October 6, 1999

LEVITT GETS HIS CENTRAL LISTING - SORTA

What Arthur Levitt wants, he gets. Just two weeks ago, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission asked the stock exchanges to overhaul the system for listing stock prices,...

IN BOOTS OR IN SUITS, HE KEEPS 'EM IN STITCHES

As Bernie Ebbers stood up to announce MCI WorldCom's merger with Sprint, he took a moment to point out what he called his "rented shoes" - the standard issue Oxfords...

CALL HIM WHAT YOU WANT - EBBERS ALWAYS LANDS ON TOP

WHEN is a chairman not a chairman? When he works for Bernie Ebbers. Sprint boss William Esrey will take over as chairman of the new WorldCom once Ebbers completes his...

AOL'S KILLER APP VERSION 5.0 SHOULD COME WITH WARNING

America Online showed off its new baby to the world yesterday. But it could become a monster. In some cases the new AOL 5.0 can take over a computer and...

FED STANDS PAT; DOW DOES, TOO

Alan Greenspan's decision to leave interest rates unchanged yesterday sent the stock market on a wild ride. After a volatile 232-point swing from high to low, the Dow Jones industrial...

HOW BILL ESREY FOUND THE ROAD TO RICHES

Sprint honcho William Esrey has kept a much lower profile than Bernie Ebbers over the years, and that's just the way he likes it. "There's some intrigue to Ebbers that...

HIP-HOP EDITOR HOPS OVER TO DEF JAM

THERE'S turmoil at the top in the world of hip-hop magazines. The Source Editor-in-Chief Selwyn Seyfu Hinds is in talks to work for Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons' new...

THE BACKSTREET BOYS DON'T WANT TO HEAR JIVE

The Backstreet Boys "want it their way" - they want out of their contract with Jive Records, because they don't want to share the spotlight with archrivals 'N Sync. Industry...

LOVEABLE TEEN ALIENS IN 'ROSWELL'

Roswell 9 tonight on WPIX/Ch. 11 "R OMEO and Juliet" meets "The X-Files" in "Roswell," and we fall in love at first sight. It turns out that a spaceship did,...

DISNEY SCORES WITH SPORT-THEME EATERY

CHEAP EATS ESPN ZONE 1472 Broadway at 42nd Street Three stars MAYBE it's time Times Square had a revamped theme song to go with its $1.8 billion rehab: "Come and...

SUPERSTAR CHEFFLATTERS PEACOCK

RESTAURANT REVIEW PEACOCK ALLEY In the Waldorf Astoria 301 Park Ave. at 50th Street Three stars I HAVE news for all of you folks fed up waiting months for a...

WARREN 1ST RAN FOR PREZ 40 YEARS AGO

A CTOR Warren Beatty was already dreaming of becoming president way back in 1959 - when he co-starred in the CBS sitcom, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." The 40-year-old...

HOCH'S ON A ROLE; ONE-MAN DAN MAKES THE HOP TO HOLLYWOOD

DON'T try to put Danny Hoch in a box.The 28-year-old Queens native - who parlayed a pair of hit one-man shows into a starring role in the Fox Searchlight film...

FUTURE OF 'X-FILES' IS UNCERTAIN

A FTER six years on the air, the future of the "X-Files" is still cloudy. When the show begins its seventh season on Nov. 7, it may be the beginning...

DON'TSAY DO TO THIS

THEATER REVIEW BRIAN Friel's new play, "Give Me Your Answer, Do!" which was first presented in Dublin in 1997 and is now at the Gramercy, is vapid, pretentious, dull and...

'VOICES' SOON TO BE SILENCED

'VOICES in the Dark," the John Pielmeier mystery thriller that kicked off the new theater season, will shutter Sunday, its producers said yesterday. The show, which was savaged by the...

SELLING 'SHASTA MCNASTY'

WHO needs TV critics? That's what UPN executives asked themselves as they developed a strategy for marketing their rowdy new series "Shasta McNasty." The answer? Not this show. "Shasta McNasty"...

TV TICKER

Trump card? On tonight's "Dateline" (8 p.m. on Ch.4), Stone Phillips chats with Donald Trump about his presidential ambitions. "I have a lot to lose by doing it," Trump says....

WOULD YOU PAY $1,300 FOR THIS?

THERE'S a fungus among us. And if you want a piece of it, it's going to cost you - about $1,300 a pound. Yes, white truffle season is here. Funny,...

A CLASSICAL BEAUTY: TOP MODEL NINA KOTOVA HAS TRADED IN HER STRUT - FOR A CELLO CAREER

FOR eight years, the young Russian migr sitting in a coffee shop on Madison Avenue - dressed in a plain gray suit with unstyled hair and light makeup - prowled...

AL GORE'S CLINTON PROBLEM; HE'S MASTERED ALL BILL'S TRICKS - EXCEPT HOW TO WIN

YOU almost have to feel sorry for Al Gore. This isn't the way his presidential campaign was supposed to be going. Indeed, no sitting vice president has ever traveled such...

GRID LEGEND IS SENTENCED TO COUNSELING

LOS ANGELES - A judge humiliated football legend Jim Brown yesterday, yanking the grid great's driver's license and ordering him into a year of domestic-violence counseling. Brown was a no-show...

LAUDER WAS A GO-BETWEEN ; FOR ISRAEL, SYRIA

New York cosmetics tycoon Ronald Lauder played a dramatic backstage role trying to broker a peace pact between Israel and Syria, but failed to seal a deal over the Golan...

IS ORWELL'S '1984' COMING TO REALITY?

THE urge to merge terrifies the living bejeezus out of me. As an enthusiastic but failed capitalist, I fear desperately giants making love in a financial connubial bed. I fear...

RUSSIA RECLAIMS CHECHEN TOWNS

Russian forces have taken control of the northern third of Chechnya as tanks and infantry push deeper into the breakaway republic. The push is becoming an all-out campaign to reclaim...

22 EXPOSED TO RADIATION AT KOREAN NUCLEAR PLANT

Radioactive water leaked during recent repairs on a South Korean nuclear-power plant, exposing 22 workers to low levels of radiation. About 12 gallons of so-called "heavy water" leaked during the...

OFFICER SHOOTS CARJACK SUSPECT IN QNS. CHASE

A Queens cop badly wounded a suspected female carjacker in a possible accidental shooting, police said yesterday. Fabiana Castillo, 25, was on a ventilator and in guarded condition late yesterday...

TURNAROUND RUDY PUTS $5M IN METHADONE CLINICS

Mayor Giuliani has backed off further from his vow to end methadone treatment for heroin addicts - funding a $5 million expansion of the city's clinics. The money is going...

TENANT $EEKS REVENGE

A Manhattan woman who pretended to be dead to catch the "Landlord from Hell" - who tried to have her killed - sued her former tormentor yesterday for $10 million....

COMMUTER-TAX DEMISE UPHELD

The commuter tax - which has pumped more than $300 million a year into city coffers - is a step away from being declared legally dead. The Appellate Division of...

RUDY LOOKING INTO PAST OF B'KLYN MUSEUM BIG

Mayor Giuliani directed his latest salvo in the war with the Brooklyn Museum of Art at its director, who he said showed "possibly anti-religious attitudes." But Giuliani avoided saying the...

MEN LAX ABOUT COLON-CANCER TESTS

Many men who initially test positive for colon cancer don't get the proper follow-up, which can have deadly consequences, a new study says. Failure to obtain follow-up tests can delay...

BUSH & GORE BRING WAR TO APPLE

Vice President Al Gore and Republican rival George W. Bush went to war yesterday in New York, as a new poll showed the state up for grabs. Bush swept into...

'BROTHER VS. BROTHER' IN DODGER-YANK WARS

At least once a month, Sam Quaglierini visits the site of the old Ebbets Field - and relives those golden years of baseball when it seemed like nothing could derail...

NAZI VICTIMS: COMPANIES OFFERING US 'PEANUTS'

WASHINGTON - Nazi slave-camp survivors yesterday threatened to walk out of talks aimed at getting billions in compensation - claiming the corporate giants that abused them were tossing them "peanuts."...

RUDY BETS THE HORSE ON METS & YANKEES

Wearing cowboy boots and a Stetson hat, Mayor Giuliani yesterday made a big baseball bet with the mayors of Phoenix, Ariz. and Arlington, Texas - and put a horse where...

TEXAS GOV RAPS GOP FOR GLOOM AND DOOM

Republican 2000 front-runner George W. Bush blasted his own party yesterday - for the second time in a week - for painting a sour and gloomy image of "America slouching...

THREE INDICTED IN BANK OF N.Y. PROBE

Boris Yeltsin's son-in-law has agreed to testify here.Fired Bank of New York VP Lucy Edwards, her husband and a wire-transfer executive yesterday became the first people indicted in a federal...

PROSECUTORS SEEK THE NAKED TRUTH

Two Manhattan prosecutors stumbled on a hot scene in a court restroom yesterday. Now things could get hot for one of the pair spotted having steamy sex - he may...

PHOENIX HAS NEVER RISEN FROM THE ASHES

PHOENIX. THIS is a city that needs to be slapped in the face. No matter whom you talk to in this dusty, desert wasteland, you can't help feeling that Phoenicians...

AT LEAST G.W. READS FROM RIGHT SCRIPT

THE man who would be president waded in to the Sheraton ballroom carefully, sticking as close to Gov. Pataki as shrink wrap on a cucumber. I'd like to report on...

MTA'S OWN STUDY DISSES 'STUBWAY'

The MTA's proposed short Second Avenue subway line will attract few new riders and won't put a dent into traffic congestion on the East Side, the agency's own figures show....

UPROAR MAY HAVE BOOSTED PRICE OF CONTROVERSIAL PIC

Mayor Giuliani and everyone else angry over the Brooklyn Museum's "Sensation" exhibit are having an impact on art that infuriates the religious faithful - they're pushing up the price. A...

'I WAS THINKING - GOD, PLEASE DON'T LET ME DIE'

An "almighty bang" was just the beginning of the nightmare. Commuters were tossed around like rag dolls, and packed cars crumpled like tin cans when two London trains collided yesterday...

26 DEAD, 165 HURT IN BRIT TRAIN CRASH

At least 26 people were killed and 165 hurt when rush-hour trains collided and burst into flames in London yesterday, ripping open packed cars like sardine cans and trapping commuters...

S.I. PRIEST BUSTED IN KID-SEX STING

A Catholic priest at a Staten Island parish was busted in an Internet kiddie-sex sting yesterday after allegedly trying to arrange a tryst with a teenage boy. The Rev. Morgan...

CRITICS SAY FEDS MUST HANG UP ON SPRINT DEAL

The merger of Sprint and MCI is a bad connection because it will eliminate competition and halt the decline in long-distance rates, critics warned yesterday. "How can this be good...

EX-STUDENT 'BOOKED' IN THEFT

George Szamuely liked the history and philosophy books at the New York University library so much he never returned them. Yesterday, with the bill for late charges at $31,000 and...

MONEY'S NO OBJECT IF I RUN FOR PREZ: DONALD

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump is vowing that if he becomes a presidential candidate, he'll give his foes a run for his money - spending whatever it takes to "have a...

FANS CELEBRATE VICTORIES BY BOTH N.Y. DREAM TEAMS

With sluggers Edgardo Alfonzo and Bernie Williams driving the victory train, the Yankees and Mets left the station on the express track to a subway series - winning their playoff...

METS TOOK ARIZONA'S BEST PUNCH

PHOENIX - Their first playoff series in 11 years is only one game old and already, the Mets have taken the best shot the Arizona Diamondbacks can throw. To everyone's...

METS TREAT BIG UNIT LIKE SMALL POTATOES

PHOENIX - Call it the Desert Storm offense. The Mets knew the only way to beat Randy Johnson was to attack with all their might in the desert night. This...

JUST ANOTHER NIGHT AT OFFICE FOR ALFONZO

PHOENIX - A grand slam had just put the game away. High-fives, hoots, hollers and grins filled the Mets' dugout. A closer look revealed a sweaty, expressionless face that stood...

BO'S IN; MCELROY, TAYLOR & JONES OUT

PHOENIX - The Mets finalized their 25-man roster yesterday morning and Bobby Bonilla was on it, despite the fact he went 2-for-12 as a pinch hitter since being activated from...

BOBBY V UP ONE GAME ON BUCK

PHOENIX - Give Round 1 to Bobby Valentine. The Mets' skipper made every right move last night as he out-managed Buck Showalter on the way to his team's pulsating 8-4...

AMAZIN' FONZIE SLAMS SNAKES: EDGARDO'S 2ND BLAST OF OPENER JUST GRAND

PHOENIX - The improbable resurgence continues, and it gets more improbable with each passing win. The Mets are not only alive, they are thriving, surging even. Last night, in their...

NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT GREEDY OWNERS

THE age of the greedy athlete - top stars holding out for an extra million dollars or two - looks ready to morph into the age of the greedy team...

MAKING MONEY AS EASY AS 1-2-3

Offered for your amusement, three personal observations and opinions about playing the ponies at Belmont Park: *The main track at Belmont was never more speed-favoring than last Friday, Oct. 1....

WILDLIFE SERVICE UNDER FIRE

T HE outdoor world has gotten even crazier these days with congressional hearings into the Fish and Wildlife Service, a virus that is killing deer in the mid-Atlantic states, and...

SCRIMMAGE HEATS UP NETS-76ERS

NET NOTES ATLANTIC CITY - So it's not the Yankees-Red Sox. But the Nets-76ers is shaping up as a rivalry that bears watching. The Sixers apparently got a little miffed...

REBEL UMPS PICK UP STEAM

The leader of the insurgent umpires' group looking to oust union chief Richie Phillips and scrap the entire union said yesterday that Monday's union pow-wow did little to slow the...

KEYSHAWN BACKS UP BRASH TALK

THERE'S a fire that burns within Keyshawn Johnson. It's not fueled by the number of catches he makes, the number of touchdowns he scores, the number of commercial endorsements he...

DIERKER: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

ATLANTA - The lifestyle is the same, and for the most part, so is the man living it. The job is unchanged; what's changed is how he feels about the...

TIME FOR MILLWOOD, LIMA TO STEP UP

ATLANTA - It will be Kevin Millwood against Jose Lima when the Braves and Astros meet today at 4 p.m. in Game 2 of the NLDS. Millwood was left out...

CONCUSSION SENDS KENT TO SIDELINES

The decision was taken out of the hands of Jim Fassel and put into the hands of the Giants' medical staff. As a result, Kerry Collins gets the ball at...

DEVILS REACQUIRE SUTTON

Defenseman Ken Sutton, who has played only 18 games with New Jersey, yesterday became the first three-time Devil. He was reacquired for future considerations from the Caps, who had claimed...

PEDRO TOUGH 'TWO' OVERCOME

CLEVELAND - The shorter the series, the longer the odds against beating a team with an intimidating starting pitcher. Even the Indians, who scored a staggering 1,000 runs this year,...

TORRE GLAD METS MADE IT

YANKEE NOTES Joe Torre wasn't glued to his television Monday night when the Mets advanced to the NLDS by beating the Reds. However, he definitely had an opinion on the...

HOUSTON IS NAMED TRI-CAPTAIN

KNICK NOTES CHARLESTON, S.C. - In a telling move about the team's shifting direction, Jeff Van Gundy announced yesterday that Allan Houston will join Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson as...

GARCIAPARRA: WRIST FEELS GOOD ENOUGH

ALDS NOTES CLEVELAND - Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, who missed six games with a bruised wrist tendon after being plunked by the Orioles' Al Reyes on Sept. 25, has...

LATRELL'S ABSENCE PUTS DAMPER ON CAMP

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Knicks have been extremely understanding about Latrell Sprewell's training-camp tardiness and his legal plight in California, where a jury ruled last night that the Knicks star...

IN TODD THEY TRUST D-BACKS PRAY STOTTLEMYRE HOLDS UP

PHOENIX - Life could be easy for the Mets tonight. They're facing a pitcher whose arm is basically on its last tour of the majors. In fact, Todd Stottlemyre termed...

CAGE LEAVES NETS' CAMP

ATLANTIC CITY - On Monday, 37-year-old veteran center Michael Cage could not wait to get started with the Nets at training camp here. Yesterday, Cage couldn't wait to get away....

ASTROS DRAW FIRST BLOOD: MADDUX, BRAVES FOILED IN OPENER

ATLANTA - We've seen these games before: a gem from the starting pitcher, the late-inning home-run heroics, the 20-game winners. These games often resulted in Atlanta victories. Not this time....

ASTROS DRAW FIRST BLOOD: COX 'GLAD' METS ARE IN PLAYOFFS

Maybe Bobby Cox has some friends in the Mets clubhouse. Maybe he thinks the Amazin's really had earned a post-season berth even before their one-game playoff at Cincinnati. Or maybe...

BOBBY: LATE START 'UNFAIR'

PHOENIX - Major league baseball gave this near-midnight message to Mets fans last night: Get lost. We're not losing any sleep over our shabby treatment of you. The 11 p.m....

SAME OLD STORY AS YANKS TORCH TEXAS BERNIE, EL DUQUE LEAD ROUT IN OPENER

GAME 1 Yankees 8 Rangers 0 So how did the Rangers-Yankees AL Division Series opener Yankee Stadium turn out last night? Like it always does. Which means the Yankees got...

RICHTER SITS OUT WITH BACK INJURY

Mike Richter almost thought it was a crank call. That's how surprised the Ranger goalie was Monday night when his back specialist called him at home to tell him his...

RANGER GUNS BACKFIRE ; NEDVED LINE SHOOTING BLANKS

Senators 2 Rangers 1 The immediate problem on offense isn't the second line or the second-line center. No, just (or already) three games into a season the Rangers so desperately...

RANGER GAFFES LOOK FAMILIAR

Before the AL Division series between the Rangers and the Yankees, much was heard about the "new" Texas team that was ready to finally get past the mighty Yankees. This...

DUQUE ONE EL OF A CHOICE ; MANAGER'S GUT FEELING IS RIGHT ON - AS USUAL

THE THEORY was that Joe Torre had a lot of options for his Division Series Game 1 starter, which in this town and with this Yankee owner meant he potentially...

TEXAS DEMISE COMES EARLY

The Rangers came in with mouths the size of Texas. They were going to beat the Yankees this time, they said. They were going to score runs. They were going...

YANK PEN LOOMS LARGE

The Yankees have been the best in the end, when they have been best in the end. The Yankees won the World Series in 1996 and '98 because their bullpen...

PUDGE CAN'T JUMP-START RANGERS

Pudge Rodriguez knew exactly what the Texas Rangers had to do to erase the doubts of last year's sweep at the hands of the Yankees. Score early. And the Texas...

RANGERS' BIG STICKS SILENCED

Johnny Oates is more than a little bewildered. Isn't his lineup supposed to be the most lethal in baseball? Maybe during the first 162 games, but it has now gone...

SAME OLD STORY AS YANKS TORCH TEXAS: BERNIE, EL DUQUE LEAD ROUT IN OPENER

On Monday, they talked the talk of men attempting to convince themselves they had a chance. Last night they needed crutches to walk the walk out of Yankee Stadium. Despite...

SELE OFFERS NO EXCUSES

Texas starter Aaron Sele stood in the middle of his team's clubhouse and summed up his performance in one sentence. "I never found the groove all night," he said. Sele...

FIRED-UP WILLIAMS RIDES TO THE RESCUE

THE cold Bronx air bit hard enough to send a chill down your spine. It was the kind of weather where you want to curl up in front of a...

TORRE HAPPY METS MADE IT TO PLAYOFFS

Joe Torre wasn't glued to his TV Monday night when the Mets advanced to the NLDS by beating the Reds. However, he definitely had an opinion. "What was supposed to...

VALIANT YOSHII: IT ALL STARTS WITH FIRST ONE

PHOENIX - Leave it to Masato Yoshii to put the Mets' rocking 8-4 victory over Diamondbacks last night into the proper perspective. "There is a Japanese proverb," Yoshii said after...

FOR STARTERS, TORRE MAKES GREAT CHOICE

THE theory was that Joe Torre had a lot of options for his Division Series Game 1 starter, which in this town and with this Yankee owner meant he potentially...

'PENS WILL WRITE STORY OF PLAYOFFS

THE Yankees have been the best in the end when they have been best in the end. The Yankees won the World Series in 1996 and '98 because their bullpen...

TEXAS OWNER AIMIN' HIGH

With his black cowboy boots emblazoned with the Texas Ranger logo, his pinstriped suit and his red Ranger hat, Texas owner Thomas Hicks looks more bombastic than he sounds. "I'm...

TEXAS BRAVADO A JOKE

IT'S THE principle behind the power of positive thinking at work. All this talk from the Rangers about how vulnerable the Yankees are compared to last season and about how...

TEXAS HAPPY TO BE IN ZOO

For so many teams, and even more players, Yankee Stadium is a house of horrors. Taunts come from the stands. Insults are hurled from the right field bleachers. "They remember...

IT AIN'T EASY PRAISING ARIZONA

PHOENIX - Maybe it was the pseudo/genuine sepia-toned photograph on the front page of the local newspaper that did it, the one of Matt Williams and Jay Bell and Steve...

BIG-GAME AL TAKES METS ON WILD RIDE : PLAYOFF PROVED LEITER STILL AT BEST UNDER BRIGHT LIGHTS

PHOENIX - The Diamondbacks have an ace, no question about it. The Astros have one too, and the Braves have three or four. All season long the Mets were either...

THEY'RE TWO OF A KIND : BUCK AND BOBBY V HAVE LOT IN COMMON

PHOENIX - Manager takes over floundering New York franchise stuck in losing mode. His tentacles stretch to every corner of the organization. His enemies outnumber his friends. Bit by bit,...