FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, July 12, 1999

Johnny Depp...Tom Cruise...Jesse Ventura...

By Joal Ryan Jul 12, 1999 9:20 PMTags
PIE LOVERS: Teen sex flick American Pie scored at the weekend box office with $18.1 million, good for No. 1.

MILD WEST: Will Smith's Wild Wild West placed second with $16.7 million, but dropped 40 percent from last week's debut.

WAR! The NAACP calling out ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox today for a "virtual whitewash in programming." A lawsuit's possible.

CURSES! Oft-busted rapper DMX sprung from a Trinidad jail today after paying a $25 fine on an obscenity charge. He was arrested Sunday in mid-concert.

SICK BAY: Popster Elton John, 52, out of the hospital and feeling "very well" after being fitted for a pacemaker, Friday in London.

THE PLAYER? Johnny Depp, who donned angora for Ed Wood, considering a biopic about flamboyant piano man Liberace, Time magazine says. For more casting news, see Dotted Line.

CRUISIN': Tom Cruise eyeing a big-budget remake of cult flick Death Race 2000, to be retitled Death Race 3000, the Hollywood Reporter says.

COURTHOUSE: In Los Angeles, a federal judge today refused to toss a libel lawsuit by Cruise and wife Nicole Kidman against the Star tabloid, clearing the way for a trial.

SPORTS FAN: Julia Roberts' production company to develop a biopic on 1940s tennis champ Pancho Gonzales for HBO, the Reporter says.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Universal "so excited" about its B-list-cast Flintstones prequel, Viva Rock Vegas, that it's staking out a May 12, 2000, premiere date.

SKYWALKING: The original Star Wars named the best movie of the millennium in a poll by a British cable channel.

BACK IN THE RING: Wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura to appear at a WWF event August 22 in Minnesota. Details on his involvement to be announced Wednesday.

FAB: The surviving Beatles to perform "Yellow Submarine" aboard a yellow submarine for a live TV special in Britain next month, the New York Post says.

TUBE TALK: Jamie Luner, late of WB soap Savannah, to take over the title role on NBC's The Profiler, replacing Ally Walker.

NAME GAME: The WB changing the title of its upcoming animated series The Downtowners to Mission Hill to steer clear of MTV's upcoming Downtown.

F.Y.I.: Rocker Sheryl Crow tells TV Guide her hit, "My Favorite Mistake," is not about her six-month affair with guitar great Eric Clapton.

NURSERY NEWS: Singer/priest Sinead O'Connor is pregnant, a London tab says. It'll be her third kid; her first by the reputed daddy, an Irish newspaperman.

DOG DAYS: Fans asked to keep Mary Chapin Carpenter's Golden Retriever in their prayers after the country singer nixed a show Friday in Missouri to be with the ill pet.

FOUND (SORT OF): That missing rental truck containing Sonic Youth's music gear found in Orange, California--unfortunately, the music gear wasn't in it, SonicNet says.

ZZZ-MAN? Don Imus losing his current Boston affiliate as of August 24 on account of a station official says the ornery radio star has gone soft.

IMUS ADD: The talk host says he has a new Beantown affiliate lined up and claims the old affiliate simply didn't want to cough up the money to keep the show.

ANGEL: Actress Elizabeth Taylor honored Saturday in West Hollywood by Project Angel Food, a group that delivers meals to AIDS patients.