JUNE 28, 2005

Who do you think is doing this right?

As all eyes in Formula 1 are on a committee room in Paris, fans of NASCAR can this summer enjoy their favourite sport playing host to Herbie, the free-wheeling automotive film star, which first hit the big time in the 1960s in The Love Bug

As all eyes in Formula 1 are on a committee room in Paris, fans of NASCAR can this summer enjoy their favourite sport playing host to Herbie, the free-wheeling automotive film star, which first hit the big time in the 1960s in The Love Bug and a series of subsequent movies which featured the Volkswagen Beetle which thinks for itself. The Herbie character was revived in a TV movie in 1997 and with the success of NASCAR the Disney Company has decided to try again with a film which has a strong NASCAR theme and cameo appearances by Nextel Cup stars Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Jarrett. The movie, directed by Angela Robinson, who is best known to date for her Chikula: Teenage Vampire (1995) and D.E.B.S (2004), features the comely Lindsay Lohan alongside teenage heart-throb Justin Long and, for the older generations, Michael Keaton and Matt Dillon. The new movie is aimed to appeal to various age groups with children enjoying the slapstick humour, teenagers supposed to enjoy the young stars and the older generations looking back with affection to the original movies. Reviewers say that the new movie is fun, particularly for the smaller kids who can accept that a VW Beetle can race with NASCAR's best. This will no doubt attract some new young fans to NASCAR.

A thought for Formula 1 as it argues the arcane arguments we will hear in the days ahead.