(AP/Matt Sayles) This is a tourist, stuck in a tour bus as it travels up Hollywood Blvd., reacting as he sees the procession of actors head into the premiere of "Leatherheads" on Monday at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Seriously.

Or, maybe the guy just spotted Rick Reilly on the red carpet.

We got more on the wonderfully charmed life of Reilly, spreading the wealth after today's media column reveals his new-found riches as co-author of the script sorta used in the George Clooney flick "Leatherheads," which comes out today.

"It was a (bleepin') thrill eating popcorn and seeing the curtain part and knowing exactly what was written but no idea what it would be like," Reilly said of seeing the premiere Monday. "The whole thing was a giant birthday cake when it's not even your birthday, and then Halle Berry pops out."

For more details about how the script went from concept to reality to being shelved, then suddenly resurfacing, Reilly spells it out on his website, including a Top 10 list of the coolest things about having Clooney make your movie. Even more on the history of the project, here on Clooney's studio site.

And all this, while Reilly has been in the middle of a six-month vacation, between leaving Sports Illustrated after 23 years and being entrusted with a boatload of cash from ESPN to do a variety of things starting in June. One of them is hosting a show called "Homecoming," which is a cross between "This Is Your Life" and "Inside the Actor's Studio," where a famous athlete goes back to his high-school gym filled of friends and family for an interview. He'll do a piece for ESPN The Magazine every two weeks, do essays for ESPN "SportsCenter." And write his 800-word pieces for ESPN.com.

To Reilly, it won't be any more difficult to transfer his SI column format to the Internet. But will that style work?

"It’s all over the map," Reilly says about sports journalism on the dot.com world. "There's some good journalism, and some really horrible crap on there from guys holding down the couch springs in their mother's basement that have never been in a lockerroom but are pining on this and that. And this gives them cache, and then they're being quoted? What? This guy is in his underwear. They could use a Greyhound bus full of editors and it still wouldn't help them. So this is the 'new style of journalism' we gotta learn?
"On the other hand, you see the solid writers they have on ESPN.com, who check their facts, go places, see people ... People who are classically trained in journalism are harder to get used to (on the Internet). It's like, for some of these, the faster you type, the better you're supposed to be? It's like the old days of sending a Western Union telegram. Once it's written and gone, do they ever look at it again? They're trying to type as fast as they can think.
"I really think a lot of this stuff (on the Internet) is read only by the people's parents. Do you read a live blog about a game? Why not turn on the game and listen to Vin Scully, the best live blogger ever? Why do we need to hear what Mortermer Franks in his basement is thinking about it?
"I was covering the Masters recently, was in the press room, in the clubhouse, on the course. And then I get back and there are three guys writing columns about the Masters, one in Houston, one in L.A. ... watching it with their buddies or their dad. Why are they writing?"

(Those comments ought to help influence anyone who participates in the regular Deadspin.com "Media Approval Ratings" of various media members ... including this recent vote on Reilly's status. As of Thursday afternoon, 57.6 percent (1,712 voters) disapproved of him, versus 42.4 (1,261) who say he's an OK dude.)

Reilly doesn't claim to always have his pulse on what people want to read, see or hear.
He said he was the first person ever asked to be a part of the ESPN show, "Around the Horn," but turned it down. "It's fun to watch, but I don't see myself getting muted by a 22-year old," he said.
A wise decision.

Reilly also said the late SI writer Ralph Wiley pitched an idea to him once.
"You and me, every day, on ESPN for a half hour," he said.
"Doing what?" Reilly asked.
"Arguing."
"Arguing about what?"
"Whatever comes up. It'll be a black guy and a white guy. We'll call it 'Wiley and Reilly.'"
"Ralph, that's the stupidest idea ever. It'll never work."
Pardon the interruption, but Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon want to know how that's working for you these days.

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We haven't seen the flick, but we take this as one of the first reviews we've come across, from Adam Graham of the Detroit News:
"This is the kind of movie where characters with too-cute names like Dodge Connelly and Lexie Littleton talk about 'moxie' and say things like, 'You’re the kind of cocktail that comes on like sugar, but gives you a kick in the head,' all while subtly winking at the absurdity of such lines.
"It’s the kind of movie that pays painstaking attention to period detail, especially costume and wardrobe. Too bad the same effort wasn’t put into the script as it was into finding Clooney the perfectly weathered leather coat."
"'Leatherheads' isn’t exactly smug, but it’s too pleased with itself to bother pleasing the audience. Aside from a few faint chuckles, it’s a fumble."