Bradley Cooper and Danny From Angelo’s Are Making Cheesesteaks Together

Behold: Danny & Coop’s Cheesesteaks. The Danny being Danny DiGiampietro from Angelo’s in South Philly. The Coop being Bradley Cooper. (Images courtesy of Angelo’s and Danny & Coop’s Cheesesteaks)

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Bradley Cooper and Danny DiGiampietro From Angelo’s Are Making Cheesesteaks Together

Some days, the world gives me a reason to lead this column with something other than bad news, with a story that everybody can agree on. A story that won’t erupt in controversy. No hate mail shall be received. And today is one of those days.

The story (for now) is very simply this: Bradley Cooper is inside a food truck in New York City with Danny DiGiampietro, from Philly’s famous cheesesteak-pizza-hoagie-everything delicious spot Angelo’s.

Bradley Cooper slinging cheesesteaks with Danny from Angelo’s?? pic.twitter.com/OtwdeknRAb

— Bradford Pearson (@BradfordPearson) December 6, 2023

As seen above, they are making cheesesteaks together. And they are wearing shirts that read “Danny & Coop’s Cheesesteaks.” Which makes me feel like very cool things are about to happen. Somebody registered the domain DannyAndCoops.com and secured the Instagram page @DannyAndCoops. Both are currently unpopulated, except for a logo on the Instagram page.

Maybe all those Bradley Cooper visits to South Philly for Eagles home games weren’t just for fun. Maybe he and DiGiampietro have been secretly hatching a business plan. Sure seems like it!

The Problems at Penn

Members of Congress absolutely grilled University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill on Tuesday. The hearing was about accusations of antisemitism on Penn’s campus. The questioning went on for hours. Here’s a taste:

When I asked the President of UPenn why the University allows antisemitic professors and rallies on campus while barring conservative speakers, she defended their actions.

Watch ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/otKfGzR5ll

— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) December 5, 2023

Ouch!

News outlets all over the country have reported on the Magill questioning, with Fox News saying she got “torched.” But here’s the Daily Pennsylvanian (Penn’s student paper) with four key takeaways.

As also reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, two Penn students just filed a lawsuit against the school over its response to accusations of antisemitism on campus.

Local Talent

You’ll never guess who is TIME‘s Person of the Year. Yes, Taylor Swift. Congrats to the best thing to ever come out of Berks County. (Sorry, Kate Gosselin.)

Congrats are also in order for Black Rock Middle School student Belle Starr (her real name just so happens to also be a great stage name), who just made her television debut. The Main Line eighth-grader has done a bunch of theater in school and in area community theaters; she’s played Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Elsa in Frozen. But she just jumped to the screen, appearing in last week’s finale of Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV. Here she is with Lessons in Chemistry star Brie Larson:

Lessons in Chemistry‘s Belle Starr with star Brie Larson (photo courtesy Belle Starr)

She hopes to land more TV roles soon while keeping up her straight A’s, of course. Right, Belle?

And back to Bradley Cooper just for a hot second: The rave reviews for Maestro are absolutely pouring in.

By the Numbers

4: Local counties where the man accused of stabbing a Macy’s security guard to death (and injuring another) has a criminal record, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. At the time of his arrest this week, there was an active warrant for him out of Delaware County.

35: Philadelphia and Pennsylvania elected officials named as part of Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker’s Mayor’s Intergovernmental Roundtable, from City Councilmembers to Senator John Fetterman and Congresswoman Mary Kay Scanlon. The group will work together to advise Parker and fix what ails the city.

27: Forecasted low for Wednesday. That’s the lowest expected low for the next 10 days.

And from the Look-Who’s-Back Sports Desk …

Kelly Oubre Jr. is listed as available for tonight’s Sixers away game against the Wizards after his mysterious broken rib, and I can say with confidence that we’re never, ever gonna find out what happened there. But we need those 16 points per game, dammit! Tip-off is at 7 p.m.

Eagles fans in Bucks County are up in arms over a big display of Kelce merchandise at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store there. Uh — that would be Travis Kelce, not Jason.

If you’ve got fond memories of pitcher Cole Hamels, who was with the Phils from 2006 to 2015, you’ll enjoy this interview he gave before appearing as the keystone speaker at a recent event in Reading, where he started his pro career.

Anything in College Hoops?

Nothing good. The Villanova Wildcats and the Kansas State Wildcats (grrr!) went all the way to overtime before the Wildcats finally won. Oh, sorry — the wrong Wildcats won.

Hard-fought battle. pic.twitter.com/OqClLSBaGf

— Villanova MBB (@NovaMBB) December 6, 2023

It was our Wildcats’ third straight loss, and it was a heartbreaker; standout guard Justin Moore left the game in the first half with a sprained knee. And the Drexel Dragons went down to the so-far-undefeated Princeton Tigers, 81-70. Four local games are on the slate for tonight: Loyola-Maryland comes to visit La Salle at 6:30, and at 7, Fairleigh Dickinson is at Penn, Bloomsburg plays at Temple, and American tips off against St. Joe’s.

And speaking of college news, in another sign of the amateur-athletics apocalypse, there’s a new proposal from NCAA president Charlie Baker that would allow colleges to compensate athletes beyond NIL agreements by setting up trust funds. Per Title IX rules, half the money in any such funds would have to go to female athletes.

NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed rule changes Tuesday that would allow Division I schools for the first time to pay their athletes in ways that are not tied to educational resources.https://t.co/64OmyUNG0Y

— ESPN (@espn) December 5, 2023

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.