over at 106.7 The Fan. The book tells the story of how The Sports Junkies came together over 25 years ago along with all of the memorable experiences the crew has had since then. JP, a MoCo resident, is having an appearance at Burton’s in The Kentlands on Wednesday, December 7th between 5pm and 7pm, where he’ll chat with local sports fans and have 10 copies of his book for sale for anyone interested.
“For the past year, I have worked on the story of four childhood friends chasing a dream with heart, humor and soul. Though it dives into radio and our career, the overarching theme is one of brotherhood and friendship. I wish my Mom could have seen the final product but alas she is not here, but without her spirit, I couldn’t have worked as hard as I did to complete this project.” Flaim said about his book.
Last month, The Sports Junkies announced that they’ve signed a new four-year contract to remain with 106.7 The Fan. John “Cakes” Auville, Eric “EB” Bickel, and Flaim grew up as friends in Bowie, Maryland. Jason “Lurch” Bishop and Bickel became friends when they both attended DeMatha in high school. The longtime friends have worked together on the show since 1995 when the group began with a 30-minute public access television show in Bowie, before moving to radio. Auville, Bickel, and Flaim are all currently residents of Montgomery County, with Bishop living in Virginia.
Trevon and Stefon Diggs are both coming off of Pro Bowl seasons where the brothers dominated the NFL. The honors continue as the brothers, who are Montgomery County natives, are featured on the cover of the August 2022 edition of Sports Illustrated.
The issue features the brothers jumping for the same football, highlighting the fact that they play on opposite sides of the ball– Trevon is a cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys while Stefon is a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. The piece is titled, “Bond of Brothers” How Family Forged NFL Stardom for Trevon and Stefon Diggs.
Trevon Diggs was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 2020 draft. The Gaithersburg native lead the NFL last season with 11 interceptions in his second season in the league. Trevon played for the Wootton Patriots before transferring to Avalon. At Avalon, Diggs played on both sides of the ball and became a four-star recruit and was two-time All-Met as a wide receiver.
After his time at Avalon Diggs continued his academic and athletic career at the University of Alabama. By his junior year in 2018, Diggs had become a full-time starter for Coach Nick Saban’s defense until he broke his foot midseason, ending the 2018 season with 20 tackles, one interception, six pass breakups in six games. By his senior year, Diggs started 12 games and posted 37 tackles and two fumble recoveries. (including a 100-yard score). During his senior year, he was a third-team AP All-American and second-team All-SEC.
Stefon grew up in Gaithersburg and attended Good Counsel High School in Olney, where he played football and ran track. He recorded 810 yards receiving with 23 touchdowns as a junior in 2010, and was runner-up for the Gatorade Maryland Player of the Year. As a senior, he recorded 770 yards receiving and 8 touchdowns, and racked up 277 rushing yards and three more touchdowns on the ground. He was named to the All-Metro team by The Washington Post both seasons.
Following his senior season, he was named MVP of the U.S. Army All-American Junior Combine in 2011 and was invited to play in the 2012 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.A consensus five-star recruit, Diggs was viewed as one of the best players in the nation. He was considered the second-best wide receiver recruit in the nation and was rated as the No.1 recruit in the state of Maryland by Rivals.com. Though he had scholarship offers from Florida, USC, Cal, Ohio State, and Auburn, among others, Diggs chose to stay close to home and committed to the University of Maryland on February 10, 2012.
In his three seasons at Maryland, Diggs had 150 receptions for 2,227 yards and 14 touchdowns. During his freshman year at College Park, he recorded the second-most all-purpose yards in school history with 1,896. He finished his three-year college career with 2,227 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns, as well as two kick-return touchdowns. He was selected in the fifth round with the 146th overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2015 NFL Draft, and signed a four-year, $2.5 million deal that included a guaranteed $227,000 signing bonus.
Diggs became a full-time starter for the Vikings midway through his rookie year despite his late-round draft status. In 2018, he received a 5-year contract extension, playing two more seasons in Minnesota before being traded to Buffalo in 2020. With the Bills, he became the fastest receiver to surpass 100 catches with his new team and broke Eric Moulds‘ franchise record for receiving yards in a season. Diggs led all NFL receivers in 2020 with 127 receptions and 1,535 receiving yards. Last season he had 1,225 receiving yards on 103 catches with 10 touchdowns for the 11-6 Bills.
The 1992 critically acclaimed film, A Few Good Men, is often noted for its ensemble cast of Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, and many other big Hollywood names, but a man who grew up in Montgomery County, Wolfgang Bodison, plays a key role in the movie.
The plot follows the court-martial of two U.S. Marines, one played by MoCo’s Wolfgang Bodison, charged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case. Bodison, who played the role of Lance Corporal Harold “Hal” Dawson, delivered a powerful performance in what was his first acting role.
Born in D.C., Brian Wolfgang Bodison grew up in Montgomery County, where his mother worked for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He attended Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, graduating in 1984. He attended the University of Virginia and played on the football team, graduating with a degree in fine arts in 1988. After A Few Good Men came out in 1992, he was delivered the commencement speech at Richard Montgomery’s 1993 graduation ceremony.
Bodison originally worked as a location scout for for various film-makers. He was working for Rob Reiner on A Few Good Men when Reiner decided he was perfect for the part of Lance Corporal Harold Dawson. After the movie, Bodison landed many television and movie roles, including, Akeelah and the Bee, ER, CSI, and a lot more.
Below you’ll see Bodison and his family, via his Instagram, in their current hometown of Los Angeles, California:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CfhkpFNvIOa/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Myles Frost graduated from Wootton High School in Rockville in 2017. Four years later, in December of 2021, he took over the role of Michael Jackson on Broadway’s MJ. Frost, who plays the King of Pop in the new musical, received a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut.
He was nominated for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Michael Jackson in MJ the Musical. “It’s been one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I’ve been introduced to so many different things…it’s been an amazing honor.” Frost told Broadway World in a recent interview.
According to the New York Times, Myles Frost was a college junior in Maryland, studying audio engineering, when he got the call about Tony Award-nominated Ephraim Sykes leaving the role as Michael Jackson in the upcoming musical. While in high school at Wootton, Frost performed “Billie Jean” at a talent show that his mom filmed on her iPad, which led to Frost’s current acting coach reaching out to see if he could still emulate Jackson’s movements as well as he did in Rockville in 2016.
A video that took just a day to prepare showed that Frost still had the moves, and after a visit to New York to show off his skills in person, he earned the role of Michael Jackson with his only other stage experience being three musicals at Wootton High School.
The 75th Annual Tony Awards are set to be held on June 12, 2022, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2021–22 season. The ceremony will be held at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and will be hosted by Ariana DeBose
This actress, born in 1981, has had an extensive career in film since her teenage years. She has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, for which she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Though the actress was born in Israel, Rockville was her first home in the United States. She lived in Rockville and attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School until she was 7 years old while her father completed his residency at George Washington University Medical Center. She then moved to Connecticut in 1988 before relocating permanently to Long Island in 1990.
She attended Harvard University for her bachelor’s degree in psychology, while acting in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002, 2005). She was a troubled ballerina in the psychological horror film Black Swan (2010), starred in the romantic comedy No Strings Attached (2011), and portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy in the biopic Jackie (2016), among many other roles. She is… Natalie Portman.
Featured photo courtesy of NataliePortman.com, photo below courtesy of @NataliePortman on Instagram.
Actor Rich Rotella grew up in Germantown, MD. He graduated from Northwest High School in 2002 and has gone on to star in Lionsgate’s feature comedy, “The Newest Pledge (2010).” One of his favorite gigs has been a national commercial for “TIDE Laundry” opposite iconic Betty White. And recently, he wrote, directed, and starred in the original feature film, “Marlo Lasker (2020).” Rotella’s latest role is as the star of a documentary he is filming about cosmetic limb lengthening, where he is the patient.
Though Rotella has trained in improvisation at “The Groundlings” and studied under Lee Strasberg’s disciple Eric Morris (acting coach to Johnny Depp and Jack Nicholson), he says that at 5’5 casting directors have always told him he is too short to play the lead. So on On April 19, he underwent a painful cosmetic procedure in which both of his femurs were broken, the first step in a process that will make him 3.25 inches taller, according to PEOPLE magazine. He hopes to be 5’8″ by the end of July.
In the interview with PEOPLE, Rotella says his height was more than just a career impediment. “On a personal level, I was tired of putting little lifts in my shoes,” he recalls. “I was always the shortest person in the picture. It was an annoying thing I really wanted to correct.” After researching the procedure, and reaching out to Victor Egonu who underwent the procedure and has created a website about it, Rotella decided that he would be making a documentary detailing the process, starring himself as the patient.
The procedure took place last month at the Paley Institute with Dr. Dror Paley, who brought the procedure to the United States in the 80s after training with Russian orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gavril Ilizarov, who pioneered the procedure in the 50s. Paley has performed over limb lengthening surgeries in his career, some medical to correct an imbalance between the length of two legs, and some cosmetic, such as Rotella’s procedure.
According to the Paley Institute, the limb lengthening process works by gradually growing new bone and soft tissues (skin, muscle, nerves, blood vessels, etc.). Bone and soft tissue regenerate when they are pulled apart at a very slow rate, a process known as distraction. The rate of distraction is typically one millimeter per day. Any faster and the bone may fail to form in the gap, muscles will become contracted, and nerves may become paralyzed; any slower and the bone will reform in the gap, a process known as premature consolidation, which halts the lengthening.
Lengthening is divided into two phases: distraction and consolidation. Lengthening happens during the distraction phase. After the desired length is obtained, the newly regenerated bone is still very weak. The hardening and calcification of this new bone is called the consolidation phase.
The surgical devices Paley developed cost about $15,000 each. Rich needed two, one for each leg. All the hospital fees, including physical therapy, came to an out-of-pocket expense of $100,000 (Insurance only covers limb lengthening for medical reasons, but not cosmetic).
Rotella remains in Florida doing rehab, where he works with a physical therapist every day, five days a week, for one hour. He does his physical therapy exercises four times a day. After each workout, he lengthens the screw one turn, which is .25 millimeters.
Rotella is hoping to sell his documentary to a streaming service next year.
Comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked while he was performing at a show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, according to many witnesses reports on social media and a video showing a man attempting to tackle Chappelle (seen below). According to multiple reports, the man was allegedly armed with a gun and a knife and was removed from the stage by security prior to being taken away from the stadium on a gurney.
Chapelle, who grew up in Silver Spring and attended Woodlin Elementary School before going to Duke Ellington School of the Arts in DC, appeared uninjured and continued with the show.
The comedian recently announced that he’ll be performing two stand up comedy shows at Maryland Live! Casino & Hotel (7002 Arundel Mills Cir Ste 7777, Hanover, MD) on June 18 and 19 as part of the casino’s ten year anniversary celebration. The shows will take place in The HALL, Maryland Live! Casino’s 4,800 seat venue. Tickets went on sale Friday, April 29, and start at $89.
Someone just tried to attack Dave Chappelle on stage at the Hollywood Bowl 😳😳 pic.twitter.com/PZI3RMRdjD
— Piñata Farms: The Meme App (@pinatafarms) May 4, 2022
Brady Anderson made a name for himself as the center fielder and lead off hitter for the Baltimore Orioles in the 90s. His sideburns may also be among the most famous to ever exist, but did you know the 3 time All-Star, who once hit 50 home runs in a season, was born in Silver Spring?
Anderson was born at Holy Cross hospital on January 18th, 1964. Though he was born here, he didn’t spend too much time in the area as his family moved to California with his family when he was very young and attended Carlsbad High School before enrolling at the University of California, Irvine prior to being drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 1985. The Red Sox sent him — along with Curt Schilling — to the Orioles on July 29, 1988 in exchange for Mike Boddicker. Schilling didn’t stick around for too long, but Anderson went on to establish himself as one of the better center fielders and leadoff hitters of the ’90s.
Anderson had 1661 hits and 210 home runs in his career. His He also has the second most walks in Orioles history with 927 and joined a very elite group of players to hit 50 home runs and steal 20 bases in the same season. He played for the Orioles for 14 seasons prior to finishing his career with Cleveland, where he played in 2002. On August 21, 2004, Anderson was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame. Cal Ripken, Jr. introduced Anderson and called him “the greatest lead-off hitter in Orioles baseball, and the best athlete I have ever played with.” He was with the organization as an executive from 2012 until 2019.
A couple months back we discussed Wootton High School alumnus Utkarsh Ambudkar’s starting role on the CBS sitcom ‘Ghosts’, which debuted in October of last year and was recently renewed for a second season. Ambudkar also has a prominent role on the new Hulu miniseries, The Dropout.
The show is based on the ABC Audio podcast about the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos. The show touches on experiences that likely motivated Holmes’ deceptions and lies, starting from her formative years as a pre-teen and going all the way to her exposure as a fraud. Ambudkar plays the role of Rakesh Madhava, a biotech engineer and worked at Theranos until 2008.
Ambudkar was born in nearby Baltimore, but was raised in Rockville while his parents worked at NIH in Bethesda. The 38 year old actor graduated from Wootton High School and is well known for his roles as a VJ for MTV Desi, Donald in Pitch Perfect, Rishi in the Mindy Project, Skatch in Mulan, and more.
Below you’ll see Utkarsh Ambudkar perform a rap at the 2020 Oscars.
Actor Utkarsh Ambudkar (@UTKtheINC) gave us all a little update at the Oscars last night. He graduated from Wootton!
He is well known as Donald from Pitch Perfect and Rishi (Mindy’s younger brother) from The Mindy Project, as well as other projects. pic.twitter.com/Oh08yI4SMx
— The MoCoShow (MCS) (@TheMoCoShow) February 10, 2020
Last summer, David Simon tweeted that he was excited to be filming in Baltimore. “Alarm just went off. A** up and moving. Today is the first day of filming in Baltimore in more than 14 years. Good to be home.” Last night, We Own This City debuted on HBO.
David Simon, a MoCo native, graduated from B-CC high school and is perhaps best known for creating one of the most popular HBO series of all-time, The Wire. His new limited series on HBO, We Own This City, based on the book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption by investigative journalist Justin Fenton, was shot in Baltimore during the second half of 2021.
Simon has brought back a lot of the crew that worked on The Wire, which includes writer/producer George Pelecanos, who graduated from Northwood High School. Simon and Pelecanos have worked together on HBO’s The Wire, Treme, The Deuce, and more.
We Own This City has plenty of additional ties to Montgomery County. Jon Bernthal, of Cabin John, stars at Sgt. Wayne Jenkins. Darrell Britt-Gibson, who graduated from Blake High School stars as Jemell Rayam, and Delaney Williams of Northwood High School, stars as Kevin Davis.
The Wire, also by Simon and Pelecanos, had plenty of ties to Montgomery County:
Actor Gbenga Akinnagbe, who played Chris Partlow, graduated from Magruder High School. Delaney Williams, who played Jay Landsman, is a graduate of Blair High School. Darrell Britt-Gibson, who played Darius “O-Dog” Hill, is a graduate of Blake High School. The show even featured Burtonsville in season 3, as the location where “burner” cell phones were purchased.
Featured photo courtesy of AP/Random House Books.
