FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, April 3, 2006

STORKWATCH: Tom Cruise telling German TV on Saturday that fiancée Katie Holmes is ready to give birth any day now. The couple, who plans to marry this summer, has also picked out a name, though the Mission: Impossible III star wouldn't reveal it.

À LA COMMODE: Master-bathroom toilet once owned by Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia swiped from a residential driveway while awaiting shipment to a Canadian casino. The owner had sold the commode to GoldenPalace.com for $2,550 to raise money for charity. The online casino is offering a $250 reward upon the toilet's safe return.

NO THANK YOU FOR SMOKING: Public health officials in New Zealand probing whether Russell Crowe violated smoke-free laws covering concert venues when he puffed away on cigarettes and drank port during a weekend performance of his rock band, the Ordinary Fear of God.

VERY UN-PC: Hairdresser hired to primp Kevin Costner's wedding guests before the actor's 2004 nuptials pleading guilty to stealing a laptop computer from Costner's Aspen home. Salon owner Pascal Bensimon was fined and sentenced to probation and community service. The missing Mac contained pictures from Costner and Christine Baumgartner's wedding ceremony.

DID NOT!: Five of the jurors who found Robert Blake liable for the death of his wife denying charges of jury misconduct brought by Blake's camp. A hearing on the defense's motion to get a new trial is scheduled for Apr. 7.

ICE AGE: THE CHAMP: Ice Age: The Meltdown opening with a mammoth-size $70.5 million in its debut weekend to become the biggest March opening ever. Meanwhile, Sharon Stone's Basic Instinct 2 tanked with $3.2 million in 10th place.

EXXXCELLENT! Twentieth Century Fox rolling out a 25-second teaser trailer this weekend for its long-awaited Simpsons movie attached to Ice Age: The Meltdown. Voice recordings begin this week for the film which opens on July 27, 2007.

TANGLED WEB: Die Hard director John McTiernan becomes the 14th person charged with a crime connected to the case against detective-to-the-stars Anthony Pellicano. McTiernan faces one count of lying to FBI investigators after claiming he did not know about Pellicano's alleged wiretapping activities, according to the charges.

COMING SOON TO A COMPUTER NEAR YOU: Warner Bros., Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Sony and MGM will begin selling digital downloads of major releases later this week via their jointly owned Movielink Website.

EURO DATES: Bruce Springsteen announcing 10 European concert dates in support of We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions beginning May 5 in Dublin. The album hits stores Apr. 25, and Springsteen debuts with the Seeger Sessions Band Apr. 30 at the New Orleans Heritage & Jazz Festival.

CONFESSIONS ON THE ROAD: Madonna announcing dates for her upcoming the World Is My Dance Floor tour supporting her hit album, Confessions on a Dance Floor. The trek will kick off in Los Angeles May 21 and hit cities across the U.S. and Canada before heading over to Europe and then Japan.

THAT'S CRAZY: "Crazy" by British hip-hop artist Gnarls Barkley becoming first song to reach number one on Britain's singles chart from download sales alone, pushing 31,000 copies before the record hit stores Monday.

SADDLING UP: Also announcing tour dates on Monday was the James Gang. Original members Jimmy Fox, Dale Peters and Joe Walsh kick off their first joint tour in more than 35 years in Denver on Aug. 9.

KATIE'S NEXT MOVE? The broadcasting world awaiting word whether Katie Couric will jump ship from NBC's Today once her contract ends May 31 and head to CBS Evening News. An announcement is expected very soon.

GETTING REAL: CMT planning to air Finding Miss America, a new seven-episode reality series giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Miss America contestants competing in preliminary competitions leading up to the big show.

IDOL WATCH: Country music legend Kenny Rogers set to perform on Wednesday's American Idol on Fox.

NEW PEACOCK ORDER: NBC's Law & Order returning to its regular Wednesday 10 p.m. time slot with new episodes while rookie drama Heist will go up against ABC's Lost at 9 p.m.

ON THE BEAT: Speaking of Law & Order, Jerry Lewis to make dramatic guest appearance on the SVU edition as the homeless uncle of Detective Munch (Richard Belzer) who becomes a murder suspect. The ep is slated to air in June.

HEAVENLY REUNION: Jessica Biel and Barry Watson will return to 7th Heaven for the WB show's' May 8 series finale.

GIVING PROPS: Brad Pitt telling TV Guide that it was U2 frontman Bono, not girlfriend Angelina Jolie, who inspired him to get involved in global humanitarian causes. The thesp narrates PBS' new doc, Rx for Survival: The Heroes, debuting Apr. 12.

WEDDING BELLS: NBC's Weekend Today coanchor Campbell Brown, 37, tying the knot Sunday with Fox News analyst Dan Senor, 34, in Beaver Creek, Colorado, according to People.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: British director Ken Russell and his family unhurt as a fire tore through their countryside home Monday.

FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Melissa Etheridge, Ben Harper, Def Leppard and Nine Inch Nails among the artists teaming up with Ticketmaster and promoters for an online ticket auction raising money for Music Rising, a musical instrument replacement fund founded by U2's the Edge benefiting Gulf Coast musicians. It runs through April.

REMEMBERING BUCK: Dwight Yoakam, Trace Adkins and Garth Brooks among 2,000 friends, family and fans who gathered in Bakersfield, California, Sunday for a memorial service paying tribute to country music great Buck Owens, who died last week.

KIDS HAVE CHOSEN: Green Day rocked Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards, winning Favorite Music Group and Favorite Song. Drake Bell and Jamie Lynn Spears won Favorite TV Actor and Actress, and Chris Rock won the Wannabe Award.

NO DEATH ROW: Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight skipped a court-ordered appearance at a hearing about his assets Saturday. This sets the stage for the courts to take control of his Death Row Records label.

CHRIS FARLEY LIVES: An advocacy group erecting billboards in Los Angeles with Chris Farley's image to advertise treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

WHAT WILL THE VOTERS SAY? Raj Bhakta, the 30-year-old ex-Apprentice contestant running for Congress in suburban Philadelphia, admitting that he'd been busted twice on drunk-driving charges, allegations first reported by the Smoking Gun Website.

ACROSS THE BORDER: Vancouver crooner Michael Bublé snagging four prizes at the Junos, Canada's version of the Grammys. Rock legend Neil Young won for Best Alternative Album for Prairie Wind and Best Producer.

COFFEE TALK: Starbucks launching its first movie-related tie-in with a marketing campaign for Lionsgate's upcoming drama Akeelah and the Bee, starring Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, opening Apr. 28.

TO THE BOARDS: Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman set to direct a The Little Flower of East Orange, a new play by Stephen Adly Guirgis debuting at the Manhattan Theater Club's 6@7 Reading Series running Apr. 10 through May 22.

BASIC INSTINCT: A recently released study from the University of North Carolina declaring that sexually explicit music, magazines, TV and movies act as a virtual peer driving kids to have sex at an earlier age.