FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, March 14, 2002

DOUBLE THE FUN: Kelly Ripa and Rosie O'Donnell among the top nominees for the 29th annual Daytime Emmy Awards, announced today. Ripa is nominated both for her role on All My Children and her role as Regis Philbin's sidekick on their morning talk show. O'Donnell is once again up for Best Talk Show and Best Host, having won both awards the last four years in a row.

HOW DID THEY FIGURE IT OUT? The Daytime Emmys nominating Mary Kate Olsen for Best Performer in a Children's Series for ABC Family's So Little Time. But, inexplicably, her twin sis, Ashley, was snubbed.

IT AIN'T T3, BUT... James Cameron to make his TV directing debut helming the season finale of Fox's Dark Angel, which he cocreated. The episode is scheduled to air May 3.

HE'LL BE BACK! Arnold Schwarzenegger signing on to star in a remake of Michael Crichton's '70s sci-fi action thriller Westworld. Schwarzenegger will also reprise his role in a new Conan the Barbarian film currently being written by John Milius, according to Variety.

ICED! Former Diff'rent Strokes' star Todd Bridges trouncing Vanilla Ice in Fox's TV special Celebrity Boxing Wednesday night. In other bouts, Danny Bonaduce pounced Barry Williams and Tonya Harding pummeled Paula Jones.

THE CHAMP: Fox's Celebrity Boxing scoring knockout ratings Wednesday night with a 12.0/18 share, overtaking a rerun of NBC's The West Wing and more than doubling the ratings of its lead-in, the Bernie Mac Show.

COURTWALK: Naomi Campbell winning a London court battle against a former personal assistant who broke a confidentiality agreement and revealed details about the model's personal life to a British tabloid.

YEE-HAW! Brooks & Dunn and Toby Keith picking up six nods apiece to lead the nominations for the 37th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw and Travis Tritt each snagged four noms.

KEEPING THE MEMORY ALIVE: Yoko Ono buying John Lennon's childhood home in Liverpool. The house will go to Britain's National Trust, which also owns fellow Beatle Paul McCartney's boyhood home.

BEAUTIFUL MIND REVEALED: John Nash, the mathematician who's the subject of director Ron Howard's critically acclaimed, A Beautiful Mind, agreeing to be interviewed by Mike Wallace for a 60 Minutes special set to air on March 27, three days after the Academy Awards.

UGLY DEVELOPMENT: Despite all the Oscar hoopla over his life, Nash possibly ending up losing his home in West Windsor, New Jersey, if the township picks a proposal that would move a road through his property to replace a nearby bridge.

OSCAR ADD: 40 Days and 40 Nights star Josh Hartnett making his first appearance as a presenter at this year's Oscar ceremonies on March 24.

JUST CALL IT LOVE BOAT ALREADY: Spin City actress Heather Locklear and The Practice's Lara Flynn Boyle, the latest guest stars on Fox's Ally McBeal. They'll appear in an episode airing April 22.

SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL? Speaking of which, former Spin City star Michael J. Fox reveals in the March 25 issue of People magazine that after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, the actor went on nightly drinking binges. He later gave up alcohol in 1992.

HOT AND BOTHERED: Gay activists protesting a decision by an ABC affiliate in Lynchburg, Virginia, not to air an episode of TV drama Once and Again that showed two teenage girls kissing.

PRETTY IN PINK: Pink kicking off her first headlining tour May 2 in Phoenix.

HEY, HEY, HEY! After a nationwide search, newcomer Omar Benson Miller picked to star as Fat Albert in a live-action version of famed '70s cartoon character created by Bill Cosby. The Cos also cowrote the original draft of the screenplay.

LATE SHOW WITH JON STEWART? The New York Post reporting that ABC talked to Daily Show host Jon Stewart about moving to the network before its much-publicized attempt to woo David Letterman.

BEN SPEAKS: In one of his first post-rehab interviews, Ben Affleck talks about being clean in the April issue of Details. "I don't want to sit here and pretend that everything's great, that I'm some sort of enlightened person. I have a lot of struggles, I'm conflicted, I think about things, I wake up in the middle of the night, I have regrets, I'm very insecure. So it's not like I'm living in some great tranquil state out in my rock garden."

MOVIES FOR THE RICH: Pacific Theaters' all-reservation Arclight multiplex, a luxury movie theater opening in Hollywood later this month, planning to charge a record $14 per ticket.

HUNTER TO HUNTED: FedEx pilot Hunter Ellis booted from the island on Survivor: Marquesas Wednesday night. The Maraamu tribe has lost all three immunity challenges so far and is now down to five members.

NOT-SO-SOGGY BOTTOM BOYS: Nearly 15 months after its release and 4.5 million copies already sold, the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? finally topping the album charts. The Grammy-winning disc sold 159,000 copies to land at number one.

FASHION MAVEN? Britney Spears telling the Associated Press she's thinking about starting her own clothing line. "That would probably be something I do when I take a little break," she said. "Because I love clothes, I would really be able to put all my time and energy in to it."

THE GODFATHER: Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen in talks to topline director Neil Jordan's Borgia, an historical drama set in the 15th century and following the corrupt Borgia family, which ran the papalcy like a crime syndicate.

CASTING HIS SPELL: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone picking up nine nominations at the 28th Annual Saturn Awards, honoring the best in sci-fi and fantasy films. The Lord of the Rings, meanwhile, tied with French import The Brotherhood of the Wolf with eight nods. The awards will be doled out in June.

ON THE AIR: Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly getting his own syndicated radio show starting May 8. The Radio Factor With Bill O'Reilly will air on more than 100 stations across the country.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY? The Dave Matthews Band reviving the Lillywhite Sessions, an album's worth of material they scrapped in 2000, for the group's upcoming sixth studio album.