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

HE'S JOHNNY CASH: A black-clad Joaquin Phoenix joined with 50 inmates at California's Folsom State Prison for a screening of Walk the Line Tuesday, nearly 38 years to the date of Johnny Cash's famous gig there. Phoenix also peformed a handful of Cash songs.

NOT SO HAPPY NEW YEAR: Lindsay Lohan hospitalized in Miami Monday night after suffering a severe asthma attack. Her publicist says the teen queen has been discharged and is "doing fine."

BABY ON BOARD: Mira Sorvino expecting her second child with husband Chris Backus, according to People magazine. The Oscar winner is due this summer.

KING DINGED: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe taking down King Kong over the four-day holiday weekend, grossing $33.7 million to Kong's $31.8 million, per final studio tallies Tuesday.

TRUMPED: Donald Trump announcing he has no intention of running for governor of New York, in part because it would infringe on his TV gig.

SIR SEX BOMB: Welsh crooner Tom Jones named a knight on Queen Elizabeth II's New Year Honors list. The singer joins such pop-rock knights as Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Elton John.

ENTERING A NEW ERA: ABC's newly revamped World News Tonight, with Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff, succeeding the late Peter Jennings, making its debut Tuesday with its first-ever live-to-the-West Coast evening newscast and a new 15-minute original Webcast.

BEST DOCS: March of the Penguins, Enron: The Smartest Guy in the Room, Cowboy Del Amor, The Fall of Fujimori, and Street Fight the 2005 nominees for the Writers Guild of America's Best Documentary Writing category.

BUENOS DIAS: After generating some of the best reviews of his career with his latest flick, Match Point, that was filmed in the U.K., Woody Allen signing a deal with production house Mediapro to shoot his next picture in Spain with an all Spanish cast, according to Daily Variety.

FEELING BLUE: Patrick Cranshaw, who played elderly fraternity brother Blue in the hit comedy Old School, died of natural causes at his home in Texas. He was 86.

MOURNED: Richard DeAngelis, who played top cop Raymond Foerster on the HBO crime drama The Wire, has died at age 73.

BABY NEW YEAR: Tonight Show announcer and former Howard Stern sidekick "Stuttering" John Melendez and his wife Suzanna welcoming their third child, a boy named Oscar, just after midnight Sunday.

BRINGING UP BABY: Before segueing to Rush Hour 3, Jackie Chan beginning production in Hong Kong on his latest kung-fu comedy, BB or Baby, in which he plays a small-time crook who steals a car without realizing a child is in it.

DODGING BULLETS: Obie Trice recovering after being shot early Saturday while driving on a Michigan freeway. Rapper managed to drive himself to safety. Police say there are no suspects in the case.

ON THE MEND: Drake Bell, star of Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh series, out of the hospital after suffering a broken neck and other injuries in a head-on car crash Thursday in Santa Monica.

TOUGH YEAR: Music retailers experiencing their steepest sales drop in more than three years, with CD sales for 2005 declining more than 10 percent compared with 2004.

BRANCHING OUT: Cable network Starz planning to unveil an Internet movie download service called Vongo.