November 16, 2001
BRUCE WRESTLES CONTROL OF LAZARD
Deal king "bid 'em up" Bruce Wasserstein has wrangled the top slot at Lazard LLC. After his bid to create a publicly-traded investment bank at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein was frustrated...
NASDAQ UP FEES AFTER PROFITS SINK
The Nasdaq Stock Market said some listing fees will be increased 100 percent as the world's largest stock market reported third-quarter earnings tumbled 64 percent from last year. Richard Ketchum,...
HOT IPO WEIGHS IN - WEIGHT WATCHERS SOARS SWEET 25%
Weight Watchers is no longer just about losing. The diet-supplement company gained big yesterday, closing at $29.75 in its first day of trading as a public company. Weight Watchers took...
WACHNER WILL HOLD TAG SALE
Operating under the "every little bit helps" theory, Warnaco is selling trinkets, rugs and furniture. But with an estimated worth of between $178,575 and $264,175, today's sale of the items...
MASSAGE-CHAIR SHOP TO SIT ON MADISON AVE.
New York's economy may be hurting, but at least New Yorkers' backs won't have to suffer. The maker of Japan's top-selling massage chair has decided New York needs its services...
HAMPTONS MAG FOLDS, NEW ONE TO START
MARVIN Shanken, publisher of Cigar Aficionado and the Wine Spectator, is bailing out of the Hamptons publishing scene where he has been publishing Hamptons Country for the past three years....
WASSERSTEIN'S AMERICAN LAWYER SLIPS
Bruce Wasserstein's American Lawyer Media continued to slump. In the latest quarterly report, third quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) dropped 18.2 percent to $4.9 million compared...
AMERICAN LAWYER'S EARNINGS SLIDE AGAIN
Bruce Wasserstein's American Lawyer Media continued to slump. In the latest quarterly report, third quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) dropped 18.2 percent to $4.9 million compared...
MANILOW SAILS IN NEW DIRECTION ON 'MAYFLOWER' - HEALTHY, HAPPY AT 'OLD 55'
THERE'S little middle ground. Most either dread pop vocalist Barry Manilow or love him to death.His new album "The Mayflower" may win detractors and disappoint fans of his famous 32-bar...
STARR REPORT
Big Mac: 'Bernie' off to a quick start Fox's "Bernie Mac" got off to a quick start Wednesday night, winning its timeslot (8:30-9) and all key demos. It was also...
GERALDO: 'THE MAIN EVENT IS STILL TO COME'
WHAT if the war in Afghanistan ends before Geraldo Rivera can get to it? Geraldo doesn't think that's going to happen, despite the speed with which the country's key cities,...
STROMAN COURTED FOR 'MOONSTRUCK' - PRODUCERS WANT HER MAGICAL MUSICAL TOUCH
NOW that Susan Stroman has passed through her arty phase with the turgid and tuneless "Thou Shalt Not" (tugboat, tugboat, this show moves as slowly as a tugboat), she can...
A FIX ON MALE PORN FLICKS
THE FLUFFER [ 1/2]Running time: 94 minutes. Not rated (not terribly explicit sex, nudity, profanity, drug use). At the Quad, 13th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. ------- 'THE Fluffer,"...
'NOVOCAINE' IS A GAS
NOVOCAINE [] Painlessly amusing. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (violence, sex, profanity). At the Lincoln Square, the Angelika. ------ STEVE Martin breaks loose from a string of bland studio...
'GLORY' A TWISTED SOUTHERN STORY
THE GLORY OF LIVINGMCC Theater, 120 W. 28th St. Through Dec. 1. Call SmartTix, (212) 206-1515. ---------- PHILIP Seymour Hoffman, an actor of surprise and daring, now shows himself to...
THE HOT-STOVE LEAGUE
"Iron Chef USA:Showdown in Vegas" Tonight at 9 on WWOR/Ch. 9 ½ IF too much "Iron Chef" is never enough "Iron Chef" for you, then honey, you've just died and...
OFF TO SEE THE WIZARDS! 'POTTER' IS A FAITHFUL, IF NOT GREAT, MOVIE
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE 3 STARS Remarkably faithful, consistently entertaining if overlong adapatation. Running time: 153 minutes. Rated PG. At the Lincoln Square, the Kips Bay, the Union...
BRANDO GOT SHOT ON MOTT
IN the spring of 1971, the biggest show in town wasn't on Broadway - it was on the streets, where thousands gathered to watch the filming of "The Godfather." The...
BASEBALL IGNORES ITS'PROUDEST MOMENT'
IT seems unimaginable, given the media frenzy of today, but when Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier by playing in his first major league game on April 15, 1947, it...
AS WAR RAGED, THE CITY BURNED
A MERE 10 days earlier, the Union Army had turned back the invasion of the North, sending Robert E. Lee and his band of gray-clad rebels packing at the Battle...
THE CHARMING CROOK IN GRACIE MANSION
FOR years, New York City politics and sleaze made cozy bedfellows - and Mayor Jimmy Walker eagerly dived under the covers to embrace both. During the devil-may-care Roaring Twenties, Walker...
CRAZY JOE GALLO EATS HIS LAST CLAM
THE fast life of Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo ended at Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy on April 7, 1972. Gallo, a thin, charismatic and ruthless product of the rough-and-tumble...
TITANIC SHIP OF SORROWS
THE year was 1912, and the mood engulfing New York was eerily prescient. The unthinkable had happened to the unsinkable: On April 14, the Titanic - seemingly as rock-solid and...
THAT PENNANT GONE IN A SHOT
FIFTY years later, it needs no introduction, no explanation, no exaggeration. "Branca throws . . . There's a long fly ball . . !" Consider the staying power of "The...
THE RAMONES LED PUNK'S PARADE
IN 1974, four scruffy, regular guys from Forest Hills played their lightning-powered, three-chord tunes at CBGB, the dingy new club on the Bowery - and changed rock forever. The Ramones,...
KITTY LEFT AT DEATH'S DOOR
IT'S been 37 years since she was stalked and stabbed to death on a quiet Queens street, yet Americans have never forgotten her name. The slaying of Kitty Genovese -...
JACKIE O. SAVES A CITY TREASURE
IT'S hard to image New York without Grand Central Station, Radio City Music Hall and the grand buildings of the Gilded Age. But following a ruling not long ago, they...
OLD J.P. SAVES THE STREET
WHEN the Stock Exchange closed for four days after the terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, no one doubted that the venerable institution would eventually reopen. That...
BEFORE CHEFS YELLED BAM!
DECADES before Emeril belted out his first "Bam!" on the Food Network, even before the fabled chicken landed on Julia's PBS kitchen floor, there was "Elsie Presents - James Beard...
'JOHN LENNON'S BEEN SHOT'
IT was about 11:20 p.m. when the phone rang in my West Side apartment, and the man on the other end told me to hang on for Roger Wood. Wood,...
THE MAN WHO HATED CON ED
HEADLINE writers dubbed him the Mad Bomber. His real name was George P. Metesky, and he baffled the NYPD while terrorizing the city from 1940 to 1957. During that time,...
THE NIGHTS THE LIGHTS WENT OUT
NEW York City was left in the dark more than once - each time, with radically different results. The first great blackout struck at the beginning of the evening rush...
SYMPHONY IN STONE
NECESSITY, they say, is the mother of invention. Ice was the mother of the Brooklyn Bridge. The brutal winter of 1867 froze the East River solid, stopping ferry service between...
HED FOR PEYSER'S MY BROOKLYN
I WAS yet to be born during the days old-timers still call Brooklyn's heyday - when the Brooklyn Dodgers ruled the diamond and Coney Island served as New York's Riviera....
JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE & ED
BY the winter of 1964, New York had long abdicated its position as the epicenter of American television. But for one evening, New York would again become the center of...
LIFE AND DEATH ON 42ND STREET
THE first inkling that producer David Merrick had something up his sleeve for the opening night of "42nd Street" came early in the day, when his press agent phoned the...
WHEN THE BIG APPLE WENT BUST
EVERYONE knew there was a financial crisis looming in the city's future in fall 1974. Mayor Abe Beame had ordered the first layoffs of city workers since the Depression -...
'EXECUTIONERS' GAVE THEM LIBERTY - JOYOUS END TO AID WORKERS' THREE-MONTH AFGHAN ORDEAL
In a dark, stinking Afghan jail, two American women and six other Western aid workers feared the bearded gunmen at the door were about to execute them - but they...
NEW AD OFFERS A WORD TO CITIZENS: SSSHHH!
Americans were warned that "Loose Lips Sink Ships" during World War II - and they'll be told to "Keep It Zipped" in the new war against terrorism. The State Department...
QUID-DITCHING THE COMPETITION: MOVIE SET TO 'REEL' IN RECORD $2B
"Harry Potter" is poised to pull the ultimate magic trick and make the impressive box-office records of "Titanic," "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" vanish into thin air....
TALI-RATS OFFER UP OSAMA FOR CASH
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agents inside Afghanistan are interviewing a handful of key Taliban defectors who are offering to sell information on the whereabouts of terror master Osama bin Laden....
ATHLETE, 19, DROPS DEAD IN WORKOUT AT HOFSTRA
A college baseball star with a bright future collapsed and died on a Long Island practice field during an intramural touch-football game with the Hofstra University football team - possibly...
HER HERO: 'ALWAYS SMILING' AND KIND
Sept. 11 was going to be a day of little luxuries for Helga Curtin. It was her birthday, and her husband, Police Sgt. Michael Curtin, brought her coffee in bed....
'DISARM'ING HUMOR AS BUSH AND PUTIN BOND
WASHINGTON - Russian President Vladimir Putin razzed President Bush about coming to ice-cold Siberia yesterday as the two showed off the global warming of U.S.-Russian relations. After a three-day summit,...
TAUBMAN TWIST - ACCUSER PAID BY RIVAL CHRISTIE'S
The former CEO of Christie's auction house is perched atop a glittering nest egg - which may be why he ratted out his Sotheby's counterpart, defense lawyers charged yesterday. Former...
GRIEVING DAD PAYS LOVING TRIBUTE TO FALLEN 'GLADIATOR'
A Staten Island firefighter who died saving lives in the World Trade Center catastrophe was remembered yesterday as the real-life version of the hero of his favorite movie, "Gladiator." Brian...
EXPECT MORE TIME BETWEEN TAKEOFFS
The space allowed between the takeoff slots of heavy aircraft is likely to be widened to lessen the impact of wake turbulence, a veteran air traffic controller said yesterday. Jack...
SHOPLIFTING BUST NEARLY TURNS TRAGIC
A Long Island man arrested for shoplifting grabbed a cop's gun, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger several times, police said. The weapon did not fire because the...
CHILD KILLED IN B'KLYN APT. BLAZE
One child was killed and five other people critically injured last night in a fire in Brooklyn. The blaze broke out at 11:16 p.m. on the third floor of a...
HOW 'AMAZING' APPLE CAN 'WORK' OUT WOE$
The Sept. 11 terrorist attack tore an $83 billion hole in the city's economy - but New York can bounce back if business and government team up quickly to implement...
GREEN HELPERS TELL OF FORCED 'LABOR'
Staffers at the doormen-and-janitors union said yesterday they were ordered to "volunteer" for Mark Green's mayoral campaign - even being told to fill out absentee ballots so they wouldn't have...
NEW BODIES TAX OVERBURDENED ME'S OFFICE
SUFFERING through the deaths of relatives and searching for answers that are hard to come by, some Flight 587 families are mistakenly taking out their pain on the city's Medical...
ANTHRAX TRAIL GOES COLD IN SUBWAYS
City subways have led to a dead end for investigators tracking the source of Kathy Nguyen's fatal anthrax infection. Law-enforcement sources said that it's unlikely Nguyen was exposed to anthrax...
WANTED RAPPER PAL FACES THE MUSIC
A member of Lil' Kim's entourage, wanted for a shooting on a Brooklyn street corner, gave himself up to cops yesterday morning, police said. Damian Butler, 29, of Englewood, N.J.,...
DEVIL MADE HER DO IT - SLAY-RAP MOM SAW DEMONS: DAD
A Washington Heights mother accused of drowning her 4-year-old daughter in an attempted exorcism had a violent past and was convinced her building was possessed by demons, the child's grieving...
BLOOMY IN WASHINGTON TO FIGHT FOR WTC FUNDS
Mike Bloomberg bucked the White House on his first trip to Washington as mayor-elect yesterday - pushing the Bush administration to hand over billions more in World Trade Center recovery...
MARY JO OUT - & HILL'S FOE VIES FOR JOB
Mary Jo White said yesterday she's quitting as Manhattan U.S. attorney, and sources say Gov. Pataki is considering former Whitewater prosecutor Robert Ray to replace her. Sources say Pataki has...
COMPROMISE AIR-SECURITY BILL IS SET TO TAKE WING
WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders yesterday struck a deal on a deadlocked airline-security bill that would eventually make all bag screeners federal workers - and hit passengers with a fee to...
CITY JOBLESS RATE A REAL 'SOAR' POINT
Reflecting the jolt on the job market of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the city's unemployment rate last month was up more than half a percentage point compared with the...
PERES CHANGES HIS 'PRO-PALESTINE' TUNE
JERUSALEM -Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres changed a speech to the United Nations at the last minute yesterday because it sounded like an endorsement of Palestinian statehood. Peres, the most...
HERE ARE OUR HERO COMMANDOS IN ACTION
WASHINGTON - These dramatic photos show U.S. Special Operations soldiers standing guard in Khwaja Bahuaddin, Afghanistan, while a top American official visited the Northern Alliance stronghold. The heavily armed GIs...
AMBULANCE CRASH KILLS 6-YEAR-OLD IN QUEENS
A city ambulance slammed into a van on a Queens street yesterday, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring his father, baby sister and pregnant mother, police said. "He took his...
WOMAN MANGLED IN SUBWAY-PUSH HORROR
An emotionally disturbed man pushed a woman in front of a subway train at Grand Central Station yesterday - and fellow straphangers grabbed him and held him for police, authorities...
RECORDER BARES FATAL BLOWS - JET JOLTED 2 TIMES BY TURBULENCE
Doomed Flight 587 was battered twice by severe wake turbulence only seconds before beginning its death dive, officials said yesterday. And investigators reportedly are looking into whether the pilot may...
WOMAN IS MAIMED IN SUBWAY-PUSH HORROR
A Brooklyn woman was pushed into the path of an onrushing subway train at Grand Central Station last night - and a fellow straphanger grabbed the emotionally disturbed shover and...
HEY, WE GREW UP WITH NEW YORK
The day Osama bin Laden's butchers took down the World Trade Center, the New York Post, a morning newspaper, scrambled up an afternoon "extra." TERROR read the front-page headline on...
THE COLUMN THAT TOOK THE GUILT OUT OF GOSSIP
MOST New Yorkers, upon introduction, shake my hand and whisper conspiratorially, "Page Six is the first thing I read in the morning." I tell them it's nothing to be ashamed...
A SUMMER IN FEAR OF THE MONSTER NEXT DOOR
MOVIE maker Spike Lee called it "The Summer of Sam," but in fact it was the year New York suffered a collective nervous breakdown. Until Sept. 11, few who were...
SHE SET THE STYLE
THESE days, it seems like fashion magazine editors last barely as long as the clothing trends they herald. By the time readers become comfortable with a new editor's style, she's...
KINKY SEX, EARLY DEATH
ON a balmy summer evening in 1986, two boozed-up teens strolled into Central Park for a frenzied sexual tryst. Only one of them left the park alive. And when police...
THE DAY THE WAR BEGAN
THE new millennium started at 8:44 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001 when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Some saw it...
SECOND AVE. SUBWAY CLEARS $200M HURDLE
More than $200 million for an engineering study of the long-awaited full-length Second Avenue Subway was approved yesterday by an MTA committee. Also yesterday, the Transit Authority projected a $254.6...
APPLE CASINOS A BAD BET: POLL
ALBANY State voters overwhelmingly oppose legalized casino gambling in New York City despite Mayor Giuliani's insistence that the city be counted in. A new Quinnipiac University poll of 1,207 registered...
ACCELERATING INSURANCE HIKES FOR N.Y. MOTORISTS
ALBANY - Auto-insurance rates in New York - already the second highest in the country - have risen across the board this year, The Post has learned. Through October, 98...
CLUB-CLOBBER TRIAL 'WEARS' DOWN JURY
A Manhattan jury was treated to still more clubland anthropology in a bizarre misdemeanor-assault trial yesterday - including lessons on the dress code at the trendy Spa nightclub. "They're supposed...
MARY JO OUT AS POLS DUEL OVER HER JOB
Mary Jo White said yesterday she's quitting as Manhattan U.S. attorney - setting up a potential showdown between Gov. Pataki and Sen. Charles Schumer over her replacement. White, who began...
RECORDER BARES FATAL BLOWS: JET JOLTED 2 TIMES BY TURBULENCE
Doomed Flight 587 was battered twice with severe wake turbulence only seconds before plunging into its death dive, one of the plane's black boxes reveals. Investigators said yesterday the American...
KNICKS: LET'S GET IT ON ; EAGER TO SHOW NETS WHO'S NO. 1 IN AREA
Knicks 83 Heat 74 Once upon a time, the Heat were the Knicks' most bitter rival. Maybe now it's changing with Net superstar point guard Jason Kidd in town. After...
FED-UP RILEY RIPS INTO REFS
KNICK NOTES Pat Riley finally had enough. After his shorthanded club fell to 2-6 and watching the Knicks parade to the foul line 28 times to Miami's 11, Riley blasted...
DOWN GOES LEWIS - AGAIN
LAS VEGAS - If Hasim Rahman could knock out Lennox Lewis in April, why can't he do it again in November? If Lewis couldn't stand up to Rahman's punches seven...
BIG BLUE'S ROOKIE CORNERS DON'T FEAR VIKINGS
They were supposed to be the most productive pair of receivers in the league this season. Instead, Minnesota's Randy Moss and Cris Carter merely have been as good as the...
ROGER COULD TAKE BENNY'S MET SPOT
The Mets' outfield is likely to look very different next year. Benny Agbayani is expected to be out, while Roger Cedeno could be in. A source close to Agbayani said...
YANKS MAY BE GETTING DOWN
The Yankees won't just pursue free agents like Jason Giambi next week. They'll also finish their pursuit of a new batting coach and begin looking for a new assistant GM....
ISLES WELCOME TEST VS. CHAMPS
With the Atlantic Division tightening up around them, the Islanders (11-3-2-1) are on a vision quest this weekend as they travel to Colorado tonight to meet the world champs and...
KENYON: YEAH, WE'RE BETTER THAN KNICKS
The Nets want nothing more than to kick sand on the bully. For years they've been picked on, picked apart or generally ignored. But they're not giving up their milk...
BLUESHIRT SUCCESS RESTS WITH RICHTER
He's battled back from two ACL injuries on both knees, he's played behind shoddy defenses for the past three years and has been solely responsible for the Rangers not being...
ROCKET'S SIXTH CY STICKS IT TO SAWX
FOR YANKEE fans, the next best thing to winning the World Series is sticking it to the Red Sox. Quicker than you can say "1918," the Yankees have again humiliated...
A WEIGH-IN DIVIDED
LAS VEGAS - Tomorrow night, they will be paid $10 million each to try to knock each other's heads off, but yesterday Hasim Rahman and Lennox Lewis were separated by...
NOT EASY TO BE BUTT OF JOKES
IMMEDIATELY, I could tell that Chris Assenheimer is more than just my kind of sportswriter; he's my kind of guy. For starters, both of us have inherited socially unfortunate last...
MAWAE CLASH IS AT CENTER OF JET PLANS
As much as the Jets are inside the heads of the Dolphins, having won the last seven meetings, center Kevin Mawae occupies at least a chamber or two inside the...
KENYON: WE'RE BETTER
The Nets want nothing more than to kick sand on the bully. For years they've been picked on, picked apart or generally ignored. But they're not giving up their milk...
LETTING THE GOOD AND BAD TIMES ROLL
IS IT good the only lift Shawn Kemp has left is in his fork? Prior to last night's Blazer game in Memphis, Kemp auditioned for a job he's actually over-qualified...
DEVS SLAPPED IN OVERTIME
BOSTON - Sliding into this weekend's Matinees of Truth winless in three, the captain warns that the Devils are at the crossroads. "We're not playing well defensively and that's usually...
'SPOON CAN BE SURLY OFF COURT, TOO
KNICK NOTES Clarence Weatherspoon has taken over Larry Johnson's role as Knicks' power forward on the court and off. Like the surly LJ, 'Spoon gets his hackles up more than...
PAINT'S GONE DRY: HEAT-KNICKS NOT SAME WITHOUT EWING & 'ZO
The fall from the Eastern Conference mountaintop for the Knicks and Heat can be traced to no longer having a franchise center from Georgetown. With the Knicks, their franchise center,...
SURVIVAL GAME: KNICKS WEATHER HEAT WAVE BEHIND HOUSTON
Knicks 83 Heat 74 The Knicks were getting embarrassed by the likes of Sean Marks and LaPhonso Ellis. After blowing a 16-point lead, the Knicks were poised for a loss...
OLD RIVALRY LACKS JUICE WITHOUT 'ZO AND PATRICK
KNICK NOTES The fall from the Eastern Conference mountaintop for the Knicks and Heat can be traced to no longer having a franchise center from Georgetown. With the Knicks, their...
BAD CHANGES HURT DEVILS
BOSTON - Some things never change, especially the way the Devils change. It is one of hockey's fundamentals, and much like the astounding inability to bunt in baseball, efficient changing...