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From the horse's mouth: Mackie likes Phils

Anthony Mackie's love for the Phillies comes from his love for an old sitcom ... Mister Ed.

Anthony Mackie arrives at the LA Premiere of "Pain and Gain" at the TCL Theatre on Monday, April 22, 2013 in Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Anthony Mackie arrives at the LA Premiere of "Pain and Gain" at the TCL Theatre on Monday, April 22, 2013 in Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)Read more

ANTHONY MACKIE, star of "Pain & Gain" with Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, walked the makeshift red carpet at South Philly's UA Riverview on Tuesday night. But Mackie wasn't going to stay for long. After introducing the Michael Bay action-comedy, Mackie headed out to the Phillies game. Turns out, despite hailing from New Orleans, he's a big fan Phillies fan. Why?

A horse, of course.

When Mackie was a kid, he would watch syndicated episodes of the talking-horse sitcom "Mister Ed."

"There was a 'Mister Ed' commercial and he had this thing where he would go (imitating Mister Ed) 'Those Phillies!' when they asked what his favorite baseball team was," said Mackie, who also starred in "The Hurt Locker" and Philly-based "Night Catches Us."

"So I'm a Phillies fan because Mister Ed loves the Phillies. Ever since John Kruk, Big Kruk."

Mackie even had a Mike Schmidt card that he was going to bring to the game to pay homage.

Thankfully, there were no brawls on the set between Mackie and Wahlberg, a die-hard Red Sox fan, although, Mackie added, "I can't respect anybody whose any kind of Boston sports fan."

Mackie has a bunch of projects in the works, but his next high-profile gig is playing the Falcon in "Captain America: The Winter Solider," alongside Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow. "It's a lot of flying and ass-kicking," Mackie said.

But it's more important than that. Mackie is embodying comics' first African-American superhero. "Every kid should have someone that they can look up to. All of the superheroes we've seen so far, all of them look exactly the same, all of them have the same problems," Mackie said. "I think it's cool to represent the world the way it actually is. Diverse."

Thomas-Laury is # ONE

6ABC's Lisa Thomas-Laury will be honored Monday with the Woman One Award from the Drexel University College of Medicine's Institute for Women's Health and Leadership. The Woman One program awards scholarships to minority women medical students at Drexel. In the past decade, 22 minority women have been able to attend Drexel med school through the program.

Thomas-Laury is receiving the award after her battle with POEMS disorder, a rare nerve disorder that kept her off the air from 2003 to 2006.

Past winners include Philly-born basketball player and Olympic gold-medalist Dawn Staley, philanthropist and television personality Suzanne Roberts and former Drexel first lady Eliana Papadakis.

Questo talks the future

The Roots' Questlove is in town on Sunday to get geeky with Philly Tech Week for a talk on the intersection of music and technology, presented by WXPN-FM and Little Giant Media. The night includes Questo's chat with XPN's Bruce Warren, presentations by Rapgenius.com, Soulspazm Digital, theFUTURE.fm, DJ sets by Making Time's Dave P and DJ PHSH, as well as performances by POW POW, Khari Mateen and Lush Life. The free event takes place at Underground Arts, 12th and Callowhill streets, at 5 p.m.

* In other music news, former Lady Gaga backup singer and West Philly native Gogo Morrow plays her first headlining show at the TLA Wednesday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10, cheap for a lady who has pipes like Gogo has.

Hollywood to Mayfair?

Old City-based sports agent Brian McCafferty, whose family also owns James A. McCafferty Funeral Home up in Mayfair, might be the subject of a reality television show. A big Hollywood name with a Philly connection is interested in following McCafferty around with the cameras.

* In other reality news, two fame-seekers got the boot from their respective shows. DJ Royale, a/k/a Jordan Poole, was kicked off VH1's "Master of the Mix." Royale was the 10th DJ out of 19 to get the boot.

Penn grad Ben Patton also got the boot from the small screen, when "Ready for Love," the Eva Longoria-created dating show was taken off the NBC airwaves.

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