FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, April 21, 2006

THE FINAL FRONTIER: J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Mission: Impossible III) coming aboard to helm the first Star Trek feature since 2002 that will reportedly focus on the early days of Kirk and Spock and their first outer-space mission.

CRUISE CONTROL: Just days after he and Katie Holmes welcomed daughter Suri, Tom Cruise already doing media rounds for Mission: Impossible III, directed by Abrams. The actor told ABC's 20/20 "it was everything that we wanted it to be...spiritual."

BABY FOO: Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and wife Jordyn Blum, celebrating the arrival of their first child, Violet Maye, on Saturday in Los Angeles, according to People. The tyke weighted in at six pounds, 15 ounces.

OFF THE ISLAND: Bruce Kanegai, a 58-year-old karate instructor, forced off Survivor: Panama-Exile Island thanks to an intestinal blockage that needed hospitalization.

GETTING NASTY? Denise Richards' attorney obtaining a restraining order against estranged hubby Charlie Sheen. She claims he pushed, shoved and threatened to kill her.

SHEEN ADD: The actress also accused Sheen of having an alleged prostitution and porn habit, including visiting Websites supposedly featuring underage girls. Sheen released a statement denying the charges and calling them a "smear campaign" designed to "embarass" him. "For the sake of my children, I am electing not to reciprocate in kind," he said.

BEHIND BARS: D12 rapper Swift, arrested and jailed Thursday on a probation violation steeming from a drunk driving case after he skipped a court date so he could attend the funeral of his friend, Proof.

IT'S A DEAL: Nelly agreeing to pay $20,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a freelance photographer who claimed the rap star's bodyguard roughed him up.

SAVE THE RAINFORESTS! Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, James Taylor, Billy Joel and Sting among the artists slated to perform at a Rainforest Foundation Fund Benefit Concert slated for New York City's Carnegie Hall May 19.

WHAMMY OF A TOUR: George Michael announcing he'll tour Europe for the first time since 1991 to mark the 25th anniversary of his carer. The 25 Live trek kicks off in Madrid on Sept. 27 and wraps up in Great Britain in November.

BRANCHING OUT: Per the Hollywood Reporter, Paula Abdul in talks to develop a variety of syndicated projects with CBS Paramount Domestic Television.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Ron Howard signing on to direct The Look of Real, an ensemble film about young women in the fashion industry that he hopes will star his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard.

STICK A FORK IN IT: NBC canceling Celebrity Cooking Showdown due to low ratings. The final two episodes will air back-to-back on Saturday.

BIG JOURNEY: Brendan Fraser coming aboard New Line Cinema's 3-D remake of the Jules Verne' classic Journey to the Center of the Earth, per Variety.

RUNNIN' DOWN A TOUR: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers launching a summer North American tour June 9 in Charlotte. Former Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio will open the first eight shows, followed by Pearl Jam for another six.

PETTY ADD: Meanwhile, Petty expected to release another solo record, Highway Companion, this summer with two new tunes set to premiere as part of the NBA playoff telecasts starting Saturday.

EARMUFFS: The California State Supreme Court ruling that a writer's assistant was not sexually harassed, as she claimed, when writers for NBC's Friends used "sexually coarse and vulgar language" around her because the remarks were made in a "creative workplace" by people working on an "adult-oriented" show.

REVOLVING DOOR: CBS Radio close to pulling the plug on David Lee Roth's morning radio show and replacing him with Opie and Anthony's syndicated XM satellite radio show.

GETTING HELP: A London judge sentencing Pete Doherty to 18 months of drug rehab, warning him not to drive for 6 months and giving him two years of probation.

MORE SHAMBLES: Just hours after his court appearance Thursday, Doherty reportedly arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs with intent to supply. He was released on bail Friday morning.

BARRED: Lewis Alsamari, an Iraqi actor who plays a hijacker in United 93, the movie about the 9-11 United Flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, denied entry into the U.S. to attend the film's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York next week.

L'CHAIM! Will Smith accidentally crashing the bar mitzvah of a 13-year-old boy on Thursday when he turned up to visit Jerusalem's revered Western Wall. After creating a ruckus, the thesp was kind enough to pose for pictures with the youngster.

NERVOUS: Indonesian Playboy's publishers deciding whether to go forward with a new edition, after a toned-down first issue was greeted with violent protests in the Muslim nation earlier this month and has since become a collector's item on eBay.

SHE LIKES: Dariga Nazarbayev, the daughter of the president of Kazakhstan, telling her fellow country men to lighten up about comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's character, Borat, saying the attacks on the funnyman embarrassed the nation more than the jokes themselves.