FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, December 5, 2002

WHO'S BAD? A California judge announcing that Michael Jackson was MIA for his last day of testimony today due to that nasty spider bite he received this week which hobbled the pop star. Yesterday he showed up on crutches to testify in the $21 million lawsuit filed against him over canceled millennium concerts.

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING: Showtime's Soul Food scoring seven nominations to lead the TV field at the 2003 NAACP Image Awards. The romantic comedy Brown Sugar tallied seven nods on the movie side. Winners will be announced March 8 in Los Angeles.

OOPS: Eric Benet telling Access Hollywood that he and the missus, Halle Berry are going through a "personal crisis" and that he has made some unspecified "terrible mistakes." The couple say they are trying to work things out.

IN MEMORIAM: TV pioneer Roone Arledge, the ABC exec who masterminded such shows as Monday Night Football and Nightline, died Thursday of cancer, the network announced. He was 71.

FAREWELL: William "Tex" Henson, the animator who helped create Rocky and Bullwinkle and Disney's Chip 'n Dale, has died of head injuries sustained in a car crash outside Dallas. He was 78.

MEMENTO REDUX? Wesley Snipes set to star in Revolution Studio's sci-fi actioner John Doe, playing a man who suffers from severe memory loss who must elude a relentless assassin while trying to find out his true identity.

UP THE CHARTS! Country pop diva Shania Twain ruling the album charts for a second week as her Up! sold more than 625,000 copies. Tim McGraw's new album, Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors, landed close behind at number two, while Jennifer Lopez's fourth album, This is Me?Then, scored the biggest debut of her singing career, coming in at number six.

REMEMBERING THE MASTER: Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons and Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels will be joined by Nas, Nelly and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry for a special musical salute to slain Run-D.M.C. deejay Jam Master Jay during this year's Billboard Music Awards.

ABDUCTING VIEWERS: The Sci-Fi Channel engineering the best ratings in its history thanks to Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, its 20-hour, 10-night mini-series, which snagged 6.14 million viewers for its two-hour Monday night debut.

WHAT'S THE POINT? With categories like "Rockin' and Rulin' " and "Strange But True," the VH1 Big in 2002 awards honored some of the most memorable entertainment moments of the year Wednesday night, handing out trophies to rapper Ice Cube, Vanessa Carlton and Vin Diesel, among others.

MEET THE SMITHS: UPN partnering with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith on a family comedy based loosely on the Hollywood couple's home life. Neither stars will appear onscreen in the series, though both are executive producing.

ON THE MOVE: Rapper Nas pushing up the release date of his latest album, God's Son, from Tuesday, December 17 to Friday, December 13, because widespread counterfeit copies have already begun circulating on the Internet, the rapper's label said on Wednesday.

PUBLIC FEUD: Public television journalist Bill Moyers buying an advertisement in the New York Daily News denying charges leveled by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that Moyers benefited from taxpayer money by keeping profits from videotapes of some programs he does for tax-subsidized PBS. Moyers called O'Reilly's accusations a "vicious personal attack."

ON THE MEND: CNN anchor Paula Zahn in good spirits after breaking a bone below her knee while skiing over the Thanksgiving weekend, a network spokeswoman said Wednesday. She'll be out for the rest of the week but could be back on the air as early as next week.

STICKING UP FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Robert Redford criticizing the Bush administration in a commentary in the Los Angeles Times. Redford says the White House has faile to address U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and the President's energy policy "to date--a military garrison in the Middle East and drilling for more oil in the Arctic and other fragile habitats--is costly, dangerous and self-defeating."

SIDELINED: Korn forced to cancel the last five dates on its Pop Sux! tour, due to the strained vocal cords of frontman Jonathan Davis. Doctors have urged him to stop performing immediately to prevent damage to his vocal cords.

MORE MOVIES ON THE NET: RealNetworks Inc. and cable movie channel company Starz Encore Group joining forces to offer movie subscriptions over the Internet. The new service will launch in spring 2003.