Country singer Rimes will try movie role

LOS ANGELES -- Country star LeAnn Rimes is pitching herself as an actress.

The 20-year-old Grammy-winner plans to star in the family-oriented baseball film "The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth," The Hollywood Reporter reported Thursday.

Rimes will play Tennessee-born Jackie Mitchell, a minor league pitcher who at 17 became the only woman to strike out baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The true-life incident happened in 1931, when the New York Yankees, on their way to spring training, stopped for an exhibition game against her Chattanooga Lookouts.

Despite the back-to-back strikeouts, the Yankees won the game 14-4. Days later, the baseball commission canceled her contract, ruling that the game was too strenuous for women.

Rimes previously had a small role as herself in the 1999 movie "Coyote Ugly" and has made guest appearances on the TV shows "Moesha" and "Days of Our Lives."

Drew Carey shows love for hometown

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland still rocks for hometown star Drew Carey.

"The Drew Carey Show" commissioned the Cleveland Pops Orchestra to record new arrangements for three of its theme songs.

The Pops and conductor Carl Topilow recorded "Cleveland Rocks," "Moon Over Parma" and "Five O'Clock World" in arrangements by Pops trombonist Paul Ferguson in an Agora theater session Thursday night.

Nine bands in different genres from around the country were invited to record for the show. The Pops was the only group to record all three songs.