Save the date: March 23, 2009
According to the International Skating Union, that's the opening night of the 2009 World Championships -- which will be held at Staples Center and be used as the qualifier for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Sharpen your blades of steel right now. Dick Button's comin' to town.
"There are so many great skaters coming from the L.A. area, so I think the community will really embrace the event," Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen, left, who lives and trains in Orange County, told the Associated Press, still rubbing her behind from falling on the ice so many times during her Winter Olympics routine. "Plus, it's always great to get a worlds in our own country, especially right before the Olympics. It will make the event just that much more huge."
L.A. beat out bids from Helsinki, Finland, and Budapest, Hungary. It will be the 12th time the world championships have been in the United States, and the first since Washington had them in 2003. Only Germany has hosted more worlds — 13.
Staples Center will be used for all competitions in 2009 (March 23-29), just as it was when Los Angeles hosted the 2002 national championships. Some practices will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The worlds will be in Tokyo in 2007 and Goteborg, Sweden, in 2008. The 2009 European championships were awarded to Helsinki, which beat out six other bids. They will be held Jan. 19-25, 2009.
OK, that's too many dates to remember. Lemme pull out the calendar and start mapping this out before I get a brain freeze.
Back to Cohen: You may remember the story the Daily News ran a few weeks ago about her new Hollywood aspirations, and her official website, SashaCohen.com, isn't shy about pushing her into that next phase of her career.
Or is that Sacha Baron Cohen?
(Did you know her actual birth name is Alexandra Pauline Cohen ... she's already gone Hollywood)
Either way, if hooking up Tom Arnold just to get a role in "Soul Plane 2" is what you're looking for, please, just say no. See the red in his eyes? That's just from the flash photography. He's the devil.