February 26, 2006

LEGAL FIGHTS EYED AGAINST LYRICS WEB SITES

Web sites that feature song lyrics or sheet music without permission may soon be forced to shut down as two music industry groups weigh a legal offensive, The Post has...

CARL THE COUCH POTATO - ICAHN: SOCIAL LIFE NOW IS WATCHING MOVIES AT HOME

SOMEBODY please invite Carl Icahn and his wife to a party. Maybe the billionaire financier would be less inclined to attack companies like Time Warner if he had a thriving,...

HEROIN JINGLES JANGLE NERVES

Heroin chic is alive and well and still living on Madison Avenue - except instead of inhabiting waifish models, it has manifested itself as the background music of choice for...

ALL-DAY ZUCKER; FLAT OLYMPICS LEAVE NBC CHIEF WITH FEW CARDS

If past is prologue, the Winter Olympics' poor ratings performance should garner Jeff Zucker another promotion. That's because Zucker, the CEO of NBC Universal's television group, has a history of...

MYSTERIES OF ENERGY PRICES AND GOV'T INACTION

Dear John: Would you please explain the relationship between gas and heating oil prices? I went to fill up recently and the price was 10 cents higher than the day...

PAWS & PLAY; DEVOTED CAT INSPIRES OFF-BROADWAY DRAMA

The lead character in the new off-Broadway romantic comedy "Indoor/Outdoor" is a sensitive gal named Samantha. Like a lot of us in relationships, she adores her guy but finds it...

HEAVEN CAN'T WAIT

SO, you're no doubt wondering, why would a sweet 19-year-old woman, who had never acted before, agree to make a movie, "Battle in Heaven," that required her to have full-frontal...

TOPALOV SAVES UP FOR A BRAINY DAY

WHAT does it take these days to play an immortal game? It's two parts inspiration, one part computer, some help from a second and lots of hard work at the...

'THE SHIELD' - COPS' LIVES - AND THE SHOW'S FUTURE - HANG IN THE BALANCE

IS Claudette Wyms dead or alive? It is almost unbelievable to fans of "The Shield" that this question even has to be asked. But that's "The Shield" for you, a...

ABC NEWS STUMBLING IN CELEBRITY FOG

WARNING to Ted Koppel: Watching "Night-line" might be hazardous to your health. I don't mean to imply that Koppel has a weak heart or is in less than robust health....

THE DON'T MISS LIST

D R A M A Paging Dr. Carter,in the African desert MOVING from its gritty Chicago home to the desert of Sudan, "ER" plays catch-up with Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle)...

WILLIAMS GRADUATES TO CHIEF NBC SHILL

WHAT'S the worst that could happen if a network decreed and then declared that its news anchors will not serve as shills? Really, what if that network, first in production...

REEL GOOD - LINDA STASI PREVIEWS THIS WEEK'S BEST MOVIES

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965) Monday, 10:30 p.m.,TCM Richard Burton is a world-weary spy who flat out refuses to come in from the cold war and...

HOT LIST - WHAT WE'RE OBSESSED WITH THIS WEEK

1. '24' 24/7 Think the show gets your adrenaline going? Snipe, phone tap and interrogate terrorists - you play the CTU agents - in the PS2-only "24: The Game." Penned...

THE RETURN OF THE KING

'LOVE Me Tender," Elvis Presley's first movie, is also his most unusual. It was the only time the King played a supporting role, and it was the only movie not...

BLOODY GOOD - OUR FAVORITE SEXY VAMPS

Over the years, vampires have gone from crusty, poorly manicured bloodsuckers (see 1922's "Nosferatu") to smoking-hot creatures. On Friday, Milla Jovovich takes gorgeous reanimated corpses to a new level with...

HEAR THIS

IN CONCERT Surprise, surprise. Billy Joel plays the Garden tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday. Tomorrow: Brit-pop sensation Coldplay at Nassau Coliseum. Brooklyn indie rockers the Honorary Title at the Knitting Factory....

THIS WEEK'S CDS

HANK WILLIAMS III "Straight to Hell" 3 STARS (Bruc) IF you've ever seen Shelton "Hank III" Williams, in concert, you know he's a twanger torn between his honky-tonk heritage and...

A PIT-IFUL STORY - WARPED ROCKERS TAKE ON CRAZY 'MEATHEAD' CONCERT MOSHERS

WHEN the Taste of Chaos tour - a wintry cousin of the "punk-rock summer camp" Warped Tour - hits the Meadowlands on Friday, headliners Story of the Year are looking...

AGED SCOTCH - BELLE &SEBASTIAN'S 10TH BIRTHDAY

When Sarah Adams, the violinist in Scottish folk-pop band Belle & Sebastian, describes the group's new rehearsal space - just a mile walk from her house - in Glasgow's West...

BOOK REVIEW

THE HYPOCHONDRIAC'S POCKET GUIDE TO HORRIBLE DISEASES YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE Dennis DiClaudio 3 STARS Bloomsbury, $14.95 IF you've ever heard a hacking cough on the subway and immediately wondered...

MEET MARKET - THE PLACE WHERE THE POST HOOKS YOU UP AND SENDS YOU OUT

Musician has a 'lock on charm MEET Chase, an engaging 34-year-old musician who describes himself as "outgoing, positive and curious about life and people." He also says that he loves...

UNFUGEDDABLE SOPRANO PEEK

The Whack Pack is back - and they're teasing the Armani pants off fans everywhere. After a two-year hiatus, "The Sopranos" returns March 12 for its final 20 planned episodes...

TOXIC MILK MAID; POISONS BEAU: COPS

A mentally disturbed Hamptons woman was ar raigned yesterday for alle gedly spiking her live-in boyfriend's milk with a po tentially lethal dose of ant poison. Patricia Berzon, 55, of...

SUOZZI SADDLES UP; CUTS IN ON SPITZ DEM RUN FOR GOV

Declaring that his record as a government reformer beats Eliot Spitzer's, dark-horse Democrat Tom Suozzi officially threw himself into the race for governor yesterday. "We're both elected officials, but my...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

QUEENS *** Cops are looking for a bandit (above) who robbed a bank in Jamaica Estates this month. The stickup man entered a Washington Mutual Savings Bank on Union Turnpike...

ANTHRAX MAN STILL SERIOUS

The West African man who contracted anthrax from imported drum skins remained in serious condition yesterday, as health officials here figured out how to best clean up any lingering spores....

INSIDE BOWELS OF GORY CADAVER SCHEME

Welcome to the Cutting Room, the heart of the gruesome body-snatching operation that allegedly saw ghouls secretly carve up at least a thousand bodies in chop shops across the city...

TEEN SLAIN IN MELEE STABBING

A Brooklyn teen was stabbed to death early yesterday in a melee that landed another man in the hospital with serious head wounds, cops said. Neighbors living near 8665 26th...

MAN SURVIVES TRAIN HIT

A man survived the closest of calls yesterday when an eagle-eyed subway train operator spotted him lying on a track in Brooklyn and hit the brakes in the nick of...

POL CALLS FOR 'SHOCK TROOP'

Con Ed may soon have help combating the stray- voltage epidemic - whether it likes it or not. City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (left) is calling for a city law...

SONGBIRD & SONG-NERD; N.Y.'S 'IDOL' DUET HITS HIGH NOTE

New York's own geek and superfreak are singing their way to "American Idol" stardom - for now. Cutie nerd Kevin Covais, 16, of Levittown, L.I., and caustic firebrand Brenna Gethers,...

WOMAN'S BODY DUMPED IN B'KLYN

The nude body of a woman was wrapped in a blanket and dumped on the side of a road in Brooklyn, police said yesterday. The body was found on Fountain...

DMC STAR SEEKS HIS MAC DADDY

At 35, rap icon Darryl "DMC" McDaniels learned a shattering secret: He had been adopted. The discovery dropped McDaniels, also known as Darryl Mac, into an emotional five-year quest to...

WIDOW FORGIVES CHEATER DON'S DOUBLE DEAL

News of John Gotti's secret goumada and love child would wound her deeply, but never crack her devotion and loyalty, the widow of the late mob boss confessed to The...

MEET GOTTI'S GO-TO GAL PAL; MISTRESS IS S.I. WIFE OF A 'GAMBINO'

A woman who was one of the late mob don John Gotti's mistresses - and allegedly the mother of a secret love child - lives on Staten Island with her...

MOB WIFE ON SCARS' BETRAYAL

Toni Marie Ricci knows all about husbands with secret families. Ricci says her ex - mob rat Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, who told a jury last week that Mafia don...

3 BUSTED IN FBI-INTERRUPTED SHOOTOUT

Three men have been arrested in connection with Friday night's shootout disrupted by a FBI agent in Brooklyn. The G-man, who was on an unrelated stakeout, opened fire himself during...

TV LEGEND DON KNOTTS DIES AT 81

Don Knotts - the bug-eyed comic actor whose sidekick role in "The Andy Griffith Show" and performance as the landlord on "Three's Company" made him a star for generations -...

BX. 15-YR.-OLD STABBED DEAD

A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in front of his Bronx apartment building last night, police said. Edwin Hammonds was in front of his home at 1641 Andrews Ave....

TWICE-STRUCK MAN CRITICAL

A 32-year-old man was struck by two cars and left critcally injured while crossing a Brooklyn street, police said yesterday. The man was crossing at Macdonald Avenue and Avenue N...

COPS NAB PARK SLOPE BB BANDIT

A pellet-gun-toting robber was foiled after a quick-thinking witness called 911 during a daylight robbery at a tony Park Slope supermarket, police sources said. Alexander Griffith, 29, of Fredericksburg, Va.,...

WALL COMES DOWN; 9/11 TRIBUTE IN VILLAGE TOO FRAYED FOR UPKEEP

A Greenwich Village hospital's inspiring and heartbreaking "Wall of Hope and Remembrance" honoring the victims of 9/11 is no more. St. Vincent's Hospital was forced this month to remove the...

TICKETS TO RUIN; 'CURSE' PLAGUES LOTTERY WINNERS

WHEN Nebraska factory worker Dung Tran shoved a $365 million winning lottery ticket into his pocket last week because, he said, it "scares you," and when Queens sales rep Jay...

NEW 'SHIFT' FOR AXED STAFFERS

NOT all the staffers who lost their jobs in Council Speaker Christine Quinn's housecleaning are leaving the government payroll: Two quietly got stashed in the city clerk's office. "They had...

MEMORIAL CONCERNS; ACCURACY AND SAFETY AT WTC FACILITY

IN the coming months, work is to begin for a memorial to the victims of the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center attacks. This vital project must move forward. The...

LONG ISLANDER'S LONG-SHOT BID JUST TOM-FOOLERY

ALBANY - Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi is taking on Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in the race for governor with no identifiable political base, with no powerful political support, and...

'32G A WEEK' HAUL FOR ATM CARD SHARK

Accused ID thief and ATM cheat Andrei Potupa has been rifling through other people's cash accounts for years - and ripped off a cool $32,000 from multiple cash machines in...

BAD TASTE OF KOSHER IN CHELSEA

A hot-shot restaurateur is embroiled in a holy war over plans to bring an upscale kosher eatery to Chelsea, where neighbors say it's not permitted - or welcome. Arthur Emil,...

STATE PROBES HOSP 'DRUG-DEALING' RING

The state is probing prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center amid allegations hospital workers illegally used and dealt prescription drugs from the basement, The Post has learned. Its investigation will focus...

BOSSY COMIN' TO COLISEUM CELEBRATION

Mike Bossy not only will be attending the March 4 festivities at the Coliseum in honor of the 1980 Islanders Stanley Cup champions, but is owed a singular apology from...

LAVIO-LOSERS; USA HOCKEY NEEDS MAKEOVER

IT WASN'T what he said, it's when and how he said it. Because though Mike Modano's post-elimination comments in Turin came off like little more than whiny excuse-making, the American...

U.S. ATTITUDE 'UNFORTUNATE'

OLYMPICS NOTEBOOK TURIN, Italy - After reading headlines about misbehaving U.S. athletes for the past two weeks, the United States Olympic Committee leadership vowed to make changes before the next...

TOEING FORWARD; PEDRO: 'I BELIEVE I'LL BE THERE OPENING DAY'

PORT ST. LUCIE - Step by step, inch by inch, Pedro Martinez draws closer to actually toeing the rubber. This, you see, is the big news - the only news...

GIANTS THREE VETS LIGHTER

Sometimes moves that seem to make sense are complete busts. That's what happened with the Giants and linebacker Barrett Green, who was released yesterday after two dismal seasons. On a...

WILLIE'S MEMORY DOESN'T SERVE

MET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - The farther removed from one's career, the more of those line drives actually seemed to have dropped in, even for as good a ballplayer...

CALL HIM ALL THE WAY-ROD; CONFIDENT ALEX: 'THIS IS OUR YEAR'

TAMPA - George Steinbrenner has already predicted a World Series victory. Joe Torre's pre-camp speech focused on the World Series. Now, after less than one week of spring training workouts,...

READY TO ROCK AND RULE

TAMPA - This is about a feeling, a sense, something you perceive in the air. This is about a vibe the Yankees are emitting this spring, a vibe I last...

GALLOPING GROCER ENDS DROUGHT

Welcome back, Galloping Grocer! It's been a long time between drinks for Dominick Schettino's 4-year-old N.Y.-bred gelding, who looked like second coming of Hindoo winning first three starts as 2-year-old...

KRSTIC EMERGING AS NETS' SECRET STAR

Vince Carter said he could see the change in Nenad Krstic, long before Knicks sieve Eddy Curry made Krstic look like the All-Star he dreams of becoming. Carter could see...

PAVANO TAKING IT SLOW

YANKEE NOTES TAMPA - When Brian Cashman announced a lower back injury would prevent Carl Pavano from joining the regular throwing program at the start of camp, the GM hoped...

HERM'S CHAD HINT; QB TOLD HIM HE EXPECTS TO BE JET

INDIANAPOLIS - Former Jets coach Herman Edwards expects Chad Pennington to be the Jets' starting quarterback this year because that's what Pennington told him when the two spoke by telephone...

ABRAHAM: IT'S TIME FOR ME TO MOVE ON

John Abraham is more than ready to sack the Jets. "I don't think they really respect me as a player," Abraham told The Post yesterday in his first public remarks...

UPPERS BAN MAY BE DOWNER

TAMPA - Testing for amphetamines will change the product on the field, but to what extent remains a mystery in the Yankees' clubhouse. After taking away steroids, Major League Baseball...

HOOSIER HEAVEN COULD SAVE ISIAH

TURNS out Larry Brown got confused; he thought Isiah Thomas told him he could get Bevo Francis. How can Stevie Knicks and Stephon Marbury be the "most expensive backcourt in...

RICE ROLLS ON ; KELLY (31) POWERS RAIDERS

Rice 97All Hallows 64 Xaverian coach Jack Alesi walked out during the second half of yesterday's New York Diocesan championship game and shook his head. "They look pretty good today,"...

D-PLORABLE! LARRY'S LOSERS STINKO AGAIN

Wizards 110Knicks 89 WASHINGTON - Bring back Don Chaney. Bring back Lenny Wilkens. Or make Herb Williams the coach again. The Knicks were never this embarrassing under those coaches. The...

MARBURY COULD BE RETURNED TO SHELF

KNICK NOTES WASHINGTON - Stephon Marbury's left shoulder did not prevent him from scoring 15 first-half points last night, making 6-of-8 field goals, primarily long-range jumpers. But Marbury had trouble...

SUFFERN IS HERE, SUFFERIN' IS OVER

THE wind is howling and the temperatures are plunging, but this Thursday, the first sure sign of spring for sportsmen and women arrives in the form of the Suffern Show....

TURIN OUT THE LIGHTS - NBC'S ITALIAN DRAMA A THING OF THE PAST-A

FOOL us once, shame on you. Fool us once every two years, you lose. What goes around eventually had to come around to bite NBC. You can't succeed by, a)...

RISE & SHINE - LOOKING FOR YANKS' NEXT CANO & WANG

A YEAR ago at this time, Robinson Cano wore No. 72 and Chien Ming-Wang wore No. 76, and both practiced in what could be considered baseball's witness protection plan -...

APOLO ON TOP - OH, YES! OHNO WINS GOLD IN 500

TURIN, Italy - This time there was just a gold medal for Apolo Anton Ohno, no drama or controversy. Well, almost. The short track speed skater, who usually finds trouble...

FANTASTIC FINNISH - SWEDEN STANDS IN WAY OF HOCKEY GOLD MEDAL

TURIN, Italy - There are 9 million persons in Sweden, 5.2 million persons in Finland - and 295 million Americans who could care less about watching those two countries play...

RIGHT ON THE MONEY - NFL SYSTEM MAKES MOST SENSE

ON THE one hand, you can understand and empathize with the laments of the two erstwhile cornerstones of the New York Jets. On a certain level, you can see where...

IT'S CLASS WARFARE! BLUEBLOOD HUSKIES ANXIOUS BUT EAGER FOR WILDCAT ACTION

CALHOUNVILLE - Calhounville? Hey, if it's good for Duke, it's good for Connecticut. The tents began going up outside Gampel Pavilion midway through last week, not long after Connecticut pulled...

PILFERED RECRUIT EAGER FOR WHAT'S IN STORRS

To St. John's, he's a turncoat. To UConn, he's a prodigal son. But Dougie Wiggins, the point guard from East Hartford, Conn., can't be summed up that simply. He's neither...

HEAD TO HEAD - CAR WARS

Post writer Mike Forde and columnist Steve Serby slug it out over whether it's time to count NASCAR as a major sport: Mike Forde: Steve, I'll start this off much...

IT'S ALL BULLSPIT - LARRY & ISIAH ARE SPEWING NONSENSE

WASHINGTON - They go off in different ways now. Isiah Thomas jets to Europe for a scouting mission to Italy and Spain. Larry Brown took Team Titanic on a three-game...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

It's all Jim Pollard can do to avoid gobbledygook when he performs at Cluckapalooza, the annual Grand National Wild Turkey Calling Championships. "When you get up on that stage, you're...