My colleague Cathy Burch talked to Kevin Costner the other day about his band’s new country CD and I forced her to ask him about reported plans for a “Bull Durham” sequel. Here’s what he said:

“I’ve been hearing that and I’ve been asked that before. As it turns out I was with (director Ron) Shelton , Timmy (Tim Robbins) and Sue (Susan Sarandon) about two weeks ago. We were at (Robbins’ 50th) birthday party. … And Shelton and Tim and Sue never said anything to me about this, so if it is happening, I think they’ve cut me out.”

But would you do it if they asked?: “If I liked the writing, I would do it. I’ve never made a sequel, and it’s not that I’m against them, it’s just not in my nature to repeat myself. But if somebody wrote something that I thought had a natural sequel to it like ‘Mr. Brooks,’ which was written as a trilogy, I would do it. But it somehow has to please me. I know it would be pleasing to the bank account. But it would have to please me. … I never start unless I think they have a chance to be great.”

So there you have it. I think we can say conclusively that the “Bull Durham” sequel is not happening. Unless it is.

Kevin Costner is in a band. You probably don’t care. But if you’re a baseball fan, odds are you’re a “Bull Durham” fan. So maybe you’ll find this snippet from a recent Costner Q&A interesting:

Q: Is this the first time you’ve sung in a movie? [Costner sings in "Swing Vote," with his real-life band, Modern West.]

A: I did, actually, in “Bull Durham” and it got cut. It was a scene where I fight with Nuke [Tim Robbins]. That scene was originally where Crash [Costner's character] hung out at a [house of prostitution]. He’s sitting at a piano playing “Unchained Melody” and I’ve got this 70-year-old [prostitute] sitting next to me with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and I’m singing, “Oh, my love, my darling. …” It’s a classic, classic scene.

And yet the [screening] audiences were asked what scene bothered them the most. And they didn’t like that. So they reconstructed a scene where I hung out in a pool hall, another sign of a misspent youth. But I like the ambiguousness of things.

I wonder what bothered the screening audience the most, the prostitutes or Costner’s singing?