FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, February 15, 2005

SICK BAY: Instead of going to court as scheduled, Michael Jackson was hospitalized on Tuesday in Santa Maria, California, with the flu. Brother Randy Jackson says the singer will remain in the hospital overnight. As a result, jury selection in his child-molestation trial has been postponed one week.

ROCK IN THE HOUSE: Gil Cates, the producer of the Oscars, brushing aside critical comments made by first-time host Chris Rock to Entertainment Weekly that seemed to disparage the event, calling his remarks "humorous digs." The comic asked what straight black man would ever watch the show.

DIDDY DO IT? Random House suing Sean "P. Diddy" Combs in New York this week, claiming the hip-hop kingpin owes the book publisher a $300,000 advance for a memoir he never completed.

FAMILY MAN: Nicolas Cage and new wife, Alice Kim, expecting their first baby together, according to The Insider. The couple tied the knot last summer. Cage has a teenage son from a previous relationship.

MEAN DOLL: Mattel making a Lindsay Lohan doll in the actress' likeness dressed in a beige dress and a faux fur-trimmed coat. The doll is due out in June and costs $30.

TAKING A STAND: Ashley Olsen is suing The National Enquirer for $20 million over a story claiming the actress was involved in a drug scandal.

LIBEL TRAIN: Yusuf Islam, aka Cat Stevens, announcing on Tuesday that he has won major damages from two British newspapers, The Sun and the Sunday Times, for alleging he supported terrorism. No word on the amount, but the singer said he'll donate all the money won to tsunami victims.

CRYFEST LINEUP: ABC announcing Oscar nominee Jamie Foxx, actor Will Ferrell and Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher will be the guests on Barbara Walters' post-Oscar The Barbara Walters Special. No word from Vegas on the odds of WaWa getting Ferrell to cry.

JUST IN TIME FOR EASTER: Mel Gibson planning to release on Mar. 11 The Passion Recut, a tamer version of his controversial Jesus flick with five minutes of the most violent footage edited out, Daily Variety reports. The new version is set to run on 500 to 700 screens across the country through Easter.

SUPERNATURAL BLOCKBUSTER? Constantine, the new thriller starring Keanu Reeves as a supernatural detective, grossing a phenomenal $12 million from 450 screens over the Chinese New Year. The film opens stateside this Friday.

BLAKE WATCH: Robert Blake's former maid testifying that she was worried about a car she saw parked outside the actor's home in the days before his wife's murder. The maid was one of the first witnesses Blake's defense has put on the stand to show that someone other than the actor might have killed Bonny Lee Bakley.

BACK IN BUSINESS: Jon Stewart is reviving his Busboy Production company after obtaining financing from Comedy Central in exchange for first-look rights to all of the tube projects it develops.

THE EYE HAS IT! CBS had five shows raning among Nielsen's 10 most watched shows last week: CSI, Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, the 47th annual Grammy Awards telecast and Everybody Loves Raymond.

BE LIKE JANIS: The estate of the late Janis Joplin launching Search for the Pearl, a reality TV contest searching for the next Joplin. The winner would headline a world concert tour and perform with bands that the legendary singer once played with herself.

GOOD ROLE: Meg Ryan has come aboard to star in Disney's The Role of a Lifetime, a romantic comedy about a Hollywood actress who ends up falling for a British director when their paths cross on Broadway.

MORE CASTING NEWS: Ed Harris set to play Ludwig van Beethoven in director Agnieszka Holland's period drama, Copying Beethoven, according to the Reporter. The film also stars Diane Kruger.

TUBE NEWS: The Practice star Dylan McDermott signing on to star in CBS' 3 Lbs., a new medical drama centering on Los Angeles neurosurgeons. Barry Levinson directs the pilot.

LADIES MAN: Freddie Prinze Jr. set to headline an untitled ABC comedy pilot. He'll play a successful single guy who was raised in a house full of women and has his life turned upside down when the women move back in with him.

FAWLTY PURCHASE: Fans of the famed British comedy series, Fawlty Towers, starring John Cleese, buying for $2.8 million the hotel in southwest England that inspired the Monty Python alum to create the show.

GETTING HITCHED: TBS and sister channel TNT snagging the cable rights to air Will Smith's box office hit, Hitch, in a three-picture deal that also includes The Grudge and Spanglish.

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS: Dreamworks' DVD release of Shark Tale generating $80 million last week in North American sales.

CONTENDER DOWN: A contestant on NBC's forthcoming reality series The Contender, 23-year-old Najai Turpin, committed suicide Monday in Philadelphia. NBC says the series will air as planned--despite Turpin's passing--starting Mar. 7.

FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Muhammad Ali, Henry Kissinger and Téa Leoni serving as panelists to select finalists for Amazon.com's Nonprofit Innovation Award honoring a U.S. NGO whose approach to philanthropy has had a maximum impact.

THE FINAL FRONTIER? Star Trek fans planning a Feb. 25 rally outside of Paramount Studios to protest UPN's cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise during the show's fourth season.

CODA: Sixten Ehrling, Sweden's most acclaimed conductor, who oversaw the Stockholm Royal Opera and Detroit Symphony Orchestra and also conducted Wagner's Ring cycle at the New York Metropolitan, has died. He was 86.