FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, June 30, 2003

MOURNED: Veteran funnyman and actor Buddy Hackett is dead at the age of 78. Hackett appeared in such movies as The Music Man, The Love Bug and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

REST IN PEACE: Four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn, perhaps the greatest stage and screen actress of the 20th century, died Sunday at her Connecticut home at age 96. A spokesperson said the actress simply died of old age. Per Hepburn's wishes, there will be no memorial service.

FROM THE TOP: President George W. Bush leading the tributes to Hepburn, declaring in a statement that she "delighted audiences with her unique talent for more than six decades" and "will be remembered as one of the nation's artistic treasures."

STORK TIME: Six Feet Under's Aussie star Rachel Griffiths and her husband, artist Andrew Taylor, are expecting their first child by the end of the year, the actress' publicist tells E! The couple married on New Year's Eve.

OH BROTHER: Producers confirming Monday that, to jazz up the upcoming fourth season of CBS' Big Brother, contestants will be sequestered in the house without being told that some of their ex-girlfriends/boyfriends/spouses are also participating. The reality show premieres July 8.

ANGELS' FLIGHT: Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle soared into first place at the weekend box office with an estimated $38 million, easily enough to bump The Hulk down to a second place $18.4 million.

ELECTED: Veteran filmmaker Michael Apted (Coal Miner's Daughter, The World Is Not Enough) elected to a two-year term on Saturday to succeed Martha Coolidge as president of the Director's Guild of America.

WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN: The reunited Bangles to release Doll Revolution, their first album in more than a decade, September 9 on Koch Records, according to Billboard. The band will also launch a summer tour.

NOOCHY NO NO: A documentary producer suing Jason Mewes hoping to get court permission to "produce and exploit" the actor's life story. The stoner sidekick in Kevin Smith's films bailed on cooperating on Rock Bottom, a documentary charting the actor's struggle with heroin.

BROKEN RECORD: Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was arrested for a second time Friday evening by Los Angeles police for allegedly violating his parole. He's being held without bail pending an upcoming court hearing.

SOME HELP: King of talk show sleaze and former Cincinnati Mayor Jerry Springer telling a meeting of Young Democrats on Saturday his fame could help lift the Democratic Party if he's elected to the U.S. Senate next year. "I could be an incredible voice in the Senate," Springer said. "Why? Because the media will cover me every single day."

BATTING FOR BUSH: Dennis Miller adding conservative to his label after delivering a scathing performance during a campaign fundraiser attended by the President in San Francisco over the weekend that raised $3.5 million for his reelection.

GOING HIS WAY: Lenny Kravitz forming Roxie Records, a label named in honor of his late mother, to be distributed through Warner Bros., reports Billboard. Kravitz will remain with Virgin Records, which will release his new album Funk in the fall.

HEY HEY HEY! My Big Fat Greek Wedding director Joel Zwick in talks to direct Fat Albert, 20th Century Fox's long-delayed live-action feature based on Bill Cosby's famed '70s TV cartoon. Cosby also cowrote the script.

OH BROTHER: Nearly 25 million people tuning in to Big Brother Africa, a South African edition to the global franchise that has already shown two participants going all the way and is gaining in popularity across the continent.

BIG MOUTH: Rap star DMX arrested Saturday for using profanity during a concert the night before on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis. He was released on $376 bail and pledged to return to the island for his court date.

WALK THE PLANK: Johnny Depp and 1,500 guests turning up at Disneyland for the premiere of his new action-adventure movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, based on the park's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.

DOWN AND OUT? David Letterman's audience share dropping 2 percent this year and rival Jay Leno's lead widening from 29 percent to 39 percent, Nielsen Media Research reports.

PLAY BALL! Bruce Springsteen selling out two September shows in Boston's Fenway Park in under an hour after the tickets went on sale Friday morning. It's the first major rock concert in the celebrated ballpark.

GETTING THE AXE: ABC canceling daytime soap opera Port Charles, which premiered in 1997 as a spinoff of General Hospital. The half-hour show will run through October 3.