December 17, 1999

FEDS CHARGE NBA FUND MANAGER TOOK KICKBACKS

Pension fund manager and television pundit Alan Bond was charged yesterday with taking nearly $7 million in kickbacks to fund his lavish lifestyle and collection of 75 antique and luxury...

WATERFORD'S WEB IMAGE SHATTERED BY SCHOOLBOY

An embarrassed Waterford Crystal has agreed to pay for an 11-year-old boy's college education in return for getting its name back on the Internet. British schoolboy James Stell and his...

THE NYSE STOLE MIKE FRAYLER'S LIFE

MIKE Frayler doesn't look like the type of guy who'd try to kill himself. Six foot-two and a hulking 250 pounds, he seems more like a man who would do...

PATHMARK PURCHASE OFF IN ROYAL FOUL-UP

The marriage plans for New Jersey-based Pathmark Stores and the European grocery giant Royal Ahold abruptly unraveled yesterday, leaving jilted Pathmark desperate for cash and reportedly filing a lawsuit. Royal...

UNIVERSAL FLOPS SPARK $2B SUIT

Germany's Kirch Media is suing Universal for more than $2 billion -- claiming the studio's movies and TV shows stink. The suit says Universal breached a major pay-TV licensing deal...

'NET EXEC GUILTY OF POSSESSING CHILD PORN

LOS ANGELES -- U.S. marshals hauled a former Disney executive out of court in handcuffs yesterday after a deeply divided jury nailed him for possessing child porn but deadlocked on...

N.J. JURY RULES NASD'S ZARB LIED ; HE WAS MISLED IN NEW JOB BID

Frank Zarb, chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers, was branded a liar by a New Jersey jury yesterday. The jury ruled that Zarb lied to former Giants football...

'SURVIVOR' SEEKERS

AS many as 6,000 people have begged CBS to leave them stranded on a deserted island in the South China Sea. No wonder. If they survive, they could win as...

TIME TO BRING BACK ED KOCH? - JERRY'S 'COURT' HAS 4% DROP IN VIEWERS

HOW'S "People's Court" doing under Judge Jerry Sheindlin? OK -- but not as well as it did under his predecessor, Judge Ed Koch. The latest national ratings for "People's Court"...

'EMPEROR' PRETTY BUT ENDLESS

LIKE last year's "The Emperor's Shadow," "The Emperor and the Assassin" is a film about Ying Zheng, the warlord who bloodily unified the seven kingdoms of ancient China. And like...

'LITTLE' BUNDLE OF JOY

FAMILY movies don't come much more entertaining than "Stuart Little," which has such astounding computer-generated effects you'll suspend disbelief and root for the hero, a 3-inch talking mouse. Very loosely...

SOUNDS FOR A SILENT NIGHT

CHRISTMAS compilations and snowflakes have a lot in common -- each one is different, but when you shovel them into a pile they all start to look alike. It's beginning...

TIN MAN GETS A HEART -- BUT NO BRAIN

THE once-funny Robin Williams is still stuck in his excruciating touchy-feely mode for "Bicentennial Man," a tinny fantasy about a soft-hearted robot that spans 200 years. This failed family entertainment...

TAKE TRIP TO SIAM FOR BEAUTIFUL SCENERY & GREAT CHOW

'ANNA and the King" is a politically correct update of the old chestnut about the Victorian governess -- now played as a feminist by Jodie Foster -- and the Siamese...

'WEIRD' ALLY QUITS 'HEDWIG'

ALLY Sheedy quit "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" in a huff this week after the show's producers complained that her increasingly erratic behavior on stage was jeopardizing the production, theater...

TOO MUCH INFORMATION

I feel sick. It's because I stayed home and watched daytime TV yesterday. According to the commercials, it's clear that if you're home during the day, it's because you are...

REVUE DUO NOTES 'BABY' TALK TREND

FORGET about shelling out for relationship counseling. Instead, head downtown to the off-Broadway show that has couples talking. The comedy duo behind the revue "Maybe Baby, It's You," now playing...

THE STARR REPORT

Bill bored display? Leave it to wacky Bill Murray to cause a ruckus. CNN was taping an episode of its "Millennium Roundtable" when Murray burst into the studios at the...

ALL UPSIDE, NO DOWN

OF all the movies that have depicted backstage theater life or followed the creation of a work of art, few are as much fun as "Topsy-Turvy," Mike Leigh's delightful new...

JINGLE BALL ROCKS NUEVA YORK

FROM the first rolling conga beats at last night's Jingle Ball, it was clear that it was going to be a Feliz Navidad holiday celebration. The annual benefit concert at...

BRAVE ACTRESSES CAN'T MAKE COWARD'S 'WINGS' FLY

YESTERDAY would have been the 100th birthday of Noel Coward, a man who, with a singular talent to amuse, typified the century he graced. Last night at the Walter Kerr...

BLOOMIN' BRILLIANT

MOST great movies have three or four memorable scenes -- at most, half a dozen. "Magnolia," hands-down the best movie of the year, has nearly 20 of them -- stunningly...

PRINCIPALS' NEW PACT IS A MODEL, RUDY SAYS

A landmark contract for school principals that ends tenure and provides higher pay for higher performance should be the model for all future city contracts, Mayor Giuliani said yesterday. "I...

PLAYS THE THING ON GREAT WHITE WAY

Each day until Jan. 1, The Post will look at a New York landmark on the eve of the new millennium. Today: Broadway. When George M. Cohan gave his regards...

ON-LINE THREAT CANCELS CLASS AT COLUMBINE

An Internet threat to "finish what begun" forced cancellation of classes yesterday and today at Columbine HS, wiping out final exams at the scene of America's worst campus violence, officials...

PASS THE MALLOMARS: HERE'S THE MATCHUP OF THE MILLENNIUM

WHAT an appropriate way to close out an increasingly demented century. How is it that the soap-stingy French have adopted Catherine Deneuve as their symbol of grace, while America at...

GRANNY IN SPACE-SUIT DUST-UP WITH NASA

An Oregon grandmother blasted NASA yesterday for seizing her late father's retirement gift -- believed to hold a sprinkling of moon dust -- and threatening to prosecute her over the...

MONICA: TRIPP TAPES 'TERRIFIED' ME

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. -- Monica Lewinsky gave former pal Linda Tripp a bit of payback yesterday -- saying she was "terrified" to see secretly recorded intimate conversations published in a...

BRADLEY, MCCAIN IN TAG-TEAM $LAP AT RIVALS

WASHINGTON -- Underdogs Bill Bradley and John McCain became strange bedfellows yesterday -- joining forces on cleaning up funny money, even though voters say it's a yawn. Hoping to upstage...

BUILDINGS DEPT. CRACKS DOWN IN WILLIAMSBURG

City inspectors booted tenants in illegal and potentially dangerous housing in Williamsburg twice this week -- after inquiries from The Post and other media into the department's vigilance. Inspectors on...

FIRST-RATE GIFTS FROM SECONDHAND STORES

The Savvy Shopper reveals tips and trends for gift-buying in what is shaping up as the biggest holiday season of the '90s.THRIFT stores have the reputation for being dingy little...

TRUMP FAILS TO TOPPLE QUEEN OF MEAN

A Manhattan judge yesterday denied Donald Trump's bid to boot "Queen of Mean" Leona Helmsley from her Empire State Building throne. In a five-page decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward...

DON'T MAKE ELIAN A POLITICAL FOOTBALL: COUSINS

Cuban raft boy Elian Gonzalez's American relatives yesterday complained that the debate over his future has become "too political" -- even as the young refugee moved front and center in...

MTA CHIEF WON'T NIX FARE-HIKE TALK

MTA Chairman Virgil Conway refused yesterday to rule out a transit-fare hike -- a day after agreeing to a generous new labor pact for bus and subway workers. Tensions remain...

CREW SMALL TALK DRAWS BIG FIRE IN CITY COUNCIL

Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew was blasted by much of the City Council yesterday, but refused to apologize to a Staten Island member for saying, "He's too short to talk to...

NOBEL DOCS WILL LOWER THE BALL IN TIMES SQ.; EXCLUSIVE

Doctors Without Borders, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for its medical missions in destitute and dangerous parts of the world, has been selected to drop the millennium ball in...

NFLER WOULD FACE DEATH IN SLAY CASE

Prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty for Carolina Panther grid star Rae Carruth and three codefendants in the drive-by shooting of Carruth's pregnant girlfriend. The 25-year-old receiver, the first...

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT SPURRED HIM, SAYS WIFE

The Manhattan man charged with defacing a painting of the Virgin Mary that he found offensive wanted to "put an end" to the affront in time for Christmas, his wife...

CLASS-ACT EX-JUDGE TO OPEN CHARTER SCHOOL

A retired Bronx judge who says he's "dumbfounded" at how poorly city kids are being educated is expected to get a green light today to start a charter school. Hansel...

JEWISH BIGS GOT HILLARY'S WORD -- ON TAPE

FIRST Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's aides were steamed to find out that her closed-door meeting with the Orthodox Union had been tape-recorded by the influential Jewish group. Some Clinton staffers...

PAINT MISBEHAVIN' AT 'SENSATION' SHOW - ANGRY RETIREE PUTS BRUSH TO 'DUNG' VIRGIN

An angry 72-year-old man spread white paint over the controversial, dung-daubed Virgin Mary painting in the Brooklyn Museum's "Sensation" show yesterday -- while guards merely stood by, witnesses said. "Blasphemy!"...

JUDGES MOVE DIALLO TRIAL UPSTATE - RULE COPS CAN'T GET JUSTICE IN CITY

A panel of judges has unanimously moved the Amadou Diallo murder trial to Albany -- agreeing with police defense lawyers that it would be impossible to pick an impartial jury...

DRUG-TEST DOCTOR GETS TOP HOSP JOB

A doctor who spearheaded a controversial proposal to allow medical testing on non-consenting mentally ill people will take over as president of New York-Presbyterian Hospital next month. Dr. Herbert Pardes,...

BRICK-ATTACK VICTIM GETS OUT OF HOSPITAL TODAY

Nicole Barrett, the brave young woman who survived a horrifying brick attack just four weeks ago, will leave the hospital today to begin the rest of her life. "She'll get...

CHANGE SEEN AS HUGE PLUS FOR COPS

Lawyers defending four NYPD cops charged with murdering African peddler Amadou Diallo scored a huge victory by getting the powder-keg trial moved upstate, legal experts said. By getting the proceedings...

KREMLIN: WHAT ATTACK? - DENIES 100 OF ITS SOLDIERS DIED IN GROZNY

The Kremlin angrily denied yesterday that it had tried to storm the Chechen capital -- even though Western reporters saw the bodies of more than 100 Russian soldiers next to...

EX-OFFICER: SUICIDE IS BETTER THAN A BRONX JURY

THERE were 1,500 cops under one roof, and some of their faces showed what years of battling the armies of the night was all about. The news that the Diallo...

O'CONNOR: I WON'T GIVE UP THE FIGHT

An ailing John Cardinal O'Connor, who this week celebrated his 54th anniversary as a priest, thanked New Yorkers for thousands of get-well letters and vowed that "under no circumstances will...

FORMER FDNY CHIEF CRUTHERS DEAD AT 73

Hero firefighter Francis Cruthers, who rose through the ranks to become chief of the Fire Department of New York, and later saw his son reach the same position, died yesterday...

MAMA SPICE CLOBBERS BABY-GRABBER

Posh Spice battled a deranged fan who grabbed her infant son on a London street, it was revealed last night. The sexy Spice Girl - a k a Victoria Adams...

'AGONY PROLONGED' FOR AMADOU'S PARENTS

The parents of Amadou Diallo said yesterday it's "outrageous" the cops accused of murdering their son will not be tried in The Bronx. "Why? Why?" the victim's father, Saikou Diallo,...

CARRUTH SAGA STUNS JETS' STONE

The NFL season will continue in earnest this weekend as playoff spots come closer to being determined and the post-season picture begins to crystalize. The Jets will play a football...

HARVEY'S MOVE PIVOTAL IN RANGERS' RISE

The heart beats in the pivot now on a line that was, truth be told, constructed two weeks ago by John Muckler only out of necessity and seemingly as an...

'CHERIE,' 'BELLE' EYE LADIES 'CAP

A pair of 3-year-old "ringers," Belle Cherie and Strolling Belle, head a field of eight fillies and mares entered for tomorrow's feature at Aqueduct, the Grade 3, $100,000 Ladies Handicap...

TV'S BIG SCOOPS REEK OF PLAGIARISM

IN modern journalism, it's all the rage. News departments, operating within major television networks, lift stories from other news organizations, then present them to the public as the results of...

SAME OLD RINGLEADER -OLYMPIC CHIEF KEEPS PLAYING US FOR FOOLS

WHILE Juan Antonio Samaranch's appearance before Congress Wednesday wasn't exactly the kind of generous reception that His Excellency is accustomed to here in his most favored of cash-cow countries, the...

BIG BLUE'S EWE TURN - HIGH-POWERED RAMS TOO STRONG FOR GIANTS

IT'S impossible to throw cold water on what the Giants accomplished in their 19-17 win in Buffalo. It's amazing how the decimated secondary held up and even more incredible holding...

IKE & AMANI TWICE AS GOOD - WR COMBO MIGHT BE JINTS' BEST EVER

They are poised to become the most prolific receiver tandem in the 75-year history of the franchise, and yet they might as well carry billboards into St. Louis this weekend...

BACK IN THE HUNT

LIKE most magazines these days, outdoor publications have gone through some changes this past year and none more dramatically than Sports Afield, the granddaddy of outdoor magazines. For 112 years,...

JARVIS: PATRICK'S HEART IS HURTIN'

Mike Jarvis read Patrick Ewing's sentiments that perhaps he had overstayed his welcome in New York and the St. John's coach believes he knows the real meaning behind his former...

EMMITT TOPS LENGTHY COWBOY INJURY LIST

JET NOTES If you thought the Jets were banged up, check out the Cowboys. From the looks of their injury report, the Cowboys might have trouble fielding a team to...

NEW GIANT KICKER HAS COME FAR

When he would walk to school in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, Jose Cortez never expected a calm trip. Sooner or later, the reminder that a deadly civil...

HAMILTON MAY FINALLY PLAY SUNDAY

GIANT NOTES Do not rule CB Conrad Hamilton out of Sunday's game in St. Louis, even though he hasn't played all season because of a mysterious knee injury. Hamilton practiced...

COLLINS SIMPLY IS NOT A RACIST

THERE IS much that Kerry Collins has needed to prove in his short tenure with the Giants. He needed to prove the alcohol binges that landed him in rehab and...

RACING'S MILKSHAKE MESS

A scandal is bubbling in the heartland of thoroughbred racing that threatens to rock the sport to its core. The hot-button issue is the almost-anything-goes medication policy in Kentucky, especially...

FLANDERS' DQ APPEAL SETTLED -- 4 YEARS LATER

One of the longest-running legal cases in racing history came to an end this week when trainer D. Wayne Lukas was fined $500 by the New York State Racing &...

NO DEJA VU AS EAGLES HANG ON

Salesian 50 Ford. Prep 47 Four seconds before the final horn sounded, Fordham Prep's Sean O'Keefe heaved a three-point attempt that would have knotted his team's game against Salesian. Just...

METS TRYING TO BUY OUT BO - AMAZIN'S WILLING TO SWALLOW FINAL YEAR OF CONTRACT; EXCLUSIVE

The Mets are in the process of trying to buy out the final year of Bobby Bonilla's contract, which would spring the veteran switch-hitter free to seek employment with another...

MCKEON KNOWS HE'S ODD MAN OUT

The most captivating story of the baseball offseason has been the Ken Griffey Jr. sweepstakes. Griffey wanted no part of the Mets and the pressure that goes with playing in...

HORNETS: GET MASE OUTTA MY FACE!

ANTHONY Mason may have concluded the most productive week in his 10-year career, averaging 17.3 points, 10.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists against the Timberwolves, 76ers and Nuggets. Those fertile numbers...

NO DECISION YET ON BELTRE

Despite Major League Baseball's hope that a decision on Adrian Beltre's status would be reached today, it appears that the Dodger third baseman will have to wait until the middle...

NETS CAN'T HANDLE THE PREZ

Wizards 108 Nets 104 WASHINGTON -- If President Clinton were such a good friend to Nets principal owner Lewis Katz, he'd spare the Nets and their fans a lot of...

MYSTERY HERO TO THE RESCUE

Devils 2 Canadiens 1 MONTREAL -- As mysterious as it was dramatic, the Devils' last-minute game-winner disproves the adage that no one cares who scores. This time, even the coach...

KENDALL'S IN MOOD FOR CHRISTMAS

NET NOTES WASHINGTON -- 'Tis the season for giving and getting. And for Kendall Gill, it's the time of the season for getting his game back on track. In his...

VAN GUNDY HAS WORDS OF COMFORT FOR WALLACE

KNICK NOTES DALLAS -- Jeff Van Gundy felt he didn't need to talk to Chris Dudley about the cold, hard fact that he's out of the rotation for the time...

CAMBY'S BLOCK-AID - MARCUS' REJECTS BOOST KNICKS TO 5TH STRAIGHT WIN

DALLAS -- There it was in plain view of Jeff Van Gundy -- why Marcus Camby has to play important, fourth-quarter minutes. Every night. Surprisingly, the Mavericks, who were annihi-...

GUARDED OPTIMISM -VAN NOT SOLD ON KNICKS' SUCCESS

DALLAS - Call the Knicks flu-ridden. Call them one of the NBA's worst rebounding teams. Call them a team on a winning streak. But don't call them surging. Jeff Van...

GILL GETS UNTRACKED

WASHINGTON - 'Tis the season for giving and getting. And for Kendall Gill, it's the time of the season for getting his game back on track. "I feel I get...

DEVS: NO ROOM FOR PEDERSON

MONTREAL - The horn of the Devils' dilemma is ready to play, but that's not sweet music to the already-discordant team. Center Denis Pederson is set to return from the...