The XFL is sacked

X-TINCT Disproving H.L. Mencken’s dictum that ”No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public,” Vince McMahon pulled the plug on the XFL yesterday after one season of disastrous ratings, merciless ridicule, and about $35 million apiece in after tax losses to both McMahon’s WWF and partner NBC. After NBC had announced that it would no longer air the fledgling football league’s games in prime time on Saturdays (where they had received some of the lowest Saturday night ratings in TV history), McMahon had hoped to keep the XFL on the field with Sunday afternoon airings on UPN or TNN, but the deal stalled at the end zone.

Viewers will now be deprived of the league’s bump and grind cheerleaders and memorable players like that ”He Hate Me” guy, but at least they won’t have to hear the word ”smashmouth” again any time soon.

‘TREK’ MEET Beam us up, Scotty. Scott Bakula will take a quantum leap into space as Captain Jonathan Archer, commander of ”Star Trek: Enterprise,” the fifth TV series in the 35 year old franchise. Paramount Television is set to start shooting the series on Monday, even though it doesn’t yet have a firm commitment from corporate sibling UPN to air the show.

LEGAL BRIEFS Robert Blake‘s lawyer acknowledged yesterday, after the Los Angeles police searched the actor’s home again, that Blake is under a ”cloud” of suspicion for the murder of his wife last Friday night. Police carted away boxes of personal items from the guest house where Bonny Bakley lived on her husband’s property, items such as ”lonely hearts” letters that the career con woman had sent to cajole money out of wealthy and famous men, and audio tapes where Bakley discusses whether to ”go after” Blake or Christian Brando (son of Marlon) in seeking child support for her infant daughter (DNA tests ultimately proved the child was Blake’s).

Blake has said that a stranger had been stalking the property, that the couple had feared for her life, and that he was returning to the restaurant where they had dined Friday night to retrieve his gun when she was shot in a parked car a block away. But Bakley’s half brother, Peter Carlyon, says Bakley had told her family that Blake had threatened her life. Police say they have ruled out no one as a suspect.

Robert Downey Jr. had cocaine in his system when he was arrested last month on a charge of being under the influence of a controlled substance. That was the finding from a voluntary urine test Downey underwent the night of his arrest, Culver City police said yesterday. He’ll face that charge in court on Tuesday, while his next court date from his November drug arrest is May 24.

The feud between Eminem and the Insane Clown Posse turned physical at an ICP concert in Omaha on Tuesday. ICP road manager William Dail allegedly choked Eminem fan Thomas P. Goonan until he lost consciousness. Goonan had worn a shirt with Slim Shady’s likeness and had pelted the rap duo with M&Ms. Dail admits to grabbing Goonan by the neck but denies that Goonan blacked out. Dail will face a charge of misdemeanor assault and battery in court next month. He is the brother of Douglas Dail, an ICP employee whom Eminem allegedly pulled a gun on last summer.

GET BACK It must be something in the bottled water and backstage deli trays, as bands that haven’t played together for two decades are suddenly reuniting with their original lineups intact. Fans who remember when ”Rio” was a Duran Duran vinyl disc and not an MP3 player will be pleased to learn that Simon Le Bon‘s original quintet is about to record its first album in 17 years. Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who joined the band in the late ’80s, is leaving to tour this summer with his old group, Missing Persons, who’ve been missing since about 1983. Ozzy Osbourne and his original foursome from Black Sabbath, who reunited for the Ozzfest tours in 1999 and again this year, are recording their first album together since 1978. Expect VH1 specials galore.

Meanwhile, Axl Rose‘s revived Guns N’ Roses, featuring mostly new members, has had to scrap its entire European tour because of guitarist Buckethead‘s health problems, hemmorrhaging that doctors are at a loss to explain. As a result, the release of the band’s much postponed album, ”Chinese Democracy,” has been delayed yet again.

BOY BAND BROUHAHA ‘N Sync have also delayed their tour by 11 days (it will now start on May 23 in Jacksonville, Fla.), as well as the release of their not quite finished new album, ”Celebrity,” by a month, to July 24. But their new single, ”Pop,” is ready, and will debut today in a live performance on MTV’s ”Total Request Live.”

Their archrivals, Backstreet Boys, have finally responded to the pugnacious Noel Gallagher of Oasis, who remarked a few months ago that the boy band ”can’t sing, can’t play, can’t dance,” and ”should be shot.” ”He should just go back to London,” BSB’s A.J. McLean said at a press conference yesterday in Caracas, Venezuela. Kevin Richardson added that, when Oasis played at the MTV Music Video awards last year, Gallagher was ”spitting on the stage and it looked like he was all strung out on something.” So there.

CASTING CALL In what sounds like a cross between the James Bond movies, ”The Greatest American Hero,” and ”The Santa Clause,” Jackie Chan is set to star in ”The Tuxedo.” He’ll play an ordinary guy who becomes a superspy when he puts on the government designed, gadget laden monkey suit of the title.

Ben Affleck will star in ”Gigli,” playing a seedy hitman who kidnaps the mentally challenged brother of a powerful district attorney. Martin Brest (”Scent of a Woman,” ”Meet Joe Black”) will direct from his own screenplay.