March 31, 2000: “High Fidelity” Premieres

John Cusack (left) and Jack Black

March 31, 2000: The film High Fidelity premieres, based on the novel by Nick Hornby. Previously the author of Fever Pitch, Hornby showed that he could be as obsessive about music as he could about soccer.

The film moves the action from Hornby's London to Chicago, hometown of the lead actor, John Cusack. He plays Rob Gordon, the manager of a record store, at a time when compact discs had pretty much replaced records, and downloads and YouTube were on their way.

Rob and his employees, Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso) like to make Top 5 lists of various things, mostly kinds of songs. Having just been dumped by Laura, his live-in girlfriend of 2 years (Danish actress Iben Hjejle), Rob makes a list of his 5 most memorable breakups. In order to make sense of his romantic failures, he decides to look the 5 up.

Number 1 is Allison, who is not shown, and this is resolved quickly, to the point where he decides things worked out for the best, at least for her. Number is Penny Hardwick (Joelle Carter), and he realizes that the breakup was due to his youthful insecurity.

Number 3 is Charlie Nicholson (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who dumped him for someone as attractive as she is. Seeing her with clear eyes now, he sees that she was a rotten person and not worth it. (Author's Note: I have had a thing for CZJ since seeing her in the 1996 NBC version of Titanic, and you'll never convince me that anyone is as attractive as she was.) Number 4 was Sarah Kendrew (Lili Taylor), who turns out to be mentally ill and a sabotager of all her relationships. So Rob gains closure on these.

Number 5 is Laura, and Rob realizes that he never fully committed to her: This one is his fault, and he can't blame it on being young and insecure. Her father dies, he attends the funeral to comfort her, and she takes him back.

Lisa Bonet plays Marie, a famous singer. In 2020, High Fidelity was remade for Hulu, as a limited series of 10 episodes, with the lead character played by Bonet's daughter, Zoë Kravitz, and the action moved to Brooklyn, where Bonet once played Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show, and where Kravitz now lives.

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March 31, 2000 was a Friday. Except for 2 games between the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, baseball season started 3 days later. Football was out of season. There were 9 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Vancouver Grizzlies, 89-83 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Orlando Magic, 103-97 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Boston Celtics, 104-102 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Mitch Richmond scored 30 points for the Wiz.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Toronto Raptors, 110-101 in overtime at the Charlotte Coliseum. Eddie Jones scored 32 for the Hornets.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Detroit Pistons, 98-97 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 109-85 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Utah Stars beat the Golden State Warriors, 114-97 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 100-88 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Shaquille O'Neal led all scorers on the night with 37.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Sacramento Kings, 123-108 at the KeyArena. Gary Payton scored 35.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 6-0 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands. The thrasher is a bird native to Georgia, but it was the Devils, on their way to winning the Stanley Cup, who did the thrashing on this night. Their goals came from 6 different players: Colin White, Scott Gomez, John Madden, Petr Sýkora, Sergei Brylin and Scott Stevens.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-1 at the National Car Rental Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* And the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Calgary Flames, 3-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.