After nearly two weeks of lensing some of America's top women's softball players, filmmaker James L. Brooks decided he wanted some action.

After work Monday, he stood in the batter's box at Temple University's Ambler Campus as Olympic gold-medalist Amanda Freed whipped pitches at him. Star Reese Witherspoon was among the spectators. My set sources say he did well enough, but should not quit his day job.

Witherspoon plays second base in the Brooks-directed romantic comedy, in which she is one side of a triangle with Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson.

The movie is wrapping a nearly four-month Philly shoot this week. A couple of softball scenes will be shot next month in California. Then, Brooks goes into editing and at some point comes up with a title.

IMDB says it's scheduled for release on Dec. 17, 2010.

Filmbill is done

It's the final curtain for Ritz Filmbill, the entertainment mag that's been a giveaway at the Ritz Theaters for 21 years. "We don't have the business model to sustain it anymore," publisher Steven Duchovnay said, repeating the line heard everywhere in the print realm: "Advertising is off." The October issue is the last, he said. Ben Schuler, a manager for the Ritz, said the movie-theater chain was trying to come up with an alternative for theatergoers.

Briefly noted

Don Polec and TV home 6ABC parted company in April after 26 1/2 years. But he's back. Sort of. He and his wife, Ann Marie, are producing his offbeat "Don Polec's World" features for syndication, and his former station is his first customer. "We're just now cranking up," Polec says. They're shooting in the Philly area, "doing stories that are not location-specific." Hence a report on hippo sweat (a natural sunblock, antiseptic, and insecticide), which could play anywhere.

CBS3 morning meteorologist Maria LaRosa, 33, is expecting her third child in May. She and husband Mariusz have two boys, Michael, who will be 4 this weekend, and Justin, 1.

The University of the Arts will host director Costa-Gavras today for a 4 p.m. screening and conversation in Terra Hall at Broad and Walnut Streets, in the eighth-floor Connolly Auditorium.

CBS3 is streaming its new noontime Talk Philly program on the Internet in real time at cbs3.com. Ukee Washington and Pat Ciarrocchi host the news-info show, which started Monday in place of the noon news.

About 125 city teens (ages 13 to 18) will learn about career opportunities in the entertainment business through the Literacy Lyric, a six-week program sponsored by the Philadelphia Department of Recreation and WRNB (107.9) personality Dyana Williams at Martin Luther King Rec Center. Sign-up is 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the center, 21st Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

Radio activity

Jason Lee, released in May from WBEN (95.7), has landed Saturday work on WMGQ (Magic 98.3) in central New Jersey, starting Nov. 7. Chris McCoy, with whom Lee worked at B101, does mornings there. Greater Media owns both Ben and Magic, so it's clear that Lee didn't burn bridges. The station is streamed at www.wmgqfm.com.

I goofed in Tuesday's column: Philadelphia's top-rated radio station, according to September's Arbitron ratings, was light rock WBEB (101.1). Second was all-news KYW (1060). B101's weekly cumulative audience was 1.6 million, compared with KYW's 1.08 million.

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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.