March 23, 2005
PARAMOUNT PICTURES TAPS FOX EXEC OF 'IDOL,' '24' FAME
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amFox entertainment chief Gail Berman is leaving the TV network for the movie business - snaring a top job at Paramount Pictures, according to a published report on the online...
AMERICAN AIRLINES FRIGHT - COST CUTTER MAY FLIP ITS GALLEYS FOR SEATS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amYou think you've got fuel pump blues. At American Airlines, the sharp increase in gas prices means the country's largest carrier is now paying out nearly $15 million a day...
GOLDMAN SACKED - WHITE-SHOE FIRM SETTLES WITH NASD FOR $1M
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amIn yet another penalty harkening back to the bad old days of the Internet boom, Goldman Sachs' Spear, Leeds & Kellogg unit was slapped with a $1 million fine yesterday...
BLACK FACES TAX RAP, FED PROBE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amDisgraced newspaper baron Conrad Black could lose his Palm Beach mansion if he fails to repay about $11 million in back taxes, according to news reports. In an unusual move,...
SCRATCH N' APATHY - MORE HIGH-PROFILE DEPARTURES ROCK BESIEGED NEWS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWHILE the "Scratch n' Stiff" scandal swirls outside the Daily News, inside Mort Zuckerman's beleaguered empire, the Cookie Monster is at work. Michael Cooke the British-born editor - who came...
MSO MAKEOVER FOR BODY & SOUL
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amNext week, Martha Stewart Living's newly redesigned Body & Soul magazine hits the newsstands, which is a new Martha-free offering the company hopes will hit it big. One industry observer...
INSTINET AD TAKES AIM AT BROKERAGE RIVALS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amInstinet is putting its money where its mouth is. The electronic brokerage firm is expected to run a large display ad in today's Wall Street Journal taking aim at large,...
SOLOW WRESTLES WITH TENANT BOFA; SOLOW SUES TENANT BOFA
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amMOST building owners coddle their mega-anchor tenants. But it appears that Sheldon Solow goes in the opposite direction - he sues them. The developer and owner of the classy 9...
BLACK MAY LOSE FLA. MANSION
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amDisgraced newspaper baron Conrad Black could lose his Palm Beach mansion if he fails to repay about $11 million in back taxes, according to news reports. In an unusual move,...
METS FANS WILL GET SCREENED
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amMets fans will watch more than the game when they visit Shea Stadium this season. They will also see ads aired on 20 high-definition television screens recently installed at the...
WHO'S YOUR DIDDY? - NOT DENYING 'IDOL' MARIO DEAL
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amSEAN "P. Diddy" Combs is conspicuously silent about whether he's signed "American Idol" dropout Mario Vazquez to a record deal. "I can't discuss that right now," Combs told The Post...
LAST CBSER RESIGNS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amTHE final shoe in CBS' Memogate scandal has dropped. Josh Howard, the executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday" - who oversaw the Sept. 8 telecast that questioned President Bush's military...
PASSIONATE LIGHT OF CRAZY FRIDA KAHLO
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amSOMETIMES, into the world of junk TV, with all its fake reality, comes something so extraordinary that we're all reminded that before there was dumbing down, there was art. And...
PLEASING ALBEE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amTHE first of nearly a dozen straight-play revivals headed to Broadway this spring, Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" has set the bar for the competition pretty - in...
IT'S THE GRAPES OF SCATHE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amIN the wake of "Sideways" comes "Mondovino," an intoxicating attack on the homogenization of wines around the world - a "Fahrenheit 9/11" for the oneophile set - by Jonathan Nossiter,...
THERE'S LOTS OF SPLENDOR IN 'GLASS'
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWHAT a lovely play Tennessee Williams wrote in "The Glass Menagerie"! The first of the so-called "memory plays," and obviously autobiographical, it still exerts its strange magic. That spell was...
'SEA' ONLY PART OF THE STORY
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amIN May, it will have been a quarter-century since the Mariel Boatlift, when Fidel Castro's government allowed nearly 130,000 Cubans to make a difficult journey in leaky boats across 100...
STARR REPORT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amKimberley Locke, who finished third on the second season of "American Idol," is shopping a reality show under Stiletto Television, a division of her management firm (they've produced all of...
'24': DINA'S REALLY DEAD
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amDINA Araz is dead. That's the word from 20th Century Fox Television, the producer of "24," which yesterday put to rest any speculation that Araz survived her apparent execution Monday...
STRAIGHT TO THE (BIG) TOP - MEET THE LATINO LUMINARIES OF 'THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH'
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amIF you happen to find yourself face-to-face with one of the terrifying tigers of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, you better hope your Spanish language skills are...
IT'S TODAY'S CHEESE WIZ
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amMOZZARELLA is the new Big Cheese. Restaurants are making their own, concocting whole platters devoted to the once overlooked pizza topper and serving the Italian cheese in endlessly fresh presentations....
HAMPTONS ARE ABOUT TO GET MORE LUC
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amLeave it to a Jewish guy with a French nickname to bring a Chinese/sushi restaurant to the Hamptons. Restaurateur Ed "Jean Luc" Kleefield, whose East End eateries include Jean Luc...
MODERN TIMES - NEW MOMA EATERY NOT YET UP TO SPEED
March 23, 2005 | 5:00am"COULD we pick up the pace?" my guest asked the captain at the Modern on the third hour of a meal that was closing in on midnight. I hate hassling...
EASTER BY THE DOZEN
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amMichel Cluizel's adorable Oeuf Maisonette (near right) roosts for the first time at ABC Carpet & Home (888 Broadway, at 19th Street; [212] 473-3000). Made from pure ingredients, the chocolates...
SCHOOL FOES MAKE NICE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amALBANY - City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and teachers union president Randi Weingarten yesterday briefly set aside their hostilities over contract talks for a rare joint appearance urging state lawmakers...
FEAR STALKS B'KLYN COURT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amDeputy U.S. marshals in Brooklyn federal court fear security has gotten so bad that someone is going to get killed. Underqualified guards watch and transport inmates since a third of...
SANITMEN IN TRASHY BRIBE BUST
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amSeven city sanitation workers were arrested yesterday on charges of accepting bribes to take out the trash. The men took payments ranging from $20 to $100 from undercover agents, the...
LIL' KIM PLANS JAILHOUSE RAP
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amLil' Kim says she will put out a new album in "late summer" - that's after she's due to be sentenced for lying about a shooting outside the Hot 97...
BLAKE: I MULLED SUICIDE - COULDN'T FACE JAIL IF CONVICTED
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amTough-guy actor Robert Blake said yesterday he contemplated suicide had he been convicted of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. "I figured if I was going to jail, I didn't...
NEWARK TOPS IN AIRPORT SHOPS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amRestaurants and stores at Newark Airport have again won top honors in the prestigious Airport Revenue News' Best Concessions annual competition, in the category of Most Unique Services. Over the...
FLEETING DREAMS TURN TO ANGUISH
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amSOME people dreamed of buying fast cars and deluxe vacations with their promised $100,000 Daily News Scratch n' Match jackpots. But for Lucy Tirado, $1,000 was enough. Lucy, 29, lives...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amTHE BRONX * A woman was thrown down a flight of stairs by a burglar who apparently set fire to her Throgs Neck home, authorities said yesterday. At about 10:45...
DUMB DUO SCAM - TEACH'S 'IMPOSTER' PLOY
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA ne'er-do-well Bronx teacher who twice failed the state teacher-certification exam has been charged with roping his mentally unstable tutor into taking the test for him, officials said yesterday. Wayne...
PENSION BIG QUITS IN SCANDAL - FAVORS FOR GAL-PAL
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe head of the city's largest retirement system has been forced to step down after investigators determined he had an affair with a subordinate who won several promotions, sources said...
HIS TRUE STRIPES - LETTERMAN KIDNAP SUSPECT IN COURT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amCHOTEAU, Mont. - Ex-con house painter Kelly Allen Frank yesterday was led into court wearing black and white-striped jailhouse duds and pleaded not guilty to scheming to kidnap David Letterman's...
MTA RAIL-BLAZER - SUBWAY CHAOS YET AGAIN AFTER B'KLYN FIRE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA track fire in a Brooklyn subway tunnel derailed the morning commute yesterday for thousands of riders and added to the recent string of commuter woes to plague the transit...
POL TO STATE: CUT DELAY AND CUT OUR TAX CHECKS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amALBANY - An influential state senator yesterday sent a letter to state taxation officials demanding that they either stop holding back New Yorkers' refund checks or give a better reason...
ZUCCHINI MEANIE GETS BOOT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe "Zucchini Bandit" has been squashed - this time for good, immigration authorities said yesterday. Fulton Guevara, 36, who earned the nickname when he robbed a man with a concealed...
FAKE ACHE SCAM - FAMILY MED-FRAUD BUST
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWith a lavish apartment on Central Park West, an upstate mansion and garages full of Mercedes and BMWs, the millionaire Pustilnik family - Russian immigrant owners of medical clinics in...
WITNESS SLAPS JACKO - BACKS UP CLAIM OF ABDUCTION
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amSANTA MARIA, Calif. - A stand-up comedian who befriended the family of Michael Jackson's accuser backed up the prosecution charge that the King of Pop kept the family "against their...
POST GAME PLAYER WINS REAL CASH
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWhen folks play New York Post Poker, winners actually win! Unlike the fiasco of the homescam paper's Scratch n' Stiff game, players of the new Post Poker game are collecting...
"VOODOO" ED BOARD SMEAR SUIT REVIVED
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA former Lower East Side school official who claimed she was unfairly accused of sprinkling "voodoo powder" outside her superintendent's office had her defamation suit against the city reinstated yesterday...
SCHOOL KILLER'S TWISTED NAZI LOVE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amHe called himself an angel of death. Jeff Weise, 17, the Native American school shooter who murdered nine people in Minnesota before turning the gun on himself, also wrote of...
DEM CHUCK WAGON ROLL$ IN
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amSen. Charles Schumer is stepping into his new role as a national moneyman for the Democrats with a bang - hosting an eye-popping $100,000-a-table breakfast for real-estate developers in the...
REAL ESTATE'S $HAKY FOUNDATION: PANEL
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amInvestors are so eager to get their hands on New York City commercial real estate that they're driving up prices beyond what the rent rolls would justify, according to the...
'SICK' FIREMAN'S GOT A BEEF
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA firefighter says he's suffering from a variety of illnesses from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks - even though he didn't join the FDNY until 2002 and bared his...
BIG QNS. WEAPONS BUST
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amAn ironworker was arrested yesterday after cops found an AK-47 assault rifle among a cache of weapons and drugs seized inside his home in Rockaway, Queens, police said. Gary O'Grady,...
OPRAH TO TASTE THE POOR LIFE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amOprah Winfrey is giving up her fancy surroundings to live in a public housing project in Chicago. The talk show hostess, who's been known to give away cars to her...
TERRI 'FADING QUICK' - MOM BEGS NEW HELP AS FED COURT NIXES FEED TUBE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The devastated parents of Terri Schiavo said yesterday she's "fading quickly" and begged for their daughter's feeding tube to be reinserted before she dies. "Please, senators, for the...
GRID-SLAY FINGER POINTING
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe man accused of killing a Connecticut football player after a party in Brooklyn allegedly told cops his friend shot the popular teen. A detective investigating the death of Fairfield...
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT - ROCK 'N' ROLL ROYALTY'S OFFSPRING CARRY THE TORCH
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWhen it comes to talent, these kids are chips off the old rockers. Many of the 15 rock star offspring that Rolling Stone magazine brought together for a cover portrait...
CABLEVISION BANS RUDY'S STADIUM AD
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amCablevision is muzzling former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, blacking out a television ad in which he heartily endorses the West Side stadium, the Jets charged yesterday. The Giuliani ad debuted Sunday...
'SNACK ATTACK' VERDICT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA construction worker who shot another worker in the head in a dispute over a morning snack run was cleared of attempted murder by a Manhattan jury yesterday. But the...
3 MORE 9/11 VICTIMS ID'D
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThree more people have been identified from the World Trade Center rubble, even though the Medical Examiner's Office said recently it was halting the process. Luis Manuel Lopez, 39, George...
BACK TO EARTH - TREE-TRYST BOYS TURN OVER NEW LEAF
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA lovestruck teenager who created a public spectacle by climbing 30 feet up a Central Park tree to canoodle naked with his transsexual sweetheart was sentenced yesterday to community service...
'SAFE' HOUSE TURNS DEADLY - * 4 KIDS KILLED IN SMOKY INFERNO * 'ALL-CLEAR' CAME 5 HOURS EARLIER
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amFour kids were killed in a blaze that ripped through their family's Teaneck, N.J. home - just hours after the fire department checked the house and gave it the all-clear....
SHARPTON ON OFFENSE FOR ARENA
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe Rev. Al Sharpton will throw his support behind the West Side stadium today when he joins a group of labor leaders and elected officials backing the project, sources told...
POLICE OUTRAGE AS COP BEATER GETS PROBATION
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amPolice are outraged that a protester will not go to jail for beating a plainclothes detective unconscious during last summer's Republican National Convention. Jamel Holiday, 20, got the plea bargain,...
NUTS TO YOU - PLAYERS SUE AS SNOOZE GIVES PEANUTS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe president of the Daily News, Les Goodstein, was all smiles yesterday as he reported to work - but the Scratch n' Match "winners" who were offered peanuts instead of...
CITY TRYST-SLAP - PENSION BOSS OUT OVER SEX & FAVORS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe head of the city's largest retirement system has been forced to step down after investigators determined he had an affair with a subordinate whom he promoted several times, sources...
L.I. CLAN TIED UP AND ROBBED OF 120G
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThree members of a wealthy Long Island family were ripped from their beds in the dead of night, tied up and robbed at gunpoint of m$120,000 in cash and jewels...
'VOODOO' SUIT BACK FROM DEAD
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA former Lower East Side school official who claimed she was unfairly accused of sprinkling "voodoo powder" outside her superintendent's office had her defamation suit against the city reinstated yesterday...
TREE-TRYST BOYS: WE'LL BE GOOD
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA lovestruck teenager who created a public spectacle by climbing 30 feet up a Central Park tree to canoodle naked with his transsexual sweetheart was sentenced yesterday to community service...
ZUCCHINI MEANIE GETTING THE BOOT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe "Zucchini Bandit" has been squashed - this time for good, immigration authorities said yesterday. Fulton Guevara, 36, who earned the nickname when he robbed a man with a concealed...
NEW MOM IN BABY-SLAY RAP
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA 13-year-old Bronx girl who allegedly threw her newborn son out a window just after giving birth at home was arraigned for murder yesterday. The girl, whose name is being...
HS ARSON BID FOILED
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA student yesterday was busted and charged with dousing a Queens high-school staircase with gasoline in a bid to torch it because he "wanted to kill a lot of people,"...
3 BUSTED IN SANITMAN SHOOTOUT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThree teenagers have been arrested in connection with the wounding of a city sanitation worker caught in a shootout on a Brooklyn street, cops said yesterday. Cops are still looking...
COP SAVES PARTNER AFTER THROAT SLASHING
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA Queens narcotics cop was slashed across the throat by a man he was trying to arrest yesterday - but his life was saved when his partner shot the man...
FBI BUSTS MOB 'HIT MAN'
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amAn accused mob hit man compared by a crime boss to a thug from "The Godfather" has been nabbed by the FBI. Anthony "Ace" Aiello, had been on the lam...
TERRI 'FADING QUICK' - COURT NIXES APPEAL AFTER MOM BEGS NEW HELP
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The devastated parents of Terri Schiavo received another blow early this morning when a federal appeals court turned down their request to have their daughter's feeding tube reinserted....
'IDOL' PHONE BLUNDER
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amAn on-screen blunder plunged "American Idol" into chaos last night, when the wrong voting phone numbers were listed for three contestants. "Idol" wannabes Mikalah Gordon, Anwar Robinson and Jessica Sierra...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThis Easter bunny got hopping mad. And then he got arrested. It seems someone threw water and other inappropriate items at Michael Desantiago while he was at work in his...
SICKO OUTBURST - FAKE-COP 'KILLER' CONFRONTS WIDOW
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amA Long Island banker's accused killer confronted the victim's sobbing widow in a courtroom - protesting his innocence and declaring: "If you think I did it, you're never going to...
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amAntonia Pantoja used education to escape a life of poverty. Her life's work was encouraging others to do the same. While many children are lucky enough to have little to...
CITY SCHOOL FOES MAKE NICE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amALBANY - City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and teachers union president Randi Weingarten yesterday briefly set aside their hostilities over contract talks for a rare joint appearance urging state lawmakers...
NUTS TO YOU - DUPED PLAYERS SUING NEWS FOR MILLIONS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amThe doddering Daily News yesterday was confronted with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from people demanding massive amounts of money from its botched Scratch n' Match game, which has cruelly dashed dreams...
TIME FOR HIM TO LEAVE FOR GOOD
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amALBUQUERQUE - Barry Bonds has a chance to do something right for a change. He has an opportunity to slap a Band-Aid on top of his reputation, which has been...
BONDS COULD BE OUT FOR SEASON - DODGING SPOTLIGHT WITH INJURED KNEE
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amWith investigators closing in on Barry Bonds and his balky right knee acting up, the Giants star said yesterday he might miss the entire baseball season. "Right now I'm just...
BIG 4 SHOWDOWN - GOLF'S TOP GUNS FACE OFF AT TPC
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amPONTE VEDRA BEACH - When Adam Scott misses the cut at a golf tournament, the last thing he usually does is tune in his television set to watch how the...
WORRY THWART - RIVERA HOPES TO CURE TORRE DURESS IN RETURN
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amTAMPA - When it comes to Mariano Rivera's health, Joe Torre's level of anxiety isn't the same as when his other hurlers are nursing problems. No matter what ails Rivera,...
'NOW OR NEVER' TIME FOR KNICKS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amIt was one thing to beat San Antonio with Tim Duncan out of the lineup. Taking on a red-hot Celtics team tonight, though, will pose a much more difficult challenge...
NO HELP ON WAY - KIDD: NETS CAN'T COUNT ON RJ RETURN
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amJason Kidd is not counting on Richard Jefferson to return for the Nets' playoff push - or for the playoffs themselves, assuming the team qualifies. Oh, Kidd would love to...
FOOT KEEPS DEREK ON BENCH
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA - When Derek Jeter returns to the lineup, he is convinced he won't miss another spring training game. However, when Jeter comes back from a bruised left...
KURT COULD BE SHELVED FOR 2ND STRAIGHT GAME
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES The Knicks are in danger of playing a second straight game without iron man Kurt Thomas when the Celtics invade the Garden tonight. Thomas sat out Monday's 88-75...
KAZ SPRING GOING DOWN THE GLUTES
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - There are few Met players who could afford to miss time this spring. Kazuo Matsui is one of them. And right now, Matsui is missing time....
LUCK'S BOUNCING JERSEY'S WAY
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amNET NOTES Things happen. Only now, all the things are happening to the other guys. "That's just the nature of the game, historically," Net guard Travis Best said before his...
HE'S NOT IN AARON'S CLASS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amBARRY BONDS blamed the media yesterday for bringing him and his family down. And while I appreciate him assigning us all of that steroid-free power, I do find it fascinating...
ELI'S DAD HAS FAITH IN GIANTS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amTruth be told, Eli Manning's rookie season was so tough that, at times, even his dad couldn't watch. When Manning and the Giants played at Baltimore on Dec. 12, Archie...
GLAVINE RUNS OUT OF ZEROES
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amMET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Tom Glavine figured he wasn't going to throw zeroes forever. Glavine had pitched scoreless baseball over his first three spring outings, a total of...
REGGIE STAYING STEADY IN BUMPY PACER SEASON
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amRick Carlisle continues to marvel at the misfortune his team has had this season - both what the Pacers have brought upon themselves and some they haven't. "I've never seen...
LOCALS BACK BONDS - YANKEES 'FEEL BAD' BARRY WILL MISS TIME
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amTAMPA - Win or lose, the Yankees have learned how to deal with adversity. There is no pressure-cooker like playing in New York. Gary Sheffield put up MVP-caliber numbers last...
LONG-TERM INJURY COULD HELP METS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - Last year Mike Piazza called Giants slugger Barry Bonds his favorite player to watch. Now there appears to be a good chance Bonds won't be around...
KIDD NOT COUNTING ON RJ RETURN
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amNET NOTES Jason Kidd is not counting on Richard Jefferson to return for the Nets' playoff push - or for the playoffs themselves, assuming the team qualifies. Oh, Kidd would...
WORRY THWART - RIVERA PROGRESS HELPS SUPPRESS YANK STRESS
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amYankees 5 - Phillies 1 TAMPA - If Mariano Rivera reports to work today without a hint of elbow trouble the Yankees will believe they are over a major hurdle....
JUGGER-NETS - JASON & CO. COP FIFTH IN ROW
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amNets 98 - Pacers 91 Jason Kidd admits this is fun and exciting. There is a challenge here he has never known with the Nets: a late-season fight for a...
KRSTIC'S BUSTING OUT
March 23, 2005 | 5:00amNenad Krstic may not be accustomed to what an NBA playoff run is like, but he's quickly showing that he is ready to help the Nets make the postseason again....