October 7, 1999
HARD-LUCK MOGUL: OVITZ CAN'T GET A BREAK
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amHere are some of the bad things that have happened to Michael Ovitz: *Losing out to Houston in the battle for an NFL franchise. *Shopped latest work of Michael Crichton,...
COMPUTER BUG PUTS BRAKES ON NASDAQ TRADING
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amOn the eve of an important board meeting to determine the fate of its initial public offering plans, the Nasdaq was embarrassed by a computer system problem that slowed trading....
SOURCE EDITOR WILL LEAVE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThe top editor at hip-hop bible The Source will step down fom his post after the December issue is put to bed, the magazine said. The Post's Media Ink reported...
MUSIC MAKERS SEEK CINEMA SYNERGY
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThe latest buzz in the music world isn't about a dynamite new recording - it's about the movie business. Some of the industry's biggest names are getting behind the cameras,...
HINDERY JUST GREW TIRED OF ALL THE FIGHTING AT AT&T
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amLEO Hindery wasn't long for AT&T. It didn't take the scrappy deal-maker long to figure out that the staid and bureaucratic world of the nation's biggest phone company wasn't for...
OVITZ' LOSING STREAK: TINY TITAN FOOTBALL FUMBLE IS HIS MOST RECENT SETBACK
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amMichael Ovitz has absorbed yet another embarrassing setback. The one-time superagent with the can do reputation lost out yesterday on his bid to gain an NFL expansion franchise. Not only...
TOP CHEF STOMPS OUT OF PATRIA
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amDouglas Rodriguez, the famed executive chef and minority partner of three-star Patria, is being forced out by controlling partner Phil Suarez in a dispute over Rodriguez' affiliation with a new...
GETTING READY FOR THE NEW SEASONS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amOCTOBER is National Car Care Month - a good time to give Old Breakdown some TLC to get rid of summer and get ready for winter. Some of these maintenance...
BELINDA CARLISLE'S VOICE A NO-GO AT REUNION
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amMUSIC REVIEW AT the Go-Go's reunion gig Tuesday - the all-girl band's first full-length concert in five years - memories of how good they once were suffered a head-on collision...
THE USUAL- WITH A TWIST
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amNEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL AT a post-screening press conference for Kimberly Peirce's "Boys Don't Cry" -the story of Nebraska girl Brandon Teena, who dresses like a boy and romances girls...
IT'S CHARMING -BUT DOOMED
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amWasteland 9 tonight on WABC/Ch. 7 P RODUCER Kevin Williamson moves up the age scale - and East Coast - from "Dawson's Creek" with "Wasteland." The title says more about...
A TASTE OF LIMON AT OPENING GALA
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amDANCE REVIEW THERE are two very special things about the Jose Limon Dance Company, which opened a two-week stint at the Joyce Theater Tuesday night. This company, a valued and...
TV TICKER
October 7, 1999 | 4:00am'Sunday' best NBC's "Sunday Today" had its strongest third-quarter in history, finishing in first place. For the quarter, "Sunday Today" averaged 3.8 million viewers - ahead of "CBS Sunday Morning,"...
NIGHTLY NEWS STOLE HIS NAME ; SOME NEWSCASTERS CHANGE MONIKERS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amMARC Stevens had to leave New York to use the name he was born with in Brooklyn. He's now known as Marc Soicher - his real name. Stevens-now-Soicher was weekend...
LIFE SUCKS! WHY SOME MANHATTANITES WISH THE ONCE-TRENDY CLUB WOULD JUST DIE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amIS Life over? That's the question on many New York club-goers' minds since it was announced earlier this week that the Bleecker Street nightclub might be forced to close. (Complaints...
IS SUSAN FALUDI HAVING A CRISIS?
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amRUSS Rymer is Susan Faludi's boyfriend. He's got brown hair, is attractive, and can't stop apologizing for the fact that Faludi - the author of the feminist best-seller "Backlash" and...
METS HIT A GRAND SLAM WITH WEARY NY VIEWERS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amEVEN after 11 p.m., the Mets can draw a crowd. Tuesday's Mets-Diamondbacks matchup - the first post-season appearance by the Mets in 11 years - was a late-night ratings bonanza...
ROSIE'S TICKED OFF AGAIN
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amTALK show queen Rosie O'Donnell is on the war path again - this time against the new series about sex-crime cops, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." O'Donnell had a...
HEF WON'T BLOCK BIO ON USA NET
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPlayboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner has backed down from a confrontation with the USA Network over its unauthorized TV movie of his life. The film, "Hefner: Unauthorized," is set to...
WHY CHOOSE? WE'VE GOTTA ROOT FOR BOTH THESE TEAMS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amTHE Yankees play with the ruthless efficiency of a Silicon Valley computer monopoly. The Mets, on the other hand, play with the relaxed liberation of people who survived cancer surgery...
CHECHEN PREZ TALKING 'HOLY WAR' VS. RUSSIA
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amChechnya's president yesterday declared martial law and called for a holy war against Russian troops, who say they've seized the northern third of the rebel republic. Aslan Maskhadov said he...
A COALITION GROWS IN HARLEM; OLD ALLIANCES MEAN BAD SCHOOLS, SO NEW FRIENDSHIPS HAVE GROWN
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amWHEN the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee travels to Harlem to publicly endorse an alternative school named in honor of a former African National Congress terrorist, and a committed Marxist...
HILLARY GETTING B'WAY B'DAY
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amFirst Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday opened fire on Mayor Giuliani, as her celebrity supporters unveiled plans for a $1 million, star-studded New York birthday bash to boost her Senate...
U.N. PEACEKEEPERS KILL TIMOR GUERRILLAS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amTwo pro-Jakarta militiamen were killed in East Timor yesterday after their gang ambushed a U.N. convoy, in the first violent clash since peacekeepers arrived in the region 16 days ago....
ROPE IN THIS BRUTAL 'SPORT'
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amWRESTLING'S fake. But Darren "The Droz" Drozdov's broken neck is not. He's paralyzed, and may never walk again. The poor guy; some price to pay for a cheap thrill. Once...
HELLISH TRAIN WRECK'S GRIM TOLL STILL RISING
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThe death toll from the London commuter-train collision skyrocketed to 70 yesterday - and officials feared scores more may have been incinerated by a 2,000-degree fireball. Salvage crews knee-deep in...
BUMS & AMAZIN'S IN LITTLE BOMBER FANS' BLOOD
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPint-sized Monica Pignatano and her 7-year-old brother, Anthony Jr., have caught Yankee fever - even though Brooklyn Dodger blue and Met orange runs in their blood. And the bonkers-for-the-Bombers fans...
CITY'S $4M RENOVATED APTS. STILL VACANT
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThe city spent $3.9 million to renovate 53 apartments in four Harlem buildings for the homeless in 1996 - and they've been sitting vacant ever since. Comptroller Alan Hevesi said...
BUSH TO GOP: SOMEDAY YOU'LL THANK ME FOR THIS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amRepublican front-runner George W. Bush yesterday defended his attacks on his party's "gloom-and-doom scenarios," saying he's doing it for the GOP's own good. Bush also took a tougher line against...
BOOK'S NO 'DUTCH' TREAT
October 7, 1999 | 4:00am"Dutch" might not amount to much - at least when it comes to book sales. The controversial Ronald Reagan bio has been selling sluggishly, and publisher Random House has apparently...
'BABY JESSICA' LOVE-TUG COUPLE CALLING IT SPLITS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThe birth parents of "Baby Jessica" are getting divorced - six years after winning a sensational tug-of-love custody battle for the child raised from infancy by a couple trying to...
PLAN FOR DISCO NEAR NAZI DEATH CAMP SPARKS FUROR
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amOutrage is building over a proposal for a disco in a building near the Auschwitz death camp that was used to store Holocaust victims' hair and clothing. A provincial governor...
NEEDLES REPAID WITH CACTUS KINDNESS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX. YOU have to admire the Phoenicians. They just won't take abuse lying down. So on Day 2 of the Metro Gnome's exclusive "You Call This a City?" Tour, a...
WRESTLER MAY BE PARALYZED IN L.I. TRAGEDY
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amHeartsick relatives and fans of World Wrestling Federation star "The Droz" may learn as early as today if the tattooed and body-pierced grappler will ever walk again. Darren Drozdov, 30,...
KLEIN WANTS TO SHED HIS CALVINS - FASHION KING PUTS EMPIRE UP FOR SALE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amCalvin Klein has employed a lot of sexy beefcake to sell his designs over the years, but now he's hired a staid Wall Street firm to sell his sexiest product...
NO-NUKES PACT DYING IN SENATE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - The no-nukes-testing treaty appears to be on its deathbed, with the Senate set to vote to kill it next week or delay it indefinitely. President Clinton yesterday asked...
CREW WANTS SUMMER-SCHOOL CZAR ; WOULD GUIDE PROMOTION POLICY
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amSchools chancellor Rudy Crew asked the Board of Education yesterday to appoint a czar to oversee the new policy to end social promotion. The new "superintendent for student promotion policy"...
IT'S A HOME OPENER FOR GORE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amA down-home Al Gore, declaring it "a new day," yesterday pulled on his cowboy boots and briefly returned to his Tennessee roots in a desperate bid to kick-start his sputtering...
VP PATAKI? NOT A HOST OF A CHANCE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amGov. Pataki got rave reviews as tour director for Republican 2000 front-runner George W. Bush's three-day swing through New York - but that won't necessarily put him on the potential...
WHOOPS! HIZZONER IS LEFT OFF GOV'S SKED
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amRepublican presidential candidate George W. Bush spent a good part of the day yesterday with Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani. Giuliani's public schedule made note of both Bush and Pataki....
HOT START HAS APPLE FANS FIRED UP - MET, YANK CAMPS READY TO RUMBLE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amNew York was abuzz yesterday with Subway Series Fever. Buoyed by Yankee and Met opening-game wins, New Yorkers all over the city were talkin' baseball - and hoping for a...
5 BRAVEST NAB RAPE SUSPECT IN B'KLYN
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amFive of New York's Bravest collared a parolee after he viciously tried to rape a woman at a Brooklyn subway station, cops said yesterday. "Don't move!" shouted Lt. Kevin Heaney...
CLEVER BUSH KNOWS THAT 'RIGHT' IS WRONG
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amAFEW right-wing Republicans are spitting mad at George W. Bush for dissing them as chilly prophets of gloom - but that could be great news for the Texas governor. All...
EXPERT SAYS WACO TAPE SHOWS FBI FIRED SHOTS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - An expert in thermal imaging has concluded that the FBI fired shots during the 1993 Waco siege, contrary to the government's claim that no shots were fired. "I...
KID-PORN RAP FOR B'KLYN COP
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amA Brooklyn police sergeant was arrested yesterday on child-pornography charges. Sgt. Sean Torres, 31, allegedly met someone he believed to be a child over the Internet and sent the person...
AMAZIN'S HIT DRY SPELL IN THE DESERT - FANS VOW SNAKES WILL BE HISS-TORY AT SHEA!
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amMets fans are vowing to get back at the Diamondbacks when the Amazin's get back to their own diamond tomorrow. "We'll still win this thing at home," said Jason Flaherty,...
RUDY MEETS THE MET AS NEW FOE IN MUSEUM 'ART' TUSSLE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amNew York's most prestigious museums are diving into the controversial "art war" - sending legal reinforcements for the Brooklyn Museum's public feud with Mayor Giuliani. The Metropolitan Museum of Art...
CONTROVERSY HAS SERVED HIM WELL
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amCalvin Klein won fame as a designer - but his personal life and his racy ads have attracted as much attention as his clothes. He first stunned middle America in...
LOOK OUT, APPLE, HERE COMES BUCK
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - Buck is back in a big playoff way. Buck Showalter returns to New York today as a playoff manager for tomorrow night's game, a long way removed from...
AN ANATOMY OF MET LOSS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - The difference between victory or defeat can be minute. There were many aspects to the Mets' 7-1 loss to the Diamondbacks last night at Bank One Ballpark, mostof...
COUNT ON ROGERS? NO KEN DO ; HE'S NO MATCH FOR TOUGH TODD
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - They are joined at the shoulder, charter members of the Brotherhood of the Torn Rotator Cuff, survivors of the most dreaded injury a major league pitcher can endure....
RATTLED METS SPLIT FOR HOME: DIAMONDBACKS ROUGH UP ROGERS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - Met-hating Yankee fans, led by George Steinbrenner, are laughing today. They watched as Kenny Rogers came over from Oakland in a late-July trade; they saw how Rogers was...
RATTLED METS SPLIT FOR HOME: WEARY PIAZZA RUNNIN' ON EMPTY
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - It's far too early for Fred Wilpon or Nelson Doubleday to pull a George Steinbrenner and pin a Mr. May on Mike Piazza, but it is time to...
FINLEY FLOGS AMAZIN'S WITH FIVE RIBBIES
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - Steve Finley looks like a gentle man, but put three runners on base and he turns into a RBI-monster. Finley did his Edgardo Alfonzo imitation last night, driving...
AILING KNEE WON'T STOP LEITER
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amMET NOTES PHOENIX - Al Leiter has a sore right knee, but the left-hander says it won't affect him in his next start, whether that's Game 4 of the Division...
D-BACKS' FAITH IN TODD REPAID ; STOTTLEMYRE BEATS SHOULDER INJURY, METS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - Todd Stottlemyre took the mound again with a torn rotator cuff and a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Nothing wrong with his guts. They were as evident...
ROLSTON'S RIGHT MAN TO NET 30
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThe Big Three-Oh. In Devildom, instead of over-the-hill, it means the hump no one gets over. Brian Rolston wants to be that mountain climber, the first Devil since 1994 to...
MLK KEEPS SOCCER COACH
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPerhaps the worst is over between Martin Luther King High School soccer coach Martin Jacobson and the PSAL, but their battle is likely to continue. Jacobson was suspended last November...
'BULLET' EYES BELDAME
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amSuperfilly Silverbulletday, facing the second-toughest challenge of her nearly flawless career in Sunday's Grade 1, $500,000 Beldame Stakes, breezed five furlongs yesterday over the main track at Belmont Park in...
NFL RETURNS TO HOUSTON ; $1 BILLION DEAL DWARFS L.A. BID
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amNFL football will return to Houston in 2002 after the league yesterday picked the Texas city - and businessman Robert McNair's $1 billion offer - for its next expansion team...
AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER DESPITE DOMINANCE, YANKS STILL FEAR TEXAS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThey roll their eyes and look at their clubhouse ceiling made up of tiles found in an upscale men's club or suburban basement. That's if they didn't scratch their heads...
WAYNE MAY BE IN JET FORECAST ; CHREBET COULD PLAY MONDAY VS. JAGUARS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amThe Jets had finished their workout Monday when Wayne Chrebet met with Bill Parcells to update him about his broken left foot. That's when Chrebet, normally known for catching bombs,...
RANGERS' GM WONDERS WHAT MIGHT HAVE BERN
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amUPGRADING the Rangers' starting pitching was general manager Doug Melvin's top priority last winter. But the dangling carrot of Bernie Williams was a temptation that was difficult to resist. Though...
CAGE HAS 'SECOND THOUGHTS'
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amNET NOTES ATLANTIC CITY - It seemed like a great idea at the time, to return after a year's layoff. But apparently Michael Cage had second thoughts. So the 37-year-old...
CHAMBLISS RECALLS BEST VIEW OF DENT'S HISTORIC HOMER
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amChris Chambliss is standing behind the batting cage at Yankee Stadium yesterday on a perfect day for baseball. There is no game as the Yankees and Rangers prepare for tonight's...
IT'S WINNING TIME OCTOBER'S HERE & YANKS LOOK LIKE CHAMPS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amF ORGET home-field advantage. The Yankees have the home-month advantage. This it their time of year. Team October. Through the trips and travails of an often troubling regular season, the...
COLEMAN, MICKENS BATTLE FOR OTIS' JOB
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amJET NOTES With RCB Otis Smith out for the season with a broken collarbone, Marcus Coleman and Ray Mickens are competing for the starting spot in Monday night's meeting with...
ONE-GAME TRYOUT FOR COLLINS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amLet the audition begin. No one defined it as such, but that is exactly what takes place Sunday afternoon for Kerry Collins. When he takes the field at Sun Devil...
AWOL SPREE ANGERS KNICKS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amCHARLESTON - The Latrell watch took another strange loop yesterday. Latrell Sprewell raised the Knicks' angst even more when he took a detour from California to his home in Milwaukee...
HELLING HOLDING RANGERS' HOPES
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amTexas pitcher Rick Helling said he doesn't feel added pressure to win tonight. That might change by the time he takes the Stadium mound. The Yankees shelled Aaron Sele and...
CHANGING OF GUARD JUST NOT IN THE CARDS
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amGIANT NOTES Nine months ago, the Cardinals stunned and booted the Cowboys out of the playoffs, winning 20-7 at Texas Stadium, and the theme that Jan. 2 day centered on...
IT'S A VICIOUS CYCLE FOR PATRICK
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amKNICK NOTES CHARLESTON - Call it Patrick's corner. A treadmill and Stairmaster have been set up in the corner of the College of Charleston gym, allowing Patrick Ewing a good...
NEWMAN HAS OUTSIDE SHOT
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amATLANTIC CITY - The light scrimmage work had just started and Stephon Marbury penetrated and flipped the ball back up top to Johnny Newman who coolly let fly and nailed...
LIMA FOUND CLEAN ON PINE-TAR CHECK
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amATLANTA -After the first inning of their 5-1 win over Houston, the Braves had the umpires check Astros starter Jose Lima for pine tar after seeing a dark substance on...
MILLWOOD ONE-HITTER EVENS IT UP
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amGAME 2 Braves 5 Astros 1 ATLANTA - The mighty Braves, staggered and stunned after a Game 1 loss in the NL Division Series, were looking at the very real...
BRAVES AT HOME AT THE DOME
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amATLANTA - How quickly things can change. Yesterday the Astros came to Turner Field thinking they could beat the Braves and take a commanding 2-0 lead back to Houston. But...
TORRE GIVES CHILI A CHANCE AT DH
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES Not wanting to see Chili Davis' bat accumulate five days of rust, Joe Torre will insert the veteran switch-hitter in the DH spot tonight against Rangers righthander Rick...
FONZ LOOKING LIKE AMAZIN'S MR. OCTOBER
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - For those who thought Edgardo Alfonzo was flagging in September and was just too fatigued to go on, the events of Monday and Tuesday provided clear evidence to...
CURSE BITES BOSOX AGAIN: LOSE LEAD TO INDIANS AFTER PEDRO DEPARTS WITH STRAINED BACK
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amCLEVELAND - They used to hang suspected witches in New England for lesser crimes than the breaking ball Derek Lowe hung to Jim Thome for a game-turning homer in the...
NOMAR'S NOT QUITE PERFECT
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amCLEVELAND - Nomar Garciaparra homered, doubled and scored, but the tour de force by the batting champion and MVP candidate was marred by an inexcusable baserunning error that ended a...
DAAL STANDS TALL FOR SHOWALTER
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - So, who is Omar Daal? No Diamondback pitcher knows more about Edgardo Alfonzo than Omar Daal. No Diamondback pitcher is more relaxed than Omar Daal. Few baseball players...
MET LOSS STREAK WAS GOOD NOOSE
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - Passive. That's what the shellshocked Mets were during a seven-game losing streak that nearly shoved them all the way into the longest, coldest winter in franchise history. Aggressive....
BUCK BOTCHES 'PEN AGAIN - SHOWALTER REPEATS HIS '95 ERROR
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - The Mets learned two very important things about the Arizona Diamondbacks in the process of winning Game 1 of the National League Division Series Tuesday night. The first...
METS DRIVE 'EM BATTY - DESERT STORM OFFENSE ATTACKING THE BASEBALL
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amPHOENIX - Call it the Desert Storm offense. That's what the Mets have rolling against the Diamondbacks. Buck Showalter is impressed. Of course, he wasn't impressed enough to bring in...
DOC, BAERGA LEFT OUT
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amALDS NOTES CLEVELAND - Neither Dwight Gooden nor Carlos Baerga is on the Indians' 25-man roster for the Division Series against the Red Sox. "They said I might get added...
COLON ACE IN MAKING - INDIANS NEED HIM TO OFFSET PEDRO
October 7, 1999 | 4:00amCLEVELAND - Mike Hargrove says his 18-game winner Bartolo Colon is an unfinished product as a No. 1 starter. In fact, the Indians have never had a No. 1 in...