Things are looking up for the movie about the Immaculata College women's basketball team that Tim Chambers and Pat Croce shot here in 2007.

Chambers is planning for March (as in Madness) as the in-theater date for the David Boreanaz/Carla Gugino-starrer.

It has been retitled The Mighty Macs, after the team nickname.

Chambers and Croce, like many independent filmmakers stymied by the economy, are working on distribution with a former Disney executive, who suggested a change from Our Lady of Victory.

"Too religious" was the thought. The Mighty Macs is now being marketed more as a sports film.

The film stars Gugino as coach Cathy Rush, who turned the then-all-female school into a basketball powerhouse in 1972 as school administrators watched nervously.

Chambers says The Mighty Macs is getting good word-of-mouth, including an audience award at the recent Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis.

In a related development: Macs star Theresa Grentz, now a vice president at Immaculata University, has joined the Big Ten Network as a color commentator for women's basketball games. Her debut will be Dec. 2 with Georgia Tech-Penn State.

Video is taken down

A video "pitch" for Larry Mendte's in-development TV show has been pulled from the YouTube video site after CBS lawyers objected to its use of copyrighted materials. In the eight-minute treatment for the syndicated Coming Clean, aimed at TV news executives, Mendte explains that the new program would take the day's headlines, cut through the spin, and show what really happened and why. Mendte advertises his own credentials, which include a guilty plea to electronically snooping on his onetime coanchor. "We are motivated by a constant stream of people who need to come clean," said Ray Murray of Philly's Banyan Productions, who is shopping the show. Murray confirmed that CBS had objected to footage of Mendte's anchor work on CBS3 but referred questions to Mendte's lawyer Julia Morrow, who said she was not at liberty to discuss the matter. A CBS representative had no comment, either.

Lights, action

The Friends of Rittenhouse Square and Rittenhouse Row are hunting for $60,000 needed to string the ball-shaped lights in the square's trees, a holiday tradition. Donations are being taken at friendsofrittenhouse.org, and restaurateur Sal D'Angelo will host "Ball for the Balls" at D'Angelo's Ristorante Italiano & Lounge, at 7 p.m. next Thursday. Each $100 ticket will fund one light globe.

Matters presidential

Chef Walter Staib of Old City's City Tavern debuts his TV series A Taste of History at 4 p.m. Saturday on WHYY TV12, and it'll roll nationally on PBS stations. Staib and producer Jim Davey shot the series at such spots as Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to show how cooking was done in the 18th century. First episode is about Martha Washington and features a re-creation of her turkey stew with oysters.

The replica of the White House vegetable garden that W. Atlee Burpee & Co. created at its Fordhook Farm in Doylestown will be open free from 1 to 4 p.m. tomorrow. The farm is at 106 New Britain Rd.

Briefly noted

Change of date for Reuben Frank's open-to-the-public chat with Eagles QB Michael Vick. It will be 7 to 8 p.m. today at Vesuvio restaurant, 736 S. Eighth St.

Philanthropist Kal Rudman will pick up the Public Safety Champion Award from Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers and Holy Family University president Sister Francesca Onley today. Rudman funds more than two dozen firefighter scholarships to Holy Family's Fire Science and Public Safety Administration program.

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Contact columnist Michael Klein at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com. Read his blog at http://go.philly.com/insider. He's also on Twitter: @phillyinsider.