May 25, 2001

PIANO MAN'S ISLAND - BILLY JOEL EYEING $10M WORTH OF ISLE AND HOUSE IN THE HAMPTONS

BILLY Joel has found his dream house and an island in the Hamptons. Sources say the Piano Man spotted the waterfront house on Three Mile Harbor while boating in the...

CNN: 'THE BAD NEWS IS DONE . . .' NOT!

Just three months after proclaiming "the bad news is done" at CNN, the cable news network sent out another round of pinkslips. CNN said yesterday it cut an additional 20...

DOUBLEDAY DOUBLECROSSED BY 'MORRIE' AUTHOR

In his best-selling "Tuesdays with Morrie," Mitch Albom learns that ultimately money isn't important; love and forgiveness are. Now he's preparing to dump his publisher in search of a two-book...

BLOOMBERG TAKES SATELLITE OFFICE

Bloomberg is growing so fast it can't sit still until its new headquarters is completed in 2004. The financial information monolith has signed a five-year deal for another 62,464 square...

'EXORCIST' PAIR CLAIM AOL BURNED THEM

The creators of the classic film "The Exorcist" have sent AOL Time Warner's legal department into a headspin. The horror flick's director, William Friedkin, and author William Peter Blatty allege...

NAPSTER WARS II - THE RIAA IS OPENING FIRE ON AIMSTER

It's Hilary versus Aimee. The RIAA, lead by President and CEO Hilary Rosen, came gunning for file-sharing software company Aimster yesterday, slamming it with a civil suit alleging contributory and...

BLUELIGHT'S FOUNDER IS CALLING IT QUITS

Spillage in aisle three. Kmart's BlueLight.com Web site lost its CEO yesterday as the retailer took some of the Web site's operations in-house. Veteran dot-commer Mark Goldstein resigned yesterday as...

TIRE WARS: SLASH & BURN - FORD, FIRESTONE GO ALL OUT IN DUEL TO THE DEATH

Ford and Firestone are fighting a $100 million war of the words that could end with the loser going bust, experts say. "This is a battle to the death," said...

PEARL HORROR - INSUFFERABLE ROMANCE SINKS HIGH-PRICED WWII EPIC

PEARL HARBOR [**] Spectacular attack, but Tora Tora terrible drama. Running time: 183 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sanitized violence and gore). At the Empire, the Lincoln Square, the Union Square, others....

MADE WOMEN - REALITY TV CHECK: IS EDEN'S CRUSH A REAL BAND?

'IT'S funny how things turn out," says pretty, 24-year-old Ivette Sosa, her words drenched unmistakably in wonder. Miss Sosa is a newly minted pop star - a veteran of the...

'MAN' A CRYING SHAME

THE MAN WHO CRIED [ 1/2] Low-budget Euro epic in which fine imagery is overwhelmed by crude, trite storytelling. Running time: 97 minutes. Rated R (sexuality, violence). At the Angelika,...

LUSH TALE OF LOVE MET ALONG 'THE ROAD HOME'

THE ROAD HOME [] Zhang Ziyi's notable film debut. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated G. At the Lincoln Plaza and the Quad. ----- A classic...

'GLIMMER' SHINES A LIGHT ON JAZZ WORLD

GLIMMER, GLIMMER AND SHINEManhattan Theatre Club, 131 W. 55th St. CityTix, (212) 581-1212. Through July 8. *BLOOD ORANGEBlue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th St. Ticket Central, (212) 279-4200. ------...

CAN THEY STILL BE 'FRIENDS?' - NBC AND WB TALK THINGS OVER

IT'S still early, but the future of "Friends" is a mystery - again. The deal between Warner Bros. - the studio that produces the aging sitcom - and NBC expires...

WAIT 'TIL YOU SEE HER EARS

MEET Jolene Blalock, the latest space-babe to board the Star Trek franchise on its new UPN show, "Enterprise." Blalock, will play a character named Subcommander T'Pol, a sultry, pointy-eared Vulcan...

PEARL ATTACK A POPULAR FILM SUBJECT

THERE have been several other movies focusing on Pearl Harbor over the past six decades - and the pick of the litter remains "From Here to Eternity," winner of the...

GREATEST MOVIES FROM WORST WAR

BY one count, more than 600 movies about World War II have been made around the world since "Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy." Here,...

HARBORING HISTORY

WE history buffs are grateful when Hollywood makes movies set in the past. We hope they'll be decently entertaining, and pray they don't contain massive, ridiculous inaccuracies or errors. The...

ZOMBIES COME BACK TO LIFE AT CAVESTOMP GIG

IT'S time of the season for another Cavestomp, the monthly garage-rock fest at the Village Underground. Last night, the Zombies' vocalist, Colin Blunstone, and keyboard player, Rod Argent, kicked off...

JETT-PROPELLED EXIT - ROCKER LEAVES 'HORROR' SHOW' IN A HUFF

BACKSTAGE at the "The Rocky Horror Show," cast members are wondering if rocker Joan Jett will ever do the Time Warp again.Jett, who made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated...

THE STARR REPORT

Is missing 'Link' a cause for concern? NBC's syndicated version of "Weakest Link," trumpeted earlier this month with full-page trade ads, hasn't yet found a home on NBC-owned stations -...

WHAT THE SWITCH MEANS - GOP REALITY CHECK

FOR the past five months, the structure of politics in Washington has not conformed to basic political reality. It may have been wondrous for Republicans and conservatives to control the...

NEW YORK POST: FROM MAY 25, 1950

"With Mayor William O'Dwyer cutting the ribbon, and with Robert Moses grumbling because the contraption isn't a bridge, the 9,117-foot, $80 million Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel opens officially today, and motorists start...

STRIPPER-HASID CONNECTION BARED BY 'ECSTASY' BUST

An international "ecstasy" kingpin, busted for smuggling the mind-bending pills into New York, was using leggy strippers, Hasidic teens in yarmulkes, and senior citizens as New Age drug mules, authorities...

DOCS: GAMBLING FIX LIKE A DRUG

The brains of gamblers react to winning and losing just like those of drug users when they get high on cocaine or morphine, a new study has found. A team...

MIKE BACK$ QNS. GOP - AFTER IT BACKS HIM

Likely Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg plans to donate $25,000 to the Queens County GOP - which endorsed him just last week, The Post has learned. Party boss Serphin Maltese...

MEXICO 'ILLEGALS' ENTER U.S.

The Mexican government touched off a diplomatic storm yesterday when it announced it will issue survival kits to help illegal immigrants cross into the United States. Juan Hernandez, head of...

NEIGHBOR CHARGED IN SLAYING

An East Village woman with a violent history was arrested yesterday in the stabbing death of her 79-year-old upstairs neighbor, a near-millionaire who was a community activist, police said. Cops...

ASSEMBLY GETS RACE-PROFILING BILL

ALBANY - Assembly Democrats want to make it easier for people claiming they are victims of racial profiling to sue cops. Legislation introduced yesterday would outlaw profiling and give the...

BLACKOUTS MAY GENERATE RIOTS, STATE WARNS

ALBANY - The state yesterday warned of possible riots, looting and "social unrest" in New York City if steps are not taken to keep the lights on this summer. The...

LIFE ISN'T A CABARET: TWILO LOSES LICENSE

It's Twilo's last gleaming for the notorious Chelsea nightclub. An appeals court yanked the controversial Club Twilo's cabaret license yesterday, a move that essentially sounded the death knell for the...

LOSING WHAT SHE HELD DEAR - TOP BILLING

THEY don't appear together in public. They don't speak in private. One doesn't dare walk into a room if the other is present. Now, at last, the mayor and the...

'BULL' TO COP DRUG PLEA

Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, the Mafia hit man who whacked 19 people for mob don John Gotti - then ratted him out - is ready to cut a deal to...

BOARD OF ED HONCHO: DON'T TELL THE POLICE

A Board of Education bigwig told a Bronx assistant principal to keep the cops out of a school sex-abuse probe - the same day Mayor Giuliani said such breaches should...

MISSING-INTERN POL FEELING THE HEAT

Cops are scouring the trendy Washington neighborhood of an influential California congressman as he reaches out to colleagues to deny having an affair with a missing intern. Stepping up the...

HANOVER'S HAND-OVER: GRACIE HAS A NEW HOST

Donna Hanover's not the hostess with the mostest anymore. Mayor Giuliani yesterday tapped a little-known city etiquette expert - and grandmother of seven - to take Hanover's place, stripping his...

SAILORS RELISH FLEET-ING MOMENT IN CITY

An army of wide-eyed "Fleet Week" recruits is having a helluva time in New York, saluting Memorial Day weekend in every part of the city from the Battery to The...

DENISE WON'T SELL STORY FOR A SONG

Denise Rich, the woman at the center of Bill Clinton's Pardongate scandal, is shopping her life story again. A proposed deal - for which her old agent was reportedly seeking...

DEMS DA BREAKS: DASCHLE VOWS NEW AGENDA

WASHINGTON - Newly crowned Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle yesterday promised cooperation with the GOP - but vowed his party will advance its own agenda, not President Bush's. With...

HILLARY FOES SURVIVE HER NAY VOTES IN SENATE

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday took a shot at some of her old Whitewater critics, casting protest votes against three of President Bush's Justice Department nominees. As Republicans rushed...

GOTTI HAD HIS 'SAMMY BULL' AND GOP HAS ITS JEFFORDS

COULD you imagine if the Gambino boys gave a particular pistolero a button to make a lot of money and suddenly he said he has a better deal with the...

WHERE KIDS GET LESSON IN FEAR

VERY few kids go to the bathroom at Community School 66 in The Bronx. They're terrified. A few months ago, two older boys tried to shove the head of 6-year-old...

DOWNEY NEAR DEAL FOR REHAB, NOT JAIL

INDIO, Calif. - Robert Downey Jr. pleaded not guilty yesterday to drug charges, while lawyers inched closer to a deal that will keep the coke-snorting star out of jail. In...

ASHCROFT: NO MORE DELAY FOR MCVEIGH

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday he won't delay Timothy McVeigh's execution, despite finding more documents that were withheld from his trial. Ashcroft postponed McVeigh's execution, originally set...

SHARPTON WILL SERVE HIS TIME IN N.Y. PRISON

Fresh from comparing himself to Nelson Mandela and holding civil-rights classes for prison inmates in Puerto Rico, the Rev. Al Sharpton is flying back to the Big Apple today -...

MOB RAT: WHY HIT WAS NIXED ON $EX-CLUB BIG

A Gambino goon testified yesterday he was once asked to whack the owner of an Atlanta strip club - but the plan got killed instead because the club owner was...

CABBY REWARDED TO TUNE OF 1G

A Manhattan cabby who griped he wasn't tipped enough for returning a Stradivarius cello worth $4 million deigned yesterday to accept a $1,000 reward, said a spokesman for the instrument's...

TRAGIC ASTHMA DEATH AT PS 155

A 9-year-old girl died from an apparent asthma attack yesterday after getting into a fight with another girl in a bathroom at PS 155 in Brooklyn, police said. Denesha Blow...

O.J.-CASE DETECTIVE EYES BLAKE

Robert Blake's wife was not the victim of a professional hit as the actor's lawyer has suggested, former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman said yesterday. Bonny Lee Bakley, 45, was shot...

'AIR PATAKI' CHARTER FIRM A BIG GOP DONOR

A Long Island air charter company used by Gov. Pataki is operated by two men who are regular GOP campaign contributors, records show. Two principals of Summit Aviation of East...

COPS: CAR THIEF WORKED ON 'BORROWED' TIME

A "considerate" Long Island car thief stole the same car five nights in a row, but returned it before sunrise - with more gas in the tank than when he...

GOON: STRIP-CLUB OWNER PAID TRIBUTE TO 'JUNIOR'

The owner of Atlanta's top strip club was "involved heavily" with the Gambino mob and gave money to the son of jailed mob boss John Gotti, a confessed Gambino associate...

NICE WAITERS IN NICE MAY BECOME LAW

Sacre bleu, service with a smile may soon be the norm in France. French waiters - who have the notorious reputation of being the rudest, nastiest in the world -...

A SCHOOL 'PROM'-ISCUITY KIT?

Some teenage boys may be slipping into more than just a tuxedo for prom night this year. Planned Parenthood is distributing thousands of small cardboard boxes this month called a...

MOSS SO-SO IN HOOP DEBUT

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Randy Moss' love of basketball, and his spectacular NFL career, would have been better served last night had he watched the Bucks-76ers playoff game on television. Instead,...

TAKING ONE FOR TEAM

WE all believed wins were coming hard for Kevin Appier until A.J. Burnett's first pitch in the fifth inning last night. Then, we found out just how hard. The new...

APPIER ACES TEST - HURLS METS TO 2ND WIN IN ROW

Before last night's game against Florida, Mets GM Steve Phillips had responded to questions about David Wells by saying it didn't matter what big names they added if the big...

MILWAUKEE GETS EVEN

GAME 2: Bucks 92 - Sixers 78 PHILADELPHIA - This was as simple as a tale of two Allens. On one side, the Philadelphia side, Allen Iverson limped and grimaced...

PHILLIPS NOT READY TO COMMIT TO WELLS DEAL

MET NOTES Before last night's 11-3 Met win over the Marlins at Shea, GM Steve Phillips was coy about any interest he had in pursuing Chicago lefty David Wells. But...

IT'S TOO EARLY TO BURY SPURS

LOS ANGELES - I have come out here not to praise the Spurs, but not to bury them, either. Truth be known, while everyone else in the free world chooses...

REBUILT INDIANS HOT ON YANK TRAIL AGAIN

THE most dangerous teams are the ones you don't notice. The ones that can bludgeon you softly. The Indians are just such a team. While the New York baseball world...

HOMER'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR BERNIE

The home run he hit gave the Yankees an actual run, a rare occurrence against the likes of Pedro Martinez. It was the only memorable moment for Bernie Williams, a...

STRIPED BASS, FLUKE ON MENU

STRIPED bass and fluke are the mainstays right now and both species are being caught from just about every nook and cranny from the Statue of Liberty to Montauk Lighthouse....

VELAZQUEZ RIDES FOUR WINNERS

1ST RACE - There was no rain at post time, but the track was still very wet and listed as sloppy for the opener. Favored Homah Ling Ling broke well...

STEVENS: WE'RE BETTER

The Devils have gone about their business with a quiet confidence, silent assassins if you will. But captain Scott Stevens let one slip yesterday on the cusp of the Stanley...

TIGER'S DISNEY DEAL LOOKS PRETTY SHADY

ON the surface, it looks and sounds simple enough: Tiger Woods is negotiating an endorsement contract deal with Disney. And it's safe to assume that the deal, as are Woods'...

MOOSE ANSWERS THE CALL AGAINST PEDRO - PITCHES YANKS TO 2-1 WIN

Yankees 2 - Red Sox 1 This was the game we grew up with as kids. Two great pitchers, dueling pitch for pitch, a 60-foot, six-inch classic. In the past,...

WE'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE

IN Boston, they've known this day was coming for a long time now, because it always does. That would be the day that the Yankees - those damned Yankees -...

PEDRO NO PROBLEM, AGAIN

Underdog? The Yankees? No chance, not even against the greatness of Pedro Martinez. "You can't go out and figure you're the underdog, otherwise you might as well just give him...

SAME OLD STORY FOR SOX

This could be the year . . . the Red Sox don't win the World Series. Judging from their games against the Yankees thus far, and the fact they fell...

MUSSINA TOUGH ENOUGH, BUT STILL HAS DUES TO PAY

IT is about the other guy. Joe Torre was making this point before yesterday afternoon's game against the Red Sox. The question was about why the Yankees had been able...

MARTINEZ: I'LL GET MY REVENGE

It's been almost a year since Pedro Martinez beat the Yankees, and his "Instant Classic" has practically faded from memory. When he faces the Bombers, the two-time reigning Cy Young...

KNOBBY'S ALL RIGHT OUT IN LEFT

YANKEE NOTES Chuck Knoblauch continues to make tremendous strides in left. Even though Knoblauch had his first bad encounter with the sun in left field, losing Brian Daubach's fly ball...

MET MILE TOPS BIG WEEKEND

A trio of stakes are on the menu for the Memorial Day weekend at Belmont Park, headlined by Monday's Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap. The feast kicks off tomorrow with...

BAFFERT: 'GIVEN' WILL 'POINT' FOR BELMONT

The clash of titans is a "go." The Post has learned that Point Given, who captured the Preakness last Saturday at Pimlico, is now on target for the June 9...

NICKLAUS, PALMER (71) LIGHT UP LEADERBOARD

There were several names ahead of Arnold Palmer's after yesterday's first round of the 62nd Senior PGA Championship. But the mere fact that Palmer was on the leaderboard at all...

JFK ON MISSION TO WIN RESPECT

Kennedy 11 - Smith 10 The Kennedy baseball players see the football and basketball teams wandering the halls of the school and they know they don't get the same respect....

THORPE'S ROLLIN' THE DICE

SENIOR NOTES After claiming the first-round lead at the Senior PGA Championship yesterday, Jim Thorpe planned to put in about 45 minutes of practice before hoping into his car and...

PIAZZA NOT CRACKING

THE Mets pay Mike Piazza $13 million a year. Ten million of that is to drive in 120 runs every time. Roughly, the other three million is to take the...

WIN FIRST, WELLS LATER? - PHILLIPS: LEFTY'S NO HELP IF METS PLAY DEAD

As the Mets opened a seven-game homestand with last night's tilt against Florida, GM Steve Phillips was coy about any interest he had in pursuing the White Sox' talented-but-tempestuous lefty...

AMAZIN'S FINDING A LOT TO GLOVE ABOUT SHINJO

MET NOTES Tsuyoshi Shinjo is showing more skills than the Mets knew he had. He's been the Amazin's most productive outfielder - at .307, he was the only player hitting...

OTHER ALLEN EVENS SERIES FOR BUCKS

Bucks 92 - 76ers 78 PHILADELPHIA - The Eastern Conference finals became a series last night. The home team lost despite the city becoming "Allen-town" as it has so often...

KARL, BROWN TAKE THEIR BEST SHOTS

PHILADELPHIA - The old line of thinking is that a series doesn't start until the home team loses. Hogwash. It really doesn't start until the coaches start throwing verbal jabs...

THE PUNCH MISSED 'ROUND THE WORLD

ON MAY 25, 1965, Mu hammad Ali flicked a right hand in the direction of Sonny Liston and ended a heavyweight title fight barely one minute after it began. That...