FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, February 11, 1998

OSCAR ODDS: Las Vegas has set the line for the Academy Award race. Titanic and L.A. Confidential are listed as even-money favorites for Best Picture, Peter Fonda and Robert Duvall are even-money faves in the actor department and Helena Bonham Carter and Julie Christie are the odds-on leaders in the actress category.

OSCAR OMISSIONS: The head of the NAACP says this year's Oscar nominees show nothing's changed in Hollywood. Not one black person is nominated in any of the glamour categories. Oscar officials say that race has nothing to do with the nominations. Meanwhile, the NAACP hands out its own Image Awards this weekend.

SMOOTH SAILING: The Titanic soundtrack avoided that big iceberg called Pearl Jam to remain No. 1 on the pop charts this week. The grunge band's latest album, Yield, debuted at No. 2 with sales of 359,000.

RAGING BULL: Robert De Niro "never paid for a woman in his life." That's the word from his attorney, who says De Niro is "a little angry" after being questioned by a judge in Paris about a French call-girl ring. The lawyer says De Niro will sue the judge for holding him all day Tuesday for questioning. De Niro's name was found in a prostitute's address book seized by police.

CLEARED: A Connecticut jury has found Eric Douglas (son of Kirk, brother of Michael) not guilty of improperly touching a 12-year-old girl in a psychiatric hospital in 1996. The sometime actor faced up to 20 years if convicted. Upon leaving the court, however, Douglas was slapped with a civil lawsuit by the girl's family.

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: Washed up Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose spent some quality time in a jail cell last night. During a trip from Phoenix to California, the singer cussed out and threatened an airport security guard who asked to search his bags, police say. Rose is under investigation on a charge of midsdemeanor disorderly conduct.

COMEBACK: Billboard reports that Madonna will perform Saturday at New York's Roxy nightclub. It will be her first club performance in more than 10 years. No tickets are available for the gig, however, and the Material Mom is said to be performing only three songs, all from her forthcoming Ray of Light album.

DISGUSTED DOC: M*A*S*H-man Alan Alda has sued Fox, claiming the corporation sold reruns of the classic sitcom to its own FX cable network way below market value. "Fox sits on both sides of the bargaining table," Alda says in the suit.

INNOCENT MAN: More artist-friendly goings-on at VH1. The music network has shelved an episode of Pop-Up Video after Billy Joel complained his kid was getting teased over the "popped-up" version of his 1980s hit, "Keepin' the Faith," New York magazine reports. One of the show's snide bubbles noted that Christie Brinkley reportedly didn't "keep the faith" during her marriage to the Piano Man.

SIMON SAYS: Songstress Carly Simon says it was an artistic decision by director Mike Nichols, not a political decision on her part, to pull her music from the upcoming political satire, Primary Colors. The movie is about a Bill Clinton-esque presidential candidate. Simon, a famous Friend of Bill, was reportedly upset after seeing a cut of the flick.

BOXING O.J.: O.J. Simpson, who once pleaded no contest to battering then wife Nicole, will talk boxing on a local New York radio station Thursday. He'll be the guest of fight manager Rock Newman.

COASTING KATO: Kato Kaelin, who once played the role of World's Most Famous House Guest, offers advice on how to score a free pad in a column in the March edition of P.O.V. magazine. The O.J. Simpson bit player says it helps if you think of yourself as a golden retriever: "Remember, you are man's best friend."

DO OVER: It's back to the set for cast and crew of A Simple Plan. The movie, which stars Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda, was forced to do the reshoot after Northwest Airlines lost a reel of film. The air carrier has no idea what happened to the footage.

TUB THUMPING: The zany anarchists in Chumbawamba are at it again. At Monday night's Brit Awards, bandmember Danbert Nobacon hopped up on the table of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and dumped a bin of water on him. The band says it was a political statement. Prescott calls it a "deplorable" publicity stunt and is considering pressing charges.

DEVIL'S DUE: Don't look for that video of Devil's Advocate anytime soon. A federal judge is holding up the February 17 release of the Al Pacino-Keanu Reeves movie because a sculptor claims the film misappropriated his work. The original artwork adorns the National Cathedral--in the film, a version of the work does an erotic dance in the devil's apartment.

HEALING: Veteran Hee-Haw alum Grandpa Jones is out of the hospital and in a long-term care facility. The Grand Ole Opry legend suffered a stroke in January.

BACK TO WORK: Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, the lone survivor of the crash that killed Princess Diana, returned to work this week, according to London reports. Rees-Jones is doing light chores around Harrods--the store owned by Mohamed Al Fayed, whose son, Dodi was also killed in the wreck.

ROAD SHOW: The movie might not be a hit, but the musicians behind Blues Brothers 2000 are hoping the tour will be big. The Blues Brothers Band--the R&B vets that back up Dan Aykroyd and company--will launch a worldwide tour later this year.

BANNED: At least four newspapers in three states have banned recent Doonesbury cartoons that deal with the White House sex scandal. One editor says the panels, which talk of "oral sex" and a "semen-streaked dress," don't belong on the comics page with Marmaduke and Family Circus strips.

CAT FIGHT: Hollywood has-beens Zsa Zsa Gabor and Elke Sommer have resumed their long-running feud. Gabor's hubby and Sommer are disputing whether Sommer made anti-German remarks. The fighting goes back many years--starting, according to Elke, when she told Zsa Zsa she had a big butt.

PASS THE HAT: Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Companion) is heading a fund-raising campaign to help build a new Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. It will take $7 million to relocate the hall to its new digs near the Nashville Arena.

TOO MUCH? Nice try NBC, but no dice. Ad industry experts say there's no way the Peacock will gets its $2 million (per 30-second spot) asking price for the final episode of Seinfeld. One calls the plan "ludicrous," in today's New York Post.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE: Beavis and Butt-head creator Mike Judge will work with real live people on his next project: Office Space, a feature film that the cartoonist will direct this spring, Daily Variety reports. For all the casting news, see The Dotted Line.

REAL-WORLD DRAMA: Sidelined soap star Michael Zaslow, sacked from CBS' Guiding Light last year after he started slurring his speech, is now unable to speak at all and is paralyzed on his right side, the New York Post reports. Zaslow has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.