October 27, 2000

EBBERS SEES SPINOFF

Now it's Bernie Ebbers who is trying desperately to bail out his sinking ship. Taking a page from fellow long-distance chief Michael Armstrong at AT&T, WorldCom's Ebbers is preparing to...

WHY AT&T IS WALL STREET'S FAVORITE WHIPPING BOY

AT&T HAS broken itself up before. You might even say that the former Ma Bell is the Mother of Divestitures. And shareholders have done well by these past divorces. So...

RATNER BUILDING NEW RENTAL ON WORTH ST.

A giant new residential building is going up north of City Hall. The $118.5 million rental building is slated for 111 Worth St. at the corner of Lafayette, across from...

THE MOUSE TRIES AGAIN - DISNEY OVERHAULS STORES TO FOCUS ON KIDS - DUH!

Don't look now, but the Magic Kingdom is . . . for kids. Michael Eisner is overhauling Disney's failed stores, hoping to jolt his consumer products business back to life...

COOKIE GRUMBLING - STREET: KELLOGG'S $4.4B FOR KEEBLER JUST CRUMBS

Those darned elves shortchanged us, investors say. Wall Street is complaining that Kellogg's deal to buy Keebler for $4.4 billion falls short of the gains made in other cookie and...

MELODRAMA AT SOAP OPERA WEEKLY AS ITS EDITOR'S AXED

Mimi Torchin has bowed out at Soap Opera Weekly. But not without a shove. The glamorous ex-actress was pink-slipped on Wednesday by corporate parent Primedia after 15 years as editor,...

BERNIE IS ON THE HOT SEAT - PLANS SPLIT-UP OF TROUBLED WORLDCOM

Now it's Bernie Ebbers who is trying desperately to bail out his sinking ship. Taking a page from fellow long-distance chief Michael Armstrong at AT&T, WorldCom's Ebbers is preparing to...

JAPAN LIQUID AUDIO EX-PREZ NABBED IN KIDNAP

The former president of online music distributor Liquid Audio Japan was busted Wednesday and charged with kidnapping an office rival. Masafumi Okanda and four other men have been arrested in...

TECHS RALLY NASDAQ TO FIRST GAIN OF WEEK

Tech stocks still have bounce. A late rally by bargain hunters pushed the shaky Nasdaq back to its feet for the first gain of the week. Investors gobbled up quality...

MA BELL'S SHARES ARE POUNDED AGAIN

Just when it seemed it couldn't get any worse for AT&T - investors continued to stream out the door. AT&T fell another six percent yesterday, dropping $1.56 to $21.81, as...

GOOD NUDES! - 'MONTY' IS FULL OF BRILLIANCE

IT'S a blockbuster and a mold-breaker. It's a one-of-a-kind Broadway musical. And it is also the most daring, yet successful, Broadway adaptation of a movie script.It's "The Full Monty," and...

KIDS WILL GO BATTY FOR GENTLY SCARY 'LITTLE VAMPIRE'

KIDS love scary stories, especially around Halloween, but there are very few fright flicks being made these days that can be recommended for them without huge reservations. This, happily, is...

'WITCH' RIP-OFF A RAZZ TO THE FANS

THIS execrable follow-up to the surprise smash "The Blair Witch Project" is considerably less scary than watching Joan Rivers on Oscar night.What is frightening, though, is imagining the fury of...

LISTEN UP ... YOU'LL LIKE IT - RUCKER'S STRAIGHT-AHEAD ROCK

BACK in the early '90s - before the record "Cracked Rear View" had sold 16 million copies . . . before Hootie & the Blowfish were declared to be a...

FISHBURNE PLAYS DIRECTOR IN HARROWING TALE

LAURENCE Fishburne's debut as a writer-director doesn't do much to disguise its origins as his grim, three-character off-Broadway play from 1994, "Riff Raff." Sure, there are brief appearances by characters...

URBAN KID BEATS GRIM LIFE IN INDIE TRIUMPH

ONCE in a great while, you find a fictional movie that looks like real life captured by hidden cameras. Though its grim intensity is not for all tastes, "George Washington"...

LOTTO TALK, NO LAUGHS

IT isn't easy to wring good comedy out of unsympathetic characters. The Coen brothers did it with "Fargo" and Gus Van Sant did it with "To Die For." On the...

FOX JOINS BIDS WITH LIVE SPECIAL. WANNA BUY A DINOSAUR?

BIDDERS beware. The infectious, adrenaline-powered habit of online auctioning may be the next TV craze. At least two new TV shows are in the works based on the notion that...

SPOILSPORT! WEB SITE BLOWS PLOTS

WHO is Hercules - and why is this spoilsport giving away the plotsof everyone's favorite TV shows? The identity of the anonymous Hercules - a regularly featured contributor to the...

THE STARR REPORT

A Rhea of hope? As you read in "The Starr Report" on Sept. 28, Paramount was said to be rushing a Caroline Rhea talk show into production - a backup...

CLASS OR CRASS? - BROADWAY VET ASKED TO ACT AS MEDIATOR IN TUG OF WAR OVER TONYS

A veteran Broadway producer has been asked to help polish the increasingly tarnished image of the Tony Awards and put a stop to the intrigue, in-fighting and distrust that surround...

BIRTH-CONTROL PATCH BEATS PILL: STUDY

Women may soon be able to replace their birth-control pills with a small patch similar to those that help people quit smoking. The revolutionary "hormone patch" is said to work...

KISSINGER 'DOING WELL' AFTER HEART ATTACK

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is recovering at New York Hospital from a "limited heart attack," a hospital official said yesterday. Kissinger, 77, was hospitalized Wednesday. He is "doing...

'BIKER' AL OPENS UP ABOUT HIS WILD AND CRAZY PAST

MADISON, Wis. - Al Gore came out of the lockbox yesterday, telling Queen Latifah about his youth playing drinking games, speeding on a motorcycle and his preference for lace on...

CAMPAIGN SNAPSHOT

BUSH: CATCH PHRASE OF THE DAY: "In my administration, we will make clear there is the controlling authority of conscience." WHERE HE WENT: Pittsburgh speech co-starring Colin Powell; rallies in...

COLE TRAGEDY HIGHLIGHTS FOLLY OF CLINTON-GORE STRATEGY

It was little noted -and certainly not long remembered - but a year ago the U. S. Army discovered it had been stretched so thin by basic "peace-keeping" commitments in...

RIVALS AT WAR OVER MILITARY - PART 6 IN A WEEKLONG SERIES THAT LOOKS IN DEPTH AT THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES' STANDS ON CRITICAL ISSUES

PART 6: DEFENSE Democrat Al Gore wants to export democracy and help it grow overseas while Republican George W. Bush wants America's foreign policy to focus on national interest. In...

NOTE BARES LAST AGONY ON BOARD THE KURSK

The last words of a dying Russian sailor aboard the doomed submarine Kursk show that 23 crewmen survived the explosions that sank the vessel - and some made desperate plans...

DOC'S POSSIBLE PSYCHO PLEA VEXES NEEDLE NURSE

A month away from giving birth to the baby her married lover is accused of trying to kill, Joy Schepis is angry he might make an insanity plea in a...

BOMB SCARE FOR FBI'S COLE PROBERS

Machine-gun-toting security men, responding to a telephoned bomb threat, yesterday blanketed a Yemen hotel where FBI agents were investigating the attack on the USS Cole, officials said. Civilian traffic was...

'E-JIHAD' EXTREMISTS TANGLE UP ISRAELI WEB

Islamic extremist groups, opening a new front in the holy war against Israel, have launched sophisticated cyberspace attacks that have paralyzed major Israeli government Web sites, The Post has learned....

MOYNIHAN SET TO CAMPAIGN WITH HILL

FOR the first time since he appeared with Hillary Rodham Clinton at his upstate farm in July 1999, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan will be hitting the campaign trail with the...

S.I. COUPLE LOSE RIGHT TO VISIT 'SCRAMBLED EGGS' TOT

A white Staten Island woman who gave birth to a black child along with her own son because of "a tragic mix-up" at a fertility clinic has no right to...

DUBYA PLAYS CHARACTER CARD IN TOUGHEST BLAST AT AL

PITTSBURGH - George W. Bush had Colin Powell by his side yesterday as he vowed to be a leader who restores "the controlling authority of conscience" to America - and...

RICK RIPS BILL'S FOREIGN POLICY AS 'SOCIAL WORK'

Rick Lazio - in what his campaign billed as a major foreign-policy speech - sharply criticized President Clinton's handling of global affairs on virtually every continent. Turning to the volatile...

ARABS NEED U.S. TO BE A HERO FOR THEM, TOO

AHMED MOSA is an Arab "freedom fighter." He doesn't carry an AK-47 or wish death and destruction on Jews or Israel. Mosa, 30, is armed only with the scissors he...

BIKER AL: MY WILD DAYS OF BOOZE AND LEATHER

MADISON, Wis. - Al Gore came out of the lockbox yesterday, telling Queen Latifah how he'd speed on a motorcycle and play drinking games in his youth. Gore, who also...

PAPA BUSH HATED LIFE IN APPLE

WASHINGTON - Former President George Bush was no fan of the Big Apple, according to Nixon White House tapes released yesterday. In a two-minute phone call between the older Bush...

TEEN NABBED IN HS GOOD-SAM SLAY

An 18-year-old youth was charged yesterday with murdering a teenage good Samaritan who was helping a teacher change a tire outside a Brooklyn high school. Vincent Marino, of Brownsville, shot...

COURT: BEATING A MOM AS KIDS WATCH IS CHILD ABUSE

ALBANY - Anyone who beats up a woman in front of her kids can be held criminally liable for child abuse, the state's top court ruled. The decision from the...

NO STOPPING YANK EXPRESS - BOMBERS DERAIL METS FOR HISTORIC THREE-PEAT

The jubilant Yankees ran around Shea celebrating their 26th World Series title after winning Game 5 in dramatic fashion last night. It was their third straight crown and fourth in...

RANGERS LOOKING TO REGROUP

PHILADELPHIA - The Rangers had scored 12 even-strength goals in their first seven games, the very same number of goals they'd scored on the power play. So obviously there'd been...

SLUMPING BORDICK BENCHED FOR ABBOTT

Rabid sports-radio callers and barstool managers got their wish last night when Bobby Valentine shook up his lineup for Game 5 of the Subway Series, replacing struggling shortstop Mike Bordick...

REST OF U.S.A. JUST JEALOUS

THE rage of the rest of the country against New York seems to have no limits this week. The sports pages of hundreds of one-newspaper towns have devoted much space...

TIRED TORRE NOT ENJOYING BUMPY SUBWAY RIDE

Joe Torre is under contract for next year at $3 million and there isn't a scenario he can envision where he doesn't return for a sixth year as manager of...

BANKER WITH THE BAT OKS CHARITY AUCTION

The investment banker who snagged the hunk of Mike Piazza's broken bat that Yankee ace Roger Clemens hurled in Game 2 of the Subway Series, said yesterday it would be...

RIVERA'S BEST, CASE CLOSED - MO PUTS YANKEES OVER THE TOP

AT 5:20 p.m. yesterday "Enter Sandman" by Metallica cranked through Shea Stadium and Met players hit line drives to all fields. How nice for the Mets that this was Shea...

BOMBERS STAY FOCUSED ON FINISHING OFF METS

The great thing about Jeff Nelson is that when he has a bad outing, he'll talk about it and give lots of reasons why it happened. When he does well,...

METS JUST SHORTSTOP AWAY - NO BEATING YANKS UNTIL THEY INK ALEX RODRIGUEZ

The Mets worst nightmare is staring them right in the face. At least he was on Wednesday night, appropriately from the seats directly behind the Yankees dugout. The Alex Rodriguez...

IF METS WANT A-ROD, THEY MUST INK HAMPTON

To sign the biggest free agent of all this offseason, the Mets might have to sign their own big free agent. Scott Boras, the representative for Alex Rodriguez, said a...

HOOKY HOPEFULS ARE PUT ON NOTICE

The Subway Series ticker tape parade is no excuse to play hooky - unless you're one of hundreds of kids invited to march in it. The Board of Education said...

PARADE GETS ITS MARCHING ORDERS - RUDY SAYS 'MOST LIKELY ON MONDAY'

Start shredding the news. . . papers. And phone books. And anything else that can serve as confetti in the World Series victory parade - officially scheduled for next week....

AL CAN'T POST WIN - BUT WINNING ISN'T EVERYTHING FOR LEITER

THE statute of limitations on Al Leiter's misfortune should be up. The mirror he broke seven years ago admiring his last post-season victory has been back in use for at...

JUST ONE MORE GAME

THE Mets put on brave front before what could have been the final game of their season last night at Shea Stadium. One more loss and the Yankees would celebrate...

SERIES A WINNER IN APPLE

The Subway Series is lurching along in the national TV ratings. Wednesday night's Game 4 nail-biter that ended in a 3-2 Yankee victory at Shea averaged 17.6 million viewers on...

PAUL, TINO, CONE COULD SAY BYE-BYE

There was a chance some beloved Bombers would be closing out their Yankee careers last night not before their adoring fans but before a hostile crowd at Shea. If Game...

BUDDY BALL IS KILLING US - COMMISH MUST SEE SERIES FROM PUBLIC'S POINT OF VIEW

I WANT Bud Selig to attend a World Series game in New York the same way most everyone else must. I'm talking, door to door, hand to wallet. Seriously. I...

JUST LIKE OLD TIMES FOR YANK TOUR GUIDE

Tony Morante was 6 years old when his father - an usher for the Yankees - first took him out to the loge at the House That Ruth Built. "I...

BOBBY LOOKS FOR POP FROM BUBBA'S BAT

There are times when Met reserve outfielder Bubba Trammell must pinch himself and wonder how so much can happen to a player so fast. Earlier this month he played in...

THE WAY IT WAS

This game in Subway Series history ... OCTOBER 9, 1956 Game 6 Dodgers 1, Yankees 0 The Dodgers and the Yankees played another thriller at Ebbets Field today but in...

STANTON TRUE STEALTH BOMBER

The hidden MVP of this postseason for the Yankees was Mike Stanton. The Yankees do not even get to the ALCS without his two innings of brilliant relief in Division...

AMAZIN'S SAY STEVE'S DEAL WON'T TAKE LONG

ABSTRACT: Mets co-owner Nelson Doubleday doesn't expect GM Steve Phillips contract negotiations to take very long. "We've discussed it on and off throughout the summer," Doubleday said. "It really isn't...

EAGLES FLY ON SUNDAY - STINGY DEFENSE GIVES PHILLY EDGE OVER GIANTS

IN the Jim Fassel era, the Giants have beaten the Eagles seven times in a row, but are 0-4 the week after byes. Meanwhile, the Eagles come in riding a...

BIG WEEKEND IS ON TAP

STRIPED bass and bluefish on the top, blackfish, porgies and sea bass on the bottom - although the weather has to cooperate, it looks as though this should be a...

GROH'S BIG WISH: FORGET THE FISH

JET NOTES It's late in the week and the Bills are on the minds of the Jets, but the thriller-theater victory over the Dolphins is still on people's minds. Al...

ST. RAY'S HODGE HAS BIG DECISION TO MAKE

Julius Hodge isn't your ordinary high school senior. While most students tour colleges quietly and anonymously, Hodge gets to be part of an elaborate show everywhere he goes. That's how...

NEW 'KEY' TURNS JET 'O' - ANDERSON STEPPING UP FOR GANG GREEN IN BIG WAY

No player symbolizes the 2000 Al Groh Jets in a more complete way than Richie Anderson. He's diligent in his preparation, explosive and dependable in his production and so quiet...

PINE DANCE FACES PEGASUS TEST

Pine Dance, who is in the body of 14 for next weekend's Breeders' Cup Classic, will face six others in the Grade 2 Pegasus Handicap at The Meadowlands tonight. The...

JINTS FEAR MCNABB'S WHEELIN' AND DEALIN'

So here it is. Donovan McNabb is back there in the pocket, looking, looking, seeing no one open, and he tucks the ball in and starts to wheel and deal....

PATERNO RIGHT TO KEEP INDICTED QB IN HUDDLE

THE most trying days in Joe Paterno's coaching career came in 1983, when after having come out strongly in support of Proposition 48, he was accused of insulting all blacks...

AMANI WORKOUT IMPRESSES FASSEL

GIANT NOTES Quite often, the vibes a coach gets from practice mean little when it comes to transferring over to how his team will play on Sunday. But in this...

STERN, NBA PUT DREAM TEAM IDEA TO SLEEP

The existing U.S. Olympic basketball Dream Team concept is dead. Next time around, most likely beginning with the World Championships in 2002, expect to see just seven or eight of...

VG GOES ON SPREE - JEFF RIPS STAR, TEAM FOR LOOSE ATTITUDE

It was ironic that on the night Knicks GM Scott Layden said he will go hard after free agent power forward Joe Smith, an enraged Jeff Van Gundy repeatedly called...

BUT TARDY LATRELL MAY LAND PAL SMITH

The Knicks not only need Latrell Sprewell to be on time, they need him to be a good recruiter. If Joe Smith's Bird rights are taken away and he can't...

GILL GETTING HIS TWO BACK

CINCINNATI - The middle child. The silent minority. The smallest kid in the class. Kendall Gill in the Nets' offense. Some things just always seem to get overlooked. For the...

PYATT'S ON JUNIOR PATH

Taylor Pyatt sees the writing on the stat sheet. Though he wasn't scratched for last Saturday's game, the 19-year old rookie left winger played 0:00 in the Islanders' 4-4 tie...

VALENTINE ROLLS DICE - BUBBA, ABBOTT IN; TIMO, BORDICK OUT

On the verge of the Mets' season ending, Bobby Valentine shook up his lineup before Game 5 of the Subway Series last night. The manager benched right fielder Timo Perez...

NIEDERMAYER MAY HEAD TO EUROPE

RALEIGH - While his agent is attempting to re-open contract negotiations with Devil GM Lou Lamoriello, a frustrated Scott Niedermayer told The Post yesterday he is considering playing in Europe....

STERN RULING SENDS MINNY TO THE WOLVES

SUBJECT: David Stern relieves Timberwolves of five No. 1 picks through 2005, owner Glen Taylor of $3.5 million and Joe Smith of his Larry Bird rights. Naturally, nobody in the...

LOW'S NEW COMBOS COME UP EMPTY

Flyers 3 - Rangers 0 PHILADELPHIA - There's a fine line between panicking and making adjustments and, right now, eight games into the season, that's just what Ron Low is...

NO STOPPING YANK EXPRESS - BOMBERS DERAIL METS ON SOJO'S HIT IN NINTH

It was the 142nd pitch Al Leiter had thrown of this Subway Series classic and 34-year-old Luis Sojo grounded it up the middle for the Yankees' 26th World Championship. Jorge...

METS NEED SHEA-ROD

The Mets' worst nightmare is staring them right in the face. At least he was on Wednesday night, appropriately from the seats directly behind the Yankees dugout. The Alex Rodriguez...

RETURN OF HAMPTON IS KEY TO RODRIGUEZ

To sign the biggest free agent of all this offseason, the Mets might have to sign their own big free agent. Scott Boras, the representative for Alex Rodriguez, said a...

BOBBY CAME UP A LITTLE LEIT - V JUST COULDN'T PULL TRIGGER ON GUTSY AL

AL Leiter was one strike away from walking off the mound to an ovation that could have been heard all the way to the Bronx. He was one strike away...

MVP JETER MAKES ALL RIGHT MOVES

KURT Abbott's bat shattered and the barrel made it all the way out to the infield dirt, in front of the shortstop. So what did Derek Jeter do with the...

BERNIE SNAPS OUT OF FUNK

Winning a World Series without much offensive help from Bernie Williams is nothing new for the Yankees. And they did it again this year, needing just five games to defeat...

WE MISSED JOY OF SIX

THE Yankees jumped with joy last night in the middle of Shea Stadium, celebrating their third consecutive World Series championship, this one at the expense of the hard-luck Mets. Never...

PIAZZA BALL PUTS SCARE INTO YANKS

Bernie Williams said he had a good read on the ball from the very second it left Mike Piazza's bat, but his teammates were in agony. After the game, as...

CHAMPAGNE JOE: I'LL BE BACK FOR MORE BUBBLY

In the course of five seasons, he has gone from Clueless Joe to Champagne Joe. And last night Joe Torre reiterated that there will be a sixth season with him...

GUTSY ANDY SETS THE TABLE FOR BOMBERS

The win went to Mike Stanton. The game-winning hit was delivered by Luis Sojo, an off-the-rack player living in a designer's world. Yet, without what Andy Pettitte did for the...

BOYS OF AUTUMN GAVE US A SERIES TO REMEMBER

ALL evening long, the fog rolled into the stadium from right field, throwing a haze over the field and the players and the fans. No matter who won, this was...

BOSS: JOE'S HALL OF A MANAGER

Met owner Fred Wilpon came into the Yankee clubhouse with a somber and slightly pained expression. But he made his way over to his counterpart George Steinbrenner and offered his...

ALFONZO WENT INTO FUNK AT WRONG TIME

As the Mets roared through the playoffs, scouts and opposing players alike called second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo the best hitter in the Amazin's lineup and the key to their team....

RBI HERO SOJO SAVORS MOMENT

Luis Sojo was engulfed by media, standing on the infield of Shea Stadium. A few minutes earlier Sojo, forever the professional ballplayer, got what he called the "biggest hit" of...

LEITER'S LUCK IS A CRYING SHAME

THE statute of limitations on Al Leiter's misfortune should be up. The mirror he broke seven years ago admiring his lone post-season victory has been back in use for at...

TORRE DYNASTY RULES THE BASEBALL WORLD - NO TEAM HAS EVEN COME CLOSE TO CONQUERING THESE YANKS

JOE TORRE began his night with a cup of tea, sipped out of a wax Gatorade cup in the tunnel beneath the stands at Shea Stadium. It was two hours...

BENNY'S WILD RIDE COMES TO END

It was an up-and-down roller coaster of a season for Benny Agbayani, from the disappointment and uncertainty of being a step away from the minor leagues three times to the...

YANKEES LET THE DOGS OUT

Bobby Valentine's face showed up on the television screen in the back room of the Yankee clubhouse last night and the Bomber players started to hoot and holler. Someone threw...

FRANCO: ALWAYS NEXT YEAR

John Franco, a native New Yorker, had some good news for Mets fans after last night final loss to the Yankees. He believes there will be another Subway Series in...