February 14, 2006

ST. GEORGE MADE OVER

The owners of a historic Brooklyn hotel plan to make a mini-Grand Central Station marketplace in Brooklyn Heights. A banner reading "Meet Me at Clark Street" now hangs from the...

MEDDLE MAN - EISNER TRIED TO BREAK UP DISNEY-PIXAR MERGER

Michael Eisner, the famously meddlesome former boss of the Walt Disney Co., did his best to scuttle the entertainment giant's recent acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios, The Post has learned....

5-RING SHAKE-UP - MADISON AVE. EYES KWAN EXIT, WHITE GOLD;

As U.S. figure-skating legend Michelle Kwan dropped out of the Winter Olympics, the "Flying Tomato" may have become the Games' advertising golden boy. The Turin Games have just begun, but...

O'NEAL HUNTS FUNDS - MERRILL WOOS BLACKROCK

Merrill Lynch's $8 billion deal for a slice of mutual fund manager Blackrock Inc. may transform the giant Wall Street firm, but it won't completely erase the conflicts involved in...

NEW LOOK ON TAP; NEW LOOK ON TAP FOR 57 ST.

NOTHING looks worse than a streetscape in what real estate people like to call "transition." The long block of West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, is marred by...

ANA LUCIA STAYS 'LOST'

'LOST" star Michelle Rodriguez will not get killed off of the hit series because of her off-camera exploits, the show's creator, J.J. Abrams, says. "While we don't want to report...

RUDY'S EX HITS RADIO

DONNA Hanover is joining WOR (710 AM) as Ed Walsh's permanent morning co-host. Hanover will join "The WOR Morning Show" (5-9 a.m.) beginning March 6. "We'll talk about what's in...

COME FLY WITH ME - TURIN STAGES OLYMPIC-SIZE RESCUE OF NBC

SUNDAY'S PRIME-TIME AUDIENCE REMAINED THE SAME AS SATURDAY'S - DESPITE THE BLIZZARD WHICH BLANKETED THE EAST COAST AND KEPT EVERYONE INDOORS. OK, so here's how important the Olympics are to...

YOUNG TALENT SHINES IN SPECTACULAR BALLET

NEW York City Ballet has a hit on its hands with Peter Martins' handsomely received "Friandises," which starburst exultantly into life Friday night at the New York State Theater. The...

STARR REPORT

Wise move on '24' Yesterday I wondered when, if ever, we'll see President Logan's (Gregory Itzin) Vice President on "24." Well, here's the answer: Veteran actor Ray Wise will appear...

REALITY BUG BITES T.O.

NFL big mouth Terrell Owens is getting a talk show. While details of the yet-to-be titled series are still sketchy, the show - from the producers of the feel-good home-makeover...

PARTY OF ONE - OUR MAN GOES IT ALONE IN SEXY FRENCH POLYNESIA; ONE & ONLY

WE drifted through a shallow lagoon, a full moon beaming down upon us like a spotlight from the heavens. Above us was a brilliant, equatorial sky saturated with stars that...

TAKE A TRIP TO BLISS - NYP WEDDINGS EDITOR LINDSAY POWERS' TOP 10 TIPS FOR THE ULTIMATE (BUDGET) DESTINATION WEDDING

SO you got a one-carat sparkler for Valentine's Day. Don't book the country club just yet. Getting married can cost a small fortune. In fact, the average cost of a...

BED OF LIES - HOW YOU SLEEP REVEALS THE SECRETS OF YOUR LOVE LIFE; WE GOT YOUR SLUMBER

YOUR stars are aligned, you both like late-night infomercials and salsa dancing and the sex - oh my, the sex! - is fantastic. But something is still not quite right....

MILLER FIGHTS SUBPOENA

Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller turned up at a federal appeals court in Manhattan yesterday for arguments over whether the feds have a right to subpoena her phone...

MAN TRYING TO QUELL FIRE DIES

A Bronx man died in his home yesterday after he tried to fight off a fire that quickly grew out of control, officials said. John Pye, 72, was in his...

POL AFFAIR E-XPOSED - GOP GOV HOPEFUL ADMITS LEAVING WIFE

ALBANY - A married Republican candidate for governor yesterday admitted having an affair and leaving his wife - and charged that another GOP hopeful was trying to blackmail him out...

W. TAPS RUDY TO BE OUR TORINO BAMBINO

WASHINGTON - A "thrilled" Rudy Giuliani has been asked by President Bush to go to the land of his ancestors and head the U.S. delegation at the closing ceremony of...

HILL'S BUSH-BASHING BOOSTS ENEMIES: GOP RIVAL

ALBANY - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Republican opponent charged yesterday that she "aids and abets" America's enemies with her criticism of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war. Former Yonkers...

540G AN HOUR ON LOBBYING

WASHINGTON - Corporations and special-interest groups spent $6.5 million a day - or over $540,000 an hour - on lobbyists early last year in hopes of influencing federal decision makers....

TEEN KILLED LOVER: COPS

A homeless teen was arrested yesterday for allegedly stabbing to death an older man who invited the youth to his Bronx apartment for a weekend of sex, police said yesterday....

WCBS STAGEHAND 'ADMITS' HE'S CELL-PIX PERV

A weekend stagehand for WCBS/Channel 2 has admitted trying to snap a cellphone picture of a woman who was using a ladies room at the Midtown broadcast center, cops said...

SAFE SEX CITY - OFFICIAL-CONDOM PLAN

For Valentine's Day next year, lovebirds in the city could have official Big Apple condoms at their disposal, officials said yesterday. In commemoration of today, which is also national "Condom...

NEWEST BROOKLYN PARK MAY BE AN EARLY OPENER

Brooklyn Bridge Park won't be complete until at least 2010 - but as early as this spring, New Yorkers could be frolicking on a large swath of the East River...

CITY IS IDLING ON TRUCK PLAN

Truck traffic in the metropolitan area may go up by as much as 50 percent by 2020, according to federal estimates - yet the city's Department of Transportation has only...

HIZZONER'S CLA$$ ACT

Ratcheting up pressure on Albany, Mayor Bloomberg stood with leaders of the teachers union and the City Council to demand an end to the "shameless" shortchanging of the city's schoolkids,...

KING SLAMS GORE'S 9/11 'DISGRACE'

WASHINGTON - House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King yesterday blasted Al Gore as "disgraceful" for claiming that President Bush committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after 9/11 and is wrongly barring...

FDNY RIPS 9/11-CASH GYM-FLAM

WASHINGTON - New York City firefighters, who dig into their own pockets to pay for exercise equipment, were stunned yesterday to learn that tiny upstate firehouses are getting pro-style gyms...

MAN SHOT AT BABY SHOWER

A baby shower turned bloody early yesterday when a gun-toting guest opened fire in a Brooklyn restaurant - hitting a Queens man who had just pulled him out of a...

'13' CYBER CLUES TO 9/11 PILOT

WASHINGTON - An active-duty military intelligence analyst has told congressional investigators that 9/11 pilot Mohamed Atta surfaced 13 times in a controversial Pentagon computer program before he executed the attacks,...

STORM IS THORN FOR VALENTINE'S

If your last-minute Valentine's Day plan included flowers and candy, you better hope she likes the candy. With snow wreaking havoc on deliveries throughout the city, florists cannot guarantee that...

DOCS ARE SWEET ON SAUERKRAUT

An apple a day keeps the doctor away - and so does sauerkraut, a new cancer study shows. While the health benefits of the traditional German dish of fermented cabbage...

VEGAS IS WAYNE'S ROLLER RINK - BLEW THROUGH $2M AT CASINOS: REPORT

Wayne Gretzky reportedly has lost more than an ice-cool $2 million gambling in Las Vegas casinos, where hockey's Great One has a sky-high credit line allowing him to bet up...

THE KINKY KATRINA SPEND SPREE - EVACUEES' SWEDE MASSAGE THERAPY

WASHINGTON - Sex toys, Swedish massages, tattoos, jewelry - that's what was purchased with Katrina emergency relief aid, according to shocking audits released yesterday. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials wasted...

BUSH AND KOFI TALKING TOUGH

WASHINGTON - President Bush and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan got together at the White House yesterday to plot strategy about the world's hot spots - targeting Iran's nuclear program...

WARMING UP & MELTING DOWN - RECORD SNOWFALL TRICKLING AWAY

We're melting! A day after the Great Whiteout of '06 dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow on the Big Apple, the sun came out, temperatures rose into the 30s,...

GIRLS EARN GOOD GRADS

You go, girl! Girls in city high schools graduate on time at a much higher rate than boys. The state Education Department reports that about half of all city girls...

HERO'S FAREWELL - GRID TEAM GIVES ONE FINAL CHEER TO SLAIN OFFICER

Mourners burst into tears and applause yesterday as members of the NYPD football team chanted a resounding farewell to star running back Eric Hernandez: "One, two, three - family!" "This...

KA-POW!ER TO YOU, BATMAN - GOING AFTER OSAMA

Batman will use his extensive knowledge of caves to go after a new villain - Osama bin Laden. DC Comics' famed Caped Crusader will turn his focus from clowns like...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

MANHATTAN * A bicyclist was assaulted during a botched robbery on the Upper West Side, police sources said yesterday. The 40-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was riding on...

PAY UP, FEDS - HIP-HOPPER 'GOTTI' WANTS HIS 35G

Hip-hop honcho Chris "Gotti" Lorenzo got back his music label when he beat a money-laundering rap - now he wants his money. The feds have yet to return $35,000 in...

HER 'BRIT'-IOCY DRIVES REFORM

Oops! I'm inspiring new safety laws! The feds yesterday used Britney Spears' reckless driving stunt - in which she zipped along a busy highway with her baby son in her...

ALL WIGHT, SAY YA PWAYERS - WHITE HOUSE VEEP-SHOOT FLAP

WASHINGTON - The White House took heavy flak yesterday for waiting a werry, werry long time before revealing that the wascally Vice President Dick Cheney had shot another hunter. Victim...

PIRRO GAFFE IS MIKE'S LAUGH

Mayor Bloomberg got in a wisecrack yesterday at Jeanine Pirro's expense, joking, "Where's Page 10?" before the start of a City Hall press conference. The mayor was in a good...

STRIKING BACK - FIREFIGHTER HIT BY BUS IN WALKOUT SUES TWU

The firefighter who was critically injured while bicycling to work during the transit strike is suing the Transport Workers Union. By staging an illegal strike, the lawsuit contends, union boss...

GOON HITS 'GAY CAP' WEARER IN HAT CRIME

A homosexual man taking pictures of the snow in Greenwich Village was viciously attacked by a thug who ridiculed him for sporting a hat that "gays always wear," police sources...

BX. BLOODBATH - COPS KILL MAN WHO ATTACKED FAMILY

Bronx cops shot a knife-wielding psycho to death yesterday, but not before he'd critically injured his 18-month-old nephew and attacked the baby's parents and his own mom. Michael Harris, 24,...

270G AN HOUR ON LOBBYING

WASHINGTON - Corporations and special-interest groups spent $6.5 million a day - more than $270,000 per hour - on lobbyists early last year in hopes of influencing federal decision makers....

HIP-HOPPER: PAY UP, FEDS

Hip-hop honcho Chris "Gotti" Lorenzo got back his music label when he beat a money-laundering rap - now he wants his money. The feds have yet to return $35,000 in...

COPS: GAY TEEN KILLED OLDER LOVER

A homeless teen was charged yesterday with stabbing to death an older man who invited the youth to his Bronx apartment for a weekend of sex, police said yesterday. Police...

REP. KING RIPS GORE 'DISGRACE'

WASHINGTON - House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King yesterday blasted Al Gore as "disgraceful" for claiming that President Bush committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after 9/11 and is wrongly barring...

QNS. SANITMAN WAS 'WASTED'

A sanitman who was assigned to push snow off the streets instead plowed drunkenly into a row of parked cars in Queens yesterday, authorities said. Anatoly Zaborsky's huge garbage truck,...

MAN DIES TRYING TO DOUSE FIRE

A Bronx man died in his home yesterday after he tried to fight off a fire that quickly grew out of control, officials said. John Pye, 72, was in his...

OH, BABY! NEW COPS DELIVER

Two rookie cops helped deliver a baby last night while on routine foot patrol inside a Brooklyn building, authorities said. Officers Joseph Jeraci and Constantine Hudson, who graduated from the...

TEEN KILLS GAY LOVER, 35: COPS

A homeless teen was arrested yesterday for allegedly stabbing to death an older man who invited him to his Bronx apartment for a weekend of sex, police said yesterday. Police...

THE PLAGUE OF JIM CROW

From the 1850s to the early 1960s, "Jim Crow" laws ruled the South and devastated the lives of African-Americans. Here's a brief look at the ugliest period of American history....

TOP DOGS TO RAISE THE WOOF

Fluffed and blow-dried, clipped and trimmed, hundreds of the nation's most perfect pooches pranced around the green ring at Madison Square Garden yesterday, hoping to snag top honors at the...

'GAY HAT' ASSAULT IN VILLAGE

A homosexual man taking pictures of the snow in Greenwich Village was attacked by a hooded thug who accused the victim of sporting a hat that "gays always wear," police...

DEALING WITH PENNY

KNICK NOTES DALLAS - Isiah Thomas' intention is to trade Penny Hardaway's expiring contract by the Feb. 23 deadline, but the Knicks president may wait until that day before pulling...

DARING U.S. DUO RULES HALFPIPE

BARDONECCHIA, Italy - About a half-hour before snowboarders Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler began their medal-winning halfpipe runs yesterday, the American duo was doing a different kind of snowboarding. They...

ORANGE AND BOO - ROSE: STOP POINTING FINGERS

DALLAS - Malik Rose said the Knicks' biggest problem is too many players and coaches are pointing fingers at each other to explain the team's catastrophic season - a topic...

PAVANO'S READY TO TEST BACK

The key to the Yankees' pitching success and quite likely their season will throw off a mound tomorrow at the minor league complex in Tampa. Carl Pavano, who missed the...

KNICKS WILL BE NIXED

NO wonder more and more people don't believe what they read in the sports pages. In the last few days, multiple media outlets have reported the Knicks have discussed or...

GAUGING PENNY'S VALUE

KNICK NOTES DALLAS - Isiah Thomas' intention is to trade Penny Hardaway's expiring contract by the Feb. 23 deadline, but in the belief that offers will improve, he may wait...

A GOLDEN DAY FOR TEAM USA - HEARTFELT WIN FOR CHEEK-Y SPEED SKATER

TURIN, Italy - Unless they win again or come close four years later, Olympic winners really are our most disposable sporting heroes. Speed skater Joey Cheek, who won the first...

AFTER THE FALL - CHINESE DUO BOUNCES BACK FOR SILVER

TURIN, Italy - An unforgettable fall led to an unbelievable moment at last night's figure skating pairs competition. The Chinese couple of Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, in second place...

NETS HOPING ROAD EASES IN MOTOWN

NETS at PISTONS - Tonight 7:30 - YES; WFAN Jason Kidd was the last player to leave the practice floor yesterday, putting in some extra work in advance of the...

ABSOLVED SKIERS TO RETURN

Turin 2006 Notebook TURIN, Italy - Four suspended cross-country skiers, including two Americans, were cleared to compete yesterday after passing new hemoglobin tests. The quartet served a five-day suspension for...

PIRATES REALIZE 'D' MUST BE DOMINANT

Seton Hall limps into tonight's tilt (7:30, MSG) with 10th-ranked West Virginia off a 42-point beating at the hands of top-ranked Connecticut. But in many ways, Saturday's humiliation was merely...

OFFENSE ON WAY FOR STORM

Any St. John's fan who has watched the Red Storm struggle of late knows one painful fact: This team needs scoring. Help is on the way. The Red Storm got...

ORANGE AND BOO - KNICKS DROP 10TH STRAIGHT

Mavs 100 - Knicks 72 DALLAS - With locker-room dissension mounting before his eyes, Knicks coach Larry Brown told his players at a meeting yesterday morning at the team hotel...

DISCUSSING HOCKEY, AND ONLY HOCKEY

TORONTO - There are five rings in the Olympic emblem, but Team Canada only needed three of them yesterday for what, by all accounts, was a complete circus surrounding yesterday's...

CONTROVERSY REACHES ITALY - LOOKING FOR A FREE PASS

WHAT Wayne Gretzky is learning now, late in the game, is something everyone who's ever courted fame, and earned it, eventually discovers. The millions of dollars in your bank account...

WRIGHT 'TUDE - POSTSEASON DREAM DRIVES AMAZIN' 3B

PORT ST. LUCIE - There are no mountains of snow here, only sunshine, blue sky, palm trees and that wonderful sound a baseball makes when it hits the bat, the...

CRISIS TURINS THE CORNER

TURIN, Italy - Wayne and Janet Gretzky arrive today and it is rumored the Canadian Olympic hockey team he picked is coming, too. The stated purpose is to win gold...

GRETZKY CRISIS TURINS CORNER

TURIN - Wayne and Janet Gretzky arrive today and it is rumored the Canadian Olympic hockey team he picked is coming, too. The stated purpose is to win gold medals,...

PIRATES KNOW THEY HAVE TO STEP UP 'D'

Seton Hall limps into tonight's tilt (7:30, MSG) with 10th-ranked West Virginia off a 42-point beating at the hands of top-ranked Connecticut. But in many ways, Saturday's humiliation was merely...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

A high-school play was cancelled after teachers discovered the student actors rehearsing in their underwear. The teens at Glenbard West HS near Chicago say they weren't being lascivious by parading...