March 17, 2003

PRUDENTIAL PAYS $73.5M FOR INSIGNIA DOUGLAS ELLIMAN

It's a done deal - Insignia Douglas Elliman has been sold. After a spirited bidding war over the residential division of the recently purchased Insignia Financial Group - realtor Dorothy...

DISCLIVE ROLLS OUT FIRST CD

DiscLive took another step toward its goal of creating an important new revenue stream for the music industry. The upstart company, which was launched in February with the idea of...

NEW GOLDMAN CUTS - MORE HEADS WILL ROLL IN INVESTMENT BANKING UNIT

Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson Jr. is taking his foot out of his mouth long enough to give more of his employees the boot. Two months after making blunt remarks...

LOVE AND WAR - COUPLES MARCH UP AISLE BEFORE MARCH TO BATTLE

LISA Ortiz and Peter Jorgensen had planned on a big fall wedding in Brooklyn. More than 275 family members and friends were going to join them at St. Agnes Catholic...

BLUEGRASS IS WEARIN' THE GREEN

JUST because it's St. Paddy's Day, don't expect the Chieftains - Ireland's most successful traditional Celtic music group - to play "Danny Boy" at their Avery Fisher Hall concert tonight,...

'SCARLET' CURSE

F - - - ING A At the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. Call TeleCharge (212) 239-6200. ---- SCREWBALL adaptations of "The Scarlet Letter" obviously have the curse of Nathaniel...

BILL & BOB FINALLY COME OUT SWINGING

BILL Clinton and Bob Dole turned it up a notch last night. In a far more entertaining exchange on "60 Minutes" than their debut last week, the former rivals from...

STARR REPORT

DJs parkin' it in radio protest DJs from WKTU, WLTW (Lite FM), WAXQ (Q-104), WWPR and WHTZ are putting the word out to join them in a rally in Bryant...

FOR MTV'S NEW CRINGE-FEST, ASHTON KUTCHER HAS DECLARED... OPEN SEASON ON MY CELEB PALS

HOW do you follow "The Osbournes"? MTV may have stumbled upon a winning formula in "Punk'd" (premiering tonight, 10:30 on MTV), co-created by Ashton Kutcher of "That '70s Show." MTV...

DOUBLING FOR DAVE: ADAM BUCKMAN RATES THE CELEBS STILL KEEPING LETTERMAN'S HOT SEAT WARM

The parade of guest-hosts continues this week on David Letterman's "Late Show." Since Feb. 26, eight diverse celebs - ranging from movie star Bruce Willis to singer/songwriter Elvis Costello -...

STAY OFF THE CARPET

Here are some dresses you won't see on the red carpet at Sunday's Oscars. While lots of stars do their gown-shopping at the European runway shows, which ended just last...

OVER THE FRUMP: MOM'S FAVORITE SHOPS GET HIP NEW LOOK

AEROSOLES is not a brand you'd expect to see on the feet of a chic New York beauty exec. But Dana Wood, a 40-year-old executive v.p. for L'Oreal, can't rave...

LA-LA LAND LOSERS

In Los Angeles, there are so many starlets competing for the limelight, they'll go to any lengths to stand out. How else to explain the outfits worn by Tori Spelling...

TROOPS FACE DEADLY DANGERS EVEN BEFORE BATTLE BEGINS

FORT HOOD, Texas - Far from the desert sands of Iraq, and the chemical and biological weapons that may await, U.S. soldiers face a deadly threat, one as old as...

SPITZER AND HEVESI HAWK PRO-WAR STAND

EXCLUSIVE TWO top New York Democrats are endorsing President Bush's plan to topple Saddam Hussein - rejecting their party's official opposition to such action. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and state...

NOISE NUT GIVES UP: NEIGHBOR GRILLED IN SLAY OF FAMILY HE 'TERRORIZED'

The Bronx man wanted in the murder of his three upstairs neighbors - after putting them through a "living hell" in a bizarre feud over noise - has turned himself...

GOV PEEPING MAD AT POLS

ALBANY - Gov. Pataki has vowed to "shame" Assembly leadership into passing tough new video voyeurism legislation. In an exclusive interview with The Post, Pataki expressed frustration that two weeks...

GETTING RID OF SUBWAY SHMUTZ

The Transit Authority may be winning the war on grime in the subways, but some riders are still getting a dirty deal, a new survey found. The Straphangers Campaign's fifth...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

There was a real Big Mac attack in Nashville last week. Five people were injured, one critically, when driver Nathan Morgan lost control of his Ford Escort as he bit...

NAMING GAME HAS MORE THAN A TOUCH OF BLARNEY

EVEN as we face a grave moment of truth, even as we mourn two beautiful cops, can we steal a tiny second for one of the city's grandest days where...

POL: GIVE CONGRESS CABLE REINS

State Assemblyman Jeff Klein wants to pull the plug on greedy cable companies by requiring that they be regulated by Congress, and arming consumers with better information about them. "The...

COP-SLAY PROBERS EYE GA. GUN SHOP

Cops have traced the gun used to murder two undercover cops in Staten Island to a shop in Georgia, and detectives will fly there this week to try to figure...

QAEDA BIG GRILLE: HE MAY KNOW IN WHAT HOLE OSAMS'S HIDING

U.S. and Pakistani intelligence experts grilled a top al Qaeda chieftain yesterday, hoping to zero in on Osama bin Laden's hideout. Yassir al-Jaziri, who was nabbed in Lahore on Saturday,...

OPERATION ATLAS: MORE COPS ON STREETS IF WAR IS DECLARED

New Yorkers need not be alarmed if the streets are blanketed with cops if a war with Iraq is declared, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. The mayor said the NYPD's elaborate...

RESCUED TEENAGER'S MUSICAL AMBITIONS SHOW REAL PLUCK

SALT LAKE CITY - Kidnapped teen Elizabeth Smart wants to attend school in New York - she's a serious harp student and has set her sights on studying at Juilliard,...

BLIX'S WEIRD WORLD

AN hour after President Bush announced the United Nations had only one day to agree to the enforcement of U.N. Resolution 1441, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix blithely announced he...

PROBE INTO BABY'S DEATH

A 5-week-old girl from Harlem died after being hospitalized with suspicious facial injuries, police said yesterday. Tyshae Prince died at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. She was brought...

HUNDREDS BID FAREWELL TO MURDERED DETECTIVE

The NYPD's week of agony continued as Detective Rodney Andrews, slain in an undercover gun buy last week, was waked in Queens yesterday. Hundreds of mourners gathered to pay their...

BLOOMY HAS IT ALL DOWN PAT

Mayor Bloomberg will put aside the city's budget woes for a moment to be the cheerleader-in-chief at today's St. Patrick's Day Parade, marching up Fifth Avenue with the city's uniformed...

VEEP: DURN RIGHT W.'S A 'COWBOY'

Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday said he is A-OK with European critics who like to portray President Bush as a tough Texas cowboy. "The notion that the president is a...

VERSACE LIVES ON AT MANSION

EXCLUSIVE The Miami Beach mansion where Italian designer Gianni Versace was murdered by a serial killer is slated to become a monument to fashion, The Post has learned. Owner Peter...

'PIANIST' WROTE BOOK TO PURGE NAZI HORROR

Wladyslaw Szpilman, subject of the film "The Pianist" - nominated for a Best Picture Oscar - wrote his 1946 memoir of surviving Nazi-occupied Warsaw to purge himself of the painful...

CHINA'S FATAL SECRET: HID DEADLY OUTBREAK UNTIL IT SPREAD AROUND THE WORLD

Scientists are furious that China hid a mysterious illness that raged there for months, preventing them from getting an early jump on the pneumonia-like disease that has affected hundreds -...

'EMPIRE' BECOMES FAVORITE

A clear favorite for the May 3 Kentucky Derby finally broke free from the pack Saturday as Empire Maker easily ran down even-money favorite Trust N Luck to win the...

FRANCE SHOWS ITS CARDS AND TRUE COLORS

THE message from the Azores summit is that the time for diplomacy will soon end - and that France is shielding Saddam Hussein. At a clear turning point in history,...

COPS: DRUNKEN DRIVER KILLS 'MAMA'S BOY'

A 44-year-old movie theater manager fondly described as a "mama's boy" by his family, was killed by an alleged drunken driver on the Grand Central Parkway yesterday - just five...

HBO TO CUT TONY IN ON PIECE OF 'SOPRANO' ACTION

Tony Soprano and HBO are near a deal neither side can refuse, say sources close to the salary dispute that has threatened to whack "The Sopranos." Lawyers for the mob...

'TIS PITY THIS PLAY HORRIFIED PRUDES

THE title of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' new play cannot be printed in a family newspaper. Big deal! Norman Seaman did that in 1959. That winter, Seaman revived "...

ARCADE VICTIM SUES FOR $20M

An 18-year-old coed who was hit by a stray bullet when a gang feud erupted inside a Times Square arcade earlier this month plans to sue the nightspot for $20...

BUSH: TODAY IS LAST CHANCE TO AVOID WAR

On the brink of war with Iraq, President Bush set today as "a moment of truth for the world" - the last chance for diplomacy to avert war. Bush challenged...

CHUCK & HILLARY STICK THEIR HEADS IN SAND

With the United States on the brink of war, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are ducking the question of whether President Bush has made a case for...

BROOKLYN CHEM KIDS SET OFF BOMB SCARE

With the city on high terror alert, the police bomb squad sped to a home in Brooklyn yesterday - only to find a teen trying to make a smoke bomb...

IT'S CELLO GOODBYE IN CAB FLUB

An acclaimed French cellist had to perform without his beloved instrument last night after leaving it in the back of a yellow cab Saturday. Eric Picard, the lead cellist with...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

BROOKLYN * A 21-year-old Hempstead, L.I., man was stabbed to death outside a record store at 317 Neptune Ave. in Coney Island yesterday morning. The victim, Donzell Mitchell, was stabbed...

PLANE-CRASH NOVELIST RECALLED AS 'BRILLIANT'

A 32-year-old novelist, killed when her doctor father lost control of the single-engine plane she was using for her national book tour, was described yesterday as a "brilliant new voice."...

SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL YESTERDAY RECOMMENDED THAT REPORTERS LEAVE BAGHDAD

Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday recommended that reporters leave Baghdad because of the imminent U.S.-led attack -even as the State Department ordered its low-level diplomats in other Mideast cities...

U.S. ACTIVIST IN DOZER TRAGEDY

JERUSALEM - A 23-year-old American acting as a "human shield" was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as it demolished a Palestinian home in Gaza yesterday. Rachel Corrie, a...

FIRMS REAPING $POILS OF WAR - SPINNING TERROR FEARS INTO GOLD

The attacks on 9/11 and the looming war with Iraq have sent the economy reeling. But a number of companies have found a silver lining among the dark clouds. From...

LULLABY OF LOVE FOR LEONA

First she had a jury award against her reduced by $10.5 million - now Leona Helmsley's getting some more music to her ears. The so-called "Queen of Mean" is the...

ISRAELI DOZER KILLS YANK PROTESTER

JERUSALEM - A 23-year-old American acting as a "human shield" was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as it demolished a Palestinian home in Gaza yesterday. Rachel Corrie, a...

SHOOTINGS UP SHARPLY

March came in like a lion - with the city experiencing a 72 percent spike in shooting incidents over the same period last year. Police officials cautioned the 43 shootings...

DRUNK DRIVER KILLS QUEENS MAN: COPS

A 44-year-old movie-theater manager fondly described by his family as a "mama's boy" was killed by an alleged drunk driver on the Grand Central Parkway yesterday - just five minutes...

HUNT FOR CLUES IN L.I. FAMILY'S FATAL AIR CRASH

The National Transportation Safety Board is probing why a small plane crashed into a North Carolina mountain, killing the chairman of neurology at Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island,...

TV SHOW THROWS DOG OWNERS A BONE

Here's proof that television is really going to the dogs - a new reality show plans to give you the chance to make your pooch a star. The producers of...

REEL-LIFE 'PIANIST' WROTE MEMOIR TO PURGE HORROR

Wladyslaw Szpilman, subject of the film "The Pianist" - nominated for a Best Picture Oscar - wrote his 1946 memoir of surviving Nazi-occupied Warsaw to purge himself of the painful...

SMARTS AT WAR WITH DAD OF KLAAS

The family of Elizabeth Smart is furious with the father of murdered teen Polly Klaas - accusing him of offering them support under false pretenses. Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter...

WHICH BREW? : CUT-OUT & KEEP GUIDE

Achtung, Germany! You may claim to make the world's best beer - but just like your refusal to back America's war against terror, your sorry suds have fallen flat! A...

POWELL WARNS OVERSEAS REPORTERS

Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday warned reporters in Baghdad that they should consider leaving because of the danger of a likely U.S.-led attack - and the possibility that they...

BUSH CALLS FOR U.N.'S 'IMMEDIATE' BACKING

On the brink of war with Iraq, President Bush set today as "a moment of truth for the world" - the last chance for diplomacy to avert war. Bush challenged...

THE GLOVE HAS BUCKS ON GUARD!

As Jason Kidd improved Nets last year, addition of All-Star point guard Gary Payton has made Milwaukee a dangerous team in East.Reuters Here in the metro area, folks have a...

BLUESHIRTS NEED ANSWERS NOW

The Rangers are searching everywhere now, frantically looking at each other, at the highlights, and deep within themselves for ways to save this season. Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Devils,...

FORMER NETS SHOW SPIRIT WITH 76ERS

One moment in the fourth, Keith Van Horn flew in to block a Kenyon Martin shot. The next, it was Derrick Coleman rejecting a Richard Jefferson attempt. Van Horn and...

NBA GETS WORD OUT ON EPHEDRA

Five days after pitcher Steve Bechler's Feb. 17th death, NBA Player's Association director Billy Hunter Jr. sent a page-long letter to each player warning them of the risks of ephedra,...

DEVILS FACE FIGHT AT TOP

Thanks to their win over the Rangers Saturday, the Devils clinched the playoffs. Thanks to a recent skid that saw the Devs lose the two previous games and four of...

ISLANDERS CAN BURY 'EM

String up the razor wire and start filling the sandbags, because tonight against their archrivals, the Islanders are in for a war. Not the fist- or stick-swinging variety, not against...

TELFAIR'S STAR SOARS AGAIN

PSAL CHAMPIONSHIPLincoln 75Banneker 69 For more than 30 minutes yesterday, not much separated Lincoln and Banneker. Then came the final two minutes and Sebastian Telfair further cemented his legacy. "Our...

'BITTER' BERGTRAUM TAKES THE 5TH

PSAL GIRLSBergtraum 72Curtis 39 Another year, another title. But Bergtraum coach Ed Grezinsky still believes his team is overlooked. "It's a travesty," Grezinsky said after his Lady Blazers won their...

BURNITZ BLASTS HOMER HAT-TRICK INTO THIN AIR

MET NOTES MEXICO CITY - The gopher ball is as devalued as the peso down here, and Jeromy Burnitz knows it. But Burnitz belted three homers yesterday in a 20-10...

NCAA FAILS TEST YET AGAIN

OKAY, so Georgia (again), St. Bonaventure and Fresno St. (again) are among the latest colleges to be exposed for running crooked basketball programs. So what? Now what? Are these schools...

SPREE SEARCHES FOR HIS GAME

KNICK NOTES Latrell Sprewell spent a lot of time after yesterday's morning shootaround doing shooting drill, mostly on plays driving to the basket. Coming off his 3-of-15 shooting Friday, in...

TOM'S NOT TERRIFIC ; GLAVINE, METS SHELLED IN HIGH AIR

Dodgers 20Mets 10 MEXICO CITY - There's talk of making this place a permanent home to a Major League Baseball team. If that's the case, Tom Glavine might use his...

NETS GIVE IT AWAY; FOURTH-QUARTER COLLAPSE HANDS GIFT WIN TO SIXERS

76ers 92Nets 87 For their final 18 possessions yesterday, the Nets turned into a gang of pre-schoolers on a sugar rush with the teacher out of the room. Organized. Cohesive....

D.C. TAKEDOWN HAS ; BYRON IRATE

NET NOTES The play sent Kenyon Martin to the basket, where he'd catch Lucious Harris' lob inbounds with 20 seconds left, score and tie the game. Everything went wrong. For...

ROTATION'S FAR FROM AMAZIN'

MEXICO CITY - The Mets said adios here yesterday without plunking any Dodgers, starting any anti-war rallies, picking up any apparent intestinal parasites, and most critically, not being taken for...

BERNIE'S JUST ONE OF THE OTHER GUYS

TAMPA - The more years that pass, the longer he patrols baseball's most famous patch of lawn, Bernie Williams grows ever mindful of his place within the social register of...

AT 40, CLEMENS STILL OPENING UP

YANKEE NOTES TAMPA - The Yankees' Opening Day starter is ready to roll at 40. "He looks like he is 25 and throws like he is 26," Jorge Posada said...

LADY JASPERS IN DEEP

Manhattan College's Lady Jaspers, in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996, face a huge task at the Midwest regional Saturday in Albuquerque against Mississippi State. "The SEC...

CTK SAVORS SWEET REVENGE VS. ST. RAY'S

CHSAA 'A'CTK 71St. Ray's 54 Christ the King got its shot at revenge yesterday and the Royals made the most of it. Whether they deserved it, even coach Bob Oliva...

MONDESI SET TO STICK ; WORK WITH REGGIE RENEWS BAT

Yankees 1Astros 0 TAMPA - Joe Torre, Rick Down and Reggie Jackson corrected his approach at the plate. Brian Cashman eased his mind concerning trade rumors. Now, the Yankees are...

LET THE DANCE CONTEST BEGIN: JASPER 'KINGS' HAVE NO FEAR OF SYRACUSE

Just north of Manhattan, on a serene campus decorated with red-brick buildings in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, sits one of those fearless little basketball teams we like to...

STORM DRAW TERRIERS IN NIT

In a surprising last minute switch, the NIT opted to pair St. John's against Boston University at 7:30 p.m.Wednesday at Alumni Hall in a first-round game. As of Friday night,...

NBA GETS WORD OUT ON EPHEDRA ; UNION MEMO WARNS PLAYERS OF RISKS

The NBA and its Players' Association are on course to banning the use of ephedra, The Post has learned. Five days after pitcher Steve Bechler's Feb. 17 death, Players' Association...

STUNNED HALL WAITS IN VAIN FOR AT-LARGE CALL

Seton Hall's Andre Barrett has had a copy of the NCAA Tournament bracket hanging in his locker at Walsh Gym. It's been there all season, like a carrot dangling on...

SO, WHERE WAS THE GLOVE?

As Allan Houston kept hitting shots, it became more confusing. On his way to 50 points in the Knicks' 120-111 win over the Bucks, Houston was embarrassing everyone who tried...

LET THE DANCE CONTEST BEGIN: METHOD TO THIS YEAR'S MADNESS A BIT UNUSUAL

The most unpredictable of college basketball seasons took another bizarre twist yesterday with the selection of the Field of 65. What were those 12 college basketball jurists thinking? Texas, which...

WAG THE DOG CHAMPS AT PITT

Now, Wagner College wants to make a miracle. The Seahawks' first-ever Division I NCAA tournament appearance comes Friday against Pittsburgh at Boston's FleetCenter. But the site and opponent seemed irrelevant...

HOU-MONGOUS NIGHT ; ALLAN EXPLODES FOR 50 AS KNICKS GUN DOWN BUCKS

Knicks 120Bucks 111 The game was in the bag and the crowd was now chanting "Allan, Allan" with 25 seconds remaining. The Garden wanted to see Allan Houston get to...

EAGER EAGLES' HOPES DASHED

After Boston College beat St. John's 82-75 in a Big East quarterfinal round game, Eagles coach Al Skinner was asked if the victory had clinched a spot in the NCAA...

STORM AWAIT DRAGON INVASION

This is what St. John's coach Mike Jarvis knows about Drexel, the Red Storm's opening round opponent in the NIT: The Dragons are coached by Bruiser Flint, whose teams usually...

NETS PLAY GIVE & GO: FOURTH-QUARTER COLLAPSE HANDS GIFT WIN TO SIXERS

76ers 92 Nets 87 For their final 18 possessions yesterday, the Nets turned into a gang of pre-schoolers on a sugar rush with the teacher out of the room. Organized....

EX-NETS HAVE SPIRIT OF 76ERS

One moment in the fourth, Keith Van Horn flew in to block a Kenyon Martin shot. The next, it was Derrick Coleman rejecting a Richard Jefferson attempt. Van Horn and...

DON: OUR BEST IS NOT ENOUGH

KNICK NOTES It's not the coaching, it's not defense, it's not the desire. Don Chaney admitted that perhaps the Knicks' roster without Antonio McDyess just isn't good enough. "I have...

THE GLOVE HAS BUCKS CASHING IN

Here in the metro area, folks have a pretty good idea of how an All-Star point guard from the Bay Area can transform a franchise. Out in Milwaukee, they're getting...

BRACKET BREAKDOWN: LENN ROBBINS TURNS MARCH MADNESS INTO THE BIG EASY

MIDWEST Can anyone stop Kentucky? Certainly not the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. The only way a team can stop the Wildcats is play better, tougher and sounder defense. Kentucky may...