Clint Eastwood Signs On With Back9Network

Lacey Rose reports for The Hollywood Reporter (thanks reader Tobin) on the legend being named as creative board chairman and founding shareholder for the new golf television network.

“He’ll be a big picture sounding board,” said Back9’s chief executive James Bosworth, who was an assistant pro at Pebble Beach in the mid-1990’s when he first met Eastwood. The pair remained in touch, and continue to play golf together.

“It was natural to seek his advice,” Bosworth added, noting that Eastwood, along with his wife Dina, has been consulted and supportive of the Back9 concept since its inception some two years earlier. “There’s no better guy to go to for a golf media company.”

In preparation, Eastwood--who made headlines this week for narrating and appearing in a buzzworthy commercial for Chrysler that aired during the Super Bowl--has already looked over the network’s pilots, weighed in on storyboards and casting choices and sat down for an interview for one of the net’s forthcoming shows, You’re So Money, hosted by LPGA star and runway model Anna Rawson.

Brace yourselves...

In addition to Rawson’s interview magazine series, the network is planning to roll out a daily studio show titled The Scorecard as well as nine other pilots. Among them: Extreme Golf, which features celebrities and athletes going head-to-head on the wildest golf holes imaginable (think tops of building); Lucky Me with Jackie Flynn, starring the blue-collar comedian as he travels to the ritziest of courses; and Hole Lotta Love, a Bachelor-style dating series in which pairs play with three dates and eliminate one at each hole.