FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, June 21, 2004

SUM OF ALL WINNINGS: Ben Affleck winning the California state poker championship Sunday night at Commerce Casino. Affleck becomes first celeb to win major poker tournament, pocketing $356,000. Fellow A-lister Tobey Maguire bowed out in the first round.

DODGE THIS: Ben Stiller's Dodgeball beaned the competition, taking $30.1 million to lead the box office. Tom Hanks' The Terminal was stranded in second place with $19.1 million, and the remake of Around the World in 80 Days barely got moving with just $7.6 million, putting it in ninth place.

HIS NEW QUEEN: King of Queens star Kevin James married actress-model Steffiana De La Cruz Saturday in Southern California. Pal Ray Romano was among those in attendance.

MODEL CHILD: Claudia Schiffer and her hubby, British movie producer Matthew Vaughn, are expecting their second child, according to People magazine and a British newspaper. The couple married in 2002.

PHAREWELL: As of Friday, all 70,000 tickets to Phish's farewell concert Aug. 14-15 in Vermont have been sold. The jam band announced it was calling it quits in May after two decades together.

BACK TO BASICS: Bob Dylan going on a 22-date concert tour of U.S. Minor League baseball parks with Willie Nelson and the Hot Club of Cowtown. The Bob Dylan Show kicks off Aug. 6, in Cooperstown, New York, the home of baseball's Hall of Fame.

RAPPED: Method Man telling the Los Angeles Times that he is disappointed with how Fox is handling his new sitcom, Method & Red. He says the show isn't "ghetto" enough and that he and costar Red Man have made too many compromises.

GROUNDED: Lil' Kim barred from appearing at next week's St. Kitts Music Festival after a federal judge ruled Friday that she was not allowed out of the country pending her Nov. 15 trial on perjury charges. The hip-hopster, who can continue to perform in the U.S., had to surrender her passport.

REQUEST REJECTED: The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from the family of a guest murdered after he appeared on the Jenny Jones Show. Last year, they won a $29.3 million award against Warner Bros. and the talk show, but the decision was later thrown out.

REFUND DENIED: A concert-ticker vendor, who sold tickets to Christina Aguilera's now scuttled summer tour, has filed for bankruptcy protection, denying some ticket holders a refund.

STILL ON THE BEAT: Jesse L. Martin is close to inking a multimillion-dollar deal to stay with Law & Order as Detective Ed Green, per TV Guide.

SHANGHAI SURPRISE: Whitney Houston to perform her first concert in China July 22 in Shanghai.

FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Diana Ross performing a free concert in Greenwich, Connecticut, Thursday to benefit a local teen center where her two sons volunteer.

FRENCH CONNECTION: Former Vivendi Universal head Jean-Marie Messier in police custody in Paris as part of an investigation into financial wrongdoing during his time at the media and telecommunications giant. He could remain in custody for questioning for up to 48 hours.

CHECKING IN: Paul Reubens due in court today for a progress report following his guilty plea to a misdemeanor obscenity charge.

DOING THE RIGHT THING: Spike Lee receiving a lifetime achievement award and a key to Dallas Friday at the city's annual Lyrical Underground festival.

FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS: Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson appearing in a series of public-service announcements that urge children to discuss colon, or colorectal, cancer and its treatment with their parents. The singer's father died of colon cancer in 1991. He has also announced that the band is almost finished working on their first album in about four years.

BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.: Paul McCartney playing his 3,000th concert Sunday in St. Petersburg before an estimated 50,000. It was only the second time Macca performed in Russia.

AND SO IT CONTINUES: Quentin Tarantino planning to shoot a third installment of Kill Bill within the next 15 years, the director told reporters during a press conference to promote the sequel. The movie centers on a girl named Nicky, the daughter of a hired killer that Uma Thurman's character whacks during her spree of revenge killings.

A CHANCE TO SHINE: Cameron Crowe holding an open casting call for extras in Lexington, Kentucky, Saturday that attracted as many as 1,300 eager to appear, if briefly, in Crowe's new movie Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.