September 24, 1999

NJ HAS TO PUNISH PARK PLACE CASINO

PARK Place Entertainment has been naughty. And now New Jersey gaming officials have to decide whether they have the guts to punish one of the biggest a casino operators. Regulators...

LTCM PARTNER BACK IN RISK BIZ

A Nobel laureate involved in the hedge fund that almost sank the world financial system has landed a new job - as a risk management consultant. Robert Merton, 55, a...

SEC'S LEVITT DISSES NYSE RULE

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt bashed one of the New York Stock Exchange's rules as "outdated and anticompetitive" in a speech at Columbia Law School last night. Siding...

MICROSOFT EXEC BLOWS STOCKS OUT OF THE WATER

Microsoft president Steve Ballmer bombed the stock market yesterday when he blamed a "gold rush" mentality for pushing stocks up way too high. "There's such an overvaluation of tech stocks...

MIND-BOGGLING DEAL - $1.4B ISP MERGER TAKING AIM AT AOL

Earthspring? Mindlink? Actually, the new company created by the merger announced yesterday between Internet access providers EarthLink and MindSpring will simply be called EarthLink. The deal valued MindSpring at $1.4...

DOWNLOADING IS SLOW GOING FOR BOWIE CD

"There were glitches. This was the first time this was done with such a high-profile artist. But glitches are to be expected." MEGHAN CAST, manager of retail markets, Liquid Audio...

NY PROBES RITE AID PRICE GOUGING

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is looking into a lawsuit against Rite Aid for price gouging. Spitzer's move follows a racketeering lawsuit against the drug store giant filed...

$6 BILLION MAN IS SMARTER, TOO ; BRAIN TRANSPLANT PLOT FOR 'NOW AND AGAIN' WAS CLEVER THINKING

"Now And Again" Tonight at 9 on WCBS/Ch.2 GLENN Gordon Caron, the producer who charmed and amused us with "Moonlighting," has bitten off more than most producers could chew in...

'GOING NOMAD' GOES NOWHERE FAST

WATCHING "Going Nomad" is like meeting someone who won't shut up - and bores you to tears by telling you the same stories over and over. It's extremely frustrating, because...

NO MORE COURT JESTER

THE verdict is in on Court TV's irreverent comedy "Snap Judgment" - the show has been sentenced to an early death. Production on the ratings-challenged legal-eagle parody show ends Friday....

JAILHOUSE ROCK IS SOUL OF 'BANDITS'

'BANDITS" is basically a feature-length rock video from Germany with appealing performers, decently written characters, a killer score, and an interesting premise. It never bores, even when it turns into...

GOOD MORNING, WARSAW GHETTO

'JACOB the Liar" is yet another attempt to wring melancholy laughter - and big bucks - out of the Holocaust. Made two years ago, before Roberto Benigni's overrated "Life Is...

A 'DEVIL' OF A TIME - MCCARTNEY EMERGES FROM MOURNINGWITH A DISC FULL OF '50S ROCK 'N' ROLL

"One of the pieces of advice people gave me was get busy, keep busy. I didn't want to do that. After Linda's death, I made a point of not keeping...

'MOTHER' COMES FIRST - BIG MOVIE SOIREE OPENS

LOOK, it's Paul Bartel! Every year, when I see the "Eating Raoul" director at Lincoln Center, I know the New York Film Festival has truly begun. It's my version of...

HE DIGGS TWO-'PARTY' SYSTEM

TAYE Diggs - the rising young movie star who took a steamy shower with Angela Bassett in "How Stella Got her Groove Back" - has joined the cast of "The...

O.J., EDDIE MURPHY ARE 'SNL' PARTY POOPERS

O.J. Simpson, Jerry Lewis and Eddie Murphy have snubbed the live, 25th anniversary of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," which airs Sunday night. "SNL" invited everyone who'd ever hosted the show...

KASDAN'S BACK & HIS SILLY, DELIGHTFUL 'MUM'S THE WORD

'MUMFORD" is just delightful, the kind of movie that leaves you with a big silly grin on your face. Sure, it's as sappy and predictable and implausible as any 1940s...

'SCARLET PIMPERNEL' DRAINED OF ALL COLOR

THEY seek him here, but they can't find "The Scarlet Pimpernel" at the Minskoff Theater, where it played in two previous incarnations. They seek him there, but the Pimp isn't...

TV TICKER

'Show' biz Jay Leno can't be too happy. The ratings-savvy "Tonight Show" host surely noticed that his show averaged a 3.8 rating (3.8 million households) last week - down 16...

TROUBLED 'JEOPARDY'

AS formula thrillers go, "Double Jeopardy" is an exceptionally pretty movie. But this visual lushness is almost the only indication that the movie was directed by the same Bruce Beresford...

EARLY NIGHTS FOR ANCHOR BEUTEL

VETERAN Ch.7 anchor Bill Beutel will no longer anchor the station's top-rated 11 p.m. newscast after tonight. Sources say Beutel, 68, will tell viewers on tonight's 6 p.m. newscast of...

DIRECTOR ALMODOVAR'S OBJECT OF 'DESIRE'

BLANCHE Dubois and sister Stella, Margo Channing and Eve Harrington, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams all make themselves heard in Pedro Almodovar's "All About My Mother" The poignant comedy is...

POLLEY RULES IN 'GUINEVERE'

MOVIE REVIEWS GUINEVERE Starring Sarah Polley, Stephen Rea and Gina Gershon. Directed by Audrey Wells. Running time: 108 minutes. Rating: R. At the Lincoln Square, the Gotham, and the Angelika....

'PATTON' LOSES HIS FINAL BATTLE

ACTING legend George C. Scott, who electrified audiences for four decades and stunned Hollywood by shunning an Oscar for his portrayal of Gen. George S. Patton, is dead at 71....

'COLD FEET:' PUT A SOCK IN IT

"Cold Feet" Tonight at 10 on WNBC/Ch.4 WE'D rather hear fingernails on a blackbboard than the whining of three couples in various stages of relationships (dating, pregnancy and early parenthood)...

ARTHUR MITCHELL'S 'DREAM' TURNS 30

Dance Review THIRTY years ago Arthur Mitchell had a dream, and 30 years later it's dream fulfilled. Mitchell was the first black dancer to become a principal with George Balanchine's...

PAT IS STILL STEP AHEAD OF THE PACK; SAGE PAT'S STILL ONE STEP AHEAD

PAT MOYNIHAN, the smartest senator, has always been ahead of his time. Combining Hell's Kitchen common sense with a Harvard understanding of Big Ideas, Moynihan has been ahead of the...

HILLARY & RUDY DO BATTLE IN MINIMUM-WAGE WAR

Potential U.S. Senate opponents Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mayor Giuliani yesterday butted heads over whether to increase the minimum wage. Campaigning in The Bronx, the first lady threw her support...

BUSH 'WIMPED' ONE FOR THE GIPPER - REAGAN CONSIDERED HIS VEEP A WEAKLING: BIO

Ronald Reagan thought George Bush was a wimp, says the Great Communicator's biographer. Reagan admired strength and thought the person he shared the White House with for eight years had...

BRADLEY MAN MOYNIHAN SAYS GORE 'CAN'T BE ELECTED' PREZ

Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan yesterday bluntly said Veep Al Gore is a loser who "can't be elected" as he formally backed rival Bill Bradley for the 2000 Democratic presidential nod....

GOV'S EX-HEALTH CHIEF HAD HOT BUNS: COPS

ALBANY - Former state Health Commissioner Dr. Barbara DeBuono, a longtime advisor to Gov. Pataki, has been busted for shoplifting, police said yesterday. A Town of Colonie police report shows...

PREZ KILLS 'BLOATED' GOP TAX CUT

WASHINGTON - President Clinton yesterday vetoed a Republican bill that would have cut taxes by $792 billion over 10 years in a ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance. "This bill...

HOSP BOSS TO PROBE IF FILES WERE DOCTORED

Lincoln Hospital's executive director yesterday pledged to probe allegations that supervisors ordered staffers to alter medical records. Public Advocate Mark Green said hospital honcho Jose Sanchez "agreed to seriously investigate...

2ND DRAG-DEATH FIEND SENTENCED TO DEATH

A second man was sentenced to die by lethal injection yesterday for dragging a black man to his death on a rural Texas road. Lawrence Russell Brewer, 32, a white...

MONEY MOTIVATES WAR OF AESTHETICS

AND you thought we only elected a mayor. Turns out, we elected an art critic, too. On Wednesday, the mayor withdrew $7.3 million of public funding from The Brooklyn Museum...

KATHIE LEE 'SEW' SICK OF PERSONAL ATTACKS

Chipper chat-show host Kathie Lee Gifford launched a counterattack yesterday - accusing critics of maligning her name - as she kept denying charges that her clothing line is made in...

THE ART WORLD'S FATAL ERROR - TAKING PUBLIC FUNDS LEAVES YOU AT POLITICIANS' MERCY

'The whole purpose of splattering an image of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung is to cause outrage.' THE Brooklyn Museum's importation of a deliberately shocking British exhibition became a...

$1M LOBBY WON'T HELP LINCOLN'S LONG-SUFFERING PATIENTS

LaTONYA Stanford held her bulging stomach, put her head on the counter and grimaced in pain. "They told me there is only one high-risk doctor so I have to be...

LAWSUIT SLAMS POKEMON AS BAD BET FOR ADDICTED KIDS

Two Pokemon pack rats are suing the maker of the wildly popular trading cards, charging that the pocket monsters are turning them into pint-sized gamblers. Alex Silverman and Andrew Imber,...

HIZZONER ON SHAKY LEGAL GROUND: EXPERTS

Mayor Giuliani would probably lose if he lands in court over his threat to yank funding from the Brooklyn Museum of Art over its "sick" exhibit of British art, some...

DIVORCEES IN A LEGAL SWEAT

Men and women worried their divorces and remarriages may be shams have been anxiously dialing Manhattan courts in the wake of fraud and bribery accusations. Officials from the Manhattan district...

HORSE TALE'S ODD 'PUNCH' LINE: FATHERHOOD

What do you get when you cross a police horse with a stork? You get the odd case of James Hornacek, a Hazlet, N.J., electrician on trial in Manhattan for...

MUSEUM: CAN'T PAINT US INTO CORNER - BRUSHES OFF RUDY'S THREAT TO PULL $7M

Brooklyn Museum officials yesterday refused to buckle under Mayor Giuliani's demand to pull a controversial exhibit - or face losing $7.2 million in city funding. "Obviously we would not have...

AUCTION BRINGS BIG BALLPARK FIGURE$

Bidders stepped up to the plate at Sotheby's yesterday and forked over more than $2 million for bats, balls and other items linked to Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and other...

CHINA HARDLINER RISING TOWARD TOP

Chinese President Jiang Zemin's handpicked hardline successor has moved yet another step closer to assuming the country's top political post. Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, 56, was appointed vice chairman...

GEORGE W. GOES TO WAR ON DEFENSE STRATEGY

Republican 2000 front-runner George W. Bush yesterday vowed to build a new generation of futuristic long-range weapons to avoid sending U.S. troops on "vague, aimless and endless" missions overseas. "The...

'HUMILIATED' DIANA SINGIN' THE AIRPORT BLUES

Pop diva Diana Ross was in not-so-Supreme form last night after nearly breaking down in tears in a live TV interview - calling an airport breast-touching brouhaha the worst public...

HORROR IN MIDTOWN AS CAR PLOWS INTO EATERY

One man was killed and at least 24 other people injured when a Mercedes Benz plowed through the picture window of a busy Midtown restaurant last night, mowing down diners...

DEMOCRACY PROTESTS GROW VIOLENT IN INDONESIA

Thousands of Indonesian students clashed with security forces yesterday, setting up barricades and throwing rocks and molotov cocktails to protest a new law that would let the military suspend civil...

HEFTY PAY RAISE HASN'T LEFT THE GOV $PEECHLESS

ALBANY - Gov. Pataki delivered a paid speech in Chicago yesterday, his first since receiving a whopping 38 percent pay hike in January, it was revealed last night. Pataki, whose...

TAIWAN REBUFFS CHINA'S OFFER OF EARTHQUAKE AID

Taiwan officials yesterday rejected an offer of earthquake aid from China and sharply reduced their estimate of the number of people believed trapped in rubble. Rescue teams said time was...

RUSSIANS BLITZ CHECHENS IN NEW ASSAULT ON TERROR

Russian aircraft bombed the airport in the Chechen capital Grozny yesterday signaling a dramatic escalation in efforts to contain the Islamic uprising in Dagestan and terrorist attacks in Moscow. The...

L.A. COPS: VAN DAMME WAS DRUNK HUNK

Cops busted Jean-Claude Van Damme on suspicion of drunken driving after they spotted the hunky action star's car weaving dangerously along a Los Angeles road. Van Damme, the 39-year-old star...

LATEST STUDY RAISES FRESH FEARS ABOUT NEW VERSION OF THE PILL

A new controversy has erupted over the safety of the newest generation of birth-control pills. Danish scientists say their research shows that the third generation of oral contraceptives could increase...

NFL SPIRALING TO A NEW LOW

DON'T look now, sports fans, but the last seven NFL games televised in New York have been stinkers. Stinkers. And there are plenty more where those came from. In order,...

GOOD FISHING STORMS BACK

THE weather has been the big factor in saltwater fishing this past week, especially towards the eastern half of Long Island, but there was plenty of good fishing to be...

JINTS ARE RUNNING ON EMPTY

Kent Graham was not about to start tossing around blame when asked to analyze what after two games is a dismal Giants rushing attack. "I'm not going to get into...

NAGGING KNEE INJURY HAS HAMILTON GROUNDED

GIANT NOTES Just as one cornerback, Jason Sehorn, is poised for a comeback, another - Conrad Hamilton - is falling further and further behind. Sehorn yesterday was upgraded to probable...

CHECKETTS TO SPREE: LET'S TALK

The Dave Checketts/Latrell Sprewell lovefest is in full bloom. The Garden president told The Post he has informed the Knicks' superstar that Checketts wants to get contract-extension talks initiated BEFORE...

IT'S THE BOSTON TEE PARTY

U.S. guns take aim at Team Europe "There's a very strong sense of urgency for this team to win. I think we need to win." TOM LEHMAN BROOKLINE, Mass. -...

BRAVES PUT METS INTO DEEP SWEEP: GREAT COLLAPSE POSSIBLE

ATLANTA - The '64 Phillies. The '69 Cubs. The '95 Angels. The '98 Mets. We're all familiar with the years and the teams that form a chokers' gallery fit for...

ISLES PRUNE ROSTER TO 25

The Islanders cut their roster to 25, two over the regular-season limit, yesterday by sending C Jason Krog, LW Josh Green and RW Dmitri Nabokov to Lowell of the AHL....

ONE-MAN DEMOLITION CREW CHIPPER LOOKS A SHOO-IN FOR MVP

ATLANTA - Chipper Jones turned into Mickey Mantle this Showdown Series. There no longer is a question who is the National League MVP. It was another case of the Mets...

BRAVES PUT METS INTO DEEP SWEEP: CHPPER HOMER DAMPENS HOPE FOR NL EAST TITLE

ATLANTA - As the ball arched high into the crisp blue Atlanta sky, Mike Piazza slumped over with his hands on his knees, his head facing the infield dirt, and...

ROCKER GETS REAL RIBBING

ATLANTA - The Braves heard about how John Rocker proclaimed his hatred of the Mets to The Post in yesterday's editions and were riding him about it before yesterday's game,...

'HALL' TAKES BROWN JUG IN RACE-OFF

DELAWARE, Ohio - The third and deciding heat of the $543,980 Little Brown Jug was won by Blissfull Hall in 1:55 3/5 yesterday afternoon at the Delaware County Fairgrounds. Blissfull...

BRAVES' COX PULLS OUT ALL STOPS

ATLANTA - More than anything, the Braves showed what they were made of in their three-game sweep of the Mets. It was the Mets who were supposed to be the...

ATLANTA'S PEN WRITES OFF METS

ATLANTA - The Mets' bullpen was supposed to be the difference in this series, but the Braves' relievers were the ones who did not wilt under post-season-like pressure. In three...

PIAZZA CAN'T KEEP UP WITH JONES

"I'd be happy not to hit any more home runs if it means we make the playoffs. I'd give 'em all back."MIKE PIAZZA ATLANTA - The only Met position player...

TUNA LIGHTENS UP AS PADS COME OFF

Bill Parcells has done this before - had his players practice without pads for a full week - at least twice last season. But the Jets were winners in 1998,...

TIGER-SERGIO MATCHUP BIG SURPRISE

RYDER CUP NOTES BROOKLINE, Mass. - And the envelopes, please ... If you didn't know better you'd have thought it was staged. All week, the world wanted to know what...

WARD GETS CHANCE TO STAKE A CLAIM

JET NOTES Jets wide receiver Dedric Ward needn't wonder what he must do to impress coach Bill Parcells. "Production," said Parcells. "Like any backup, I don't mean to be trite...

GRIZZLIES BOUND FOR ST. LOO

VANCOUVER - Nobody has to draw a diagram for the people in this foolishly underrated, far-away paradise. Least of all NBA commissioner David Stern, in town for three days of...

CUP PICK 6 OFFERS $5M POT

Officials at Breeders' Cup Ltd. have announced a guaranteed $5 million Pick Six on Breeders' Cup Day, Nov. 6. The wager will cover each of the championship races, except for...

RANGERS PROTECT DEFENDER NDUR

The Rangers have made their list and decided it applies to Rumun Ndur. With room on the Waiver Draft protection list that's due to be filed with the NHL this...

THE POSTMAN LOOKS SET TO DELIVER TODAY

H ANDICAPPERS looking at the past performances for Thepostman in today's fourth race, an allowance for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on turf, will find little reason to bet him....

VALENTINE UPSET BY RICKEY'S DASH HOME

MET NOTES ATLANTA - The Mets have been known throughout baseball as a team that doesn't beat itself, but in yesterday's 6-3 loss to the Braves, all that heads-up play...

MAGIC NIGHT FOR YANKEES: CLINCH WILD-CARD TIE, GO 5 UP ON RED SOX

Yankees 5 White Sox 2 After a summer of living with several bad tanks of gas, the Yankees are running on high-octane fuel when it matters the most. "I feel...

TINO LOOKING TO GET LOCKED IN

YANKEE NOTES Tino Martinez started to feel it Wednesday night even if the results weren't all that stimulating. "My swings were good and that's all I am looking for right...

SHANE, LEYRITZ GET SOME WORK

The Rust Brothers were in the Yankee lineup last night when the Bombers faced only the 30th lefty starter of the season and first since David Wells beat them, 2-1,...

IRABU IS BACK ON PLAYOFF HOT SEAT : YARNALL MAKING IMPRESSIVE RUN

"[Yarnall] opened my eyes when we brought him into those two games [in July] ...he showed me a great deal." JOE TORRE While Roger Clemens tried to pitch his way...