FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, March 22, 2005

JACKSON WATCH: Michael Jackson showing up for his child molestation trial on time today, though still apparently hobbled by a bad back. Meanwhile, comedian Louise Palanker testified that she gave the accuser's family $20,000 after learning he had cancer and that she received a call from the accuser's mother that led Palanker to believe the family was being held against its will by Jackson.

BLAKE SPEAKS: In his first tube appearance since being acquitted last week of murdering his wife, Robert Blake speculating to Barbara Walters that the killer may have been "somebody whose father was taken for a ride."

MIGHT AS WELL DIRECT: Variety reporting that Ben Affleck will make his directing debut on Gone, Baby, Gone, a movie about a pair of private detectives in a working-class Boston neighborhood searching for a kidnapped four-year-old girl.

X MARKS THE SPOT: British director (and Claudia Schiffer hubby) Matthew Vaughn, who produced Snatch and most recently made his directing debut on Layer Cake, tapped to helm X-Men 3 for 20th Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment, according to Variety.

ALONG CAME A SPIDER: Oscar-nominated Sideways star Thomas Haden Church cast as the new nemesis in Spider-Man 3, scheduled for release May 4, 2007. No word on which villain Church will play.

GIVING THANKS: David Letterman expressing gratitude on his show Monday to the Montana FBI agents who nabbed a man accused of plotting to kidnap his young son and nanny and hold them for $5 million ransom.

LETTERMAN ADD: Kelly A. Frank, the suspect who allegedly hatched the abduction scheme, pleading innocent today in Montana to all charges. He remains jailed on $650,000 bail.

BIG MOVE: Fox Entertainment president Gail Berman quitting her job to take the top creative post at Paramount Pictures under newly appointed chairman Brad Grey, according to the Reporter.

RECOVERING: Luciano Pavarotti returning home to Italy this weekend to rest before resuming his farewell tour. The Opera great had neck surgery to repair two vertebrae on Mar. 9.

BAD RAP: Lawyers for Dr. Dre, Time Warner, and Best Buy petitioning a federal judge to toss a lawsuit brought by former Detroit city employees who were videotaped backstage at a concert five years ago arguing with the rap mogul's representatives.

EARLY PICK UP: Fox ordering a third season of The O.C., after its popular teen soap pulled down the net's best Thursday ratings in five years.

VISIT ABBEY ROAD: London's Abbey Road studio, the famed location where the Beatles recorded nearly all of their songs, opening its doors to the public for a film festival highlighting the movies that have been scored there, such as A Hard Day's Night and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

REJECTED: A federal appeals court upholding a lower court dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a Texas man who claimed Fox swiped his idea for American Idol.

DESPERATE APPEARANCE: Oscar winner Marlee Matlin set to guest star in the Apr. 3 episode of Desperate Housewives, playing a deaf woman befriended by Lynette, whose children attend the same school.

FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Desperate Housewives vixen Eva Longoria signing on to be the first national spokesperson for PADRES, Padres Contra El Cancer, Latin Children with Cancer.

DESPERATE DADDY: Meanwhile, Housewives hunk James Denton and wife Erin welcoming a baby girl, Malin O'Brien Denton, Tuesday in an L.A.-area hospital. The baby weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces and is the couple's second.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: The official original cast recording of Broadway's newest musical hit, Spamalot, hitting stores on May 3.

TAKING THE BUS THIS YEAR: Former Growing Pains star Tracey Gold sentenced Monday to three years' probation, 30 days of county work release, 240 hours of community service and a yearlong revocation of her license for a felony DUI conviction stemming from her September car crash.

SATISFIED: Eminem dropping his federal copyright infringement suit against the Source magazine on Wednesday after the judge decided the rap superstar deserved $131,000 in sanctions, according to the New York Daily News.

NOT COOL: Gunshots were fired into the ceiling during a performance by American rapper Nas at London's Brixton Academy on Monday night. No one was injured but the concert was subsequently canceled.

SOARING: Warner Home video set to release The Aviator as a two-disc DVD and VHS on May 24.

COMEBACK KIDS: Five years since exiting the spotlight after filling stadiums and arenas, the Backstreet Boys on the comeback trail by playing the first of two club shows at New York's tiny Iriving Plaza Monday night.

STILL FALLING: Worldwide sales of recorded music dropping 1.3 percent to $33.6 billion last year, the fifth straight year of falling sales for the record industry. However, the U.S. market saw an expansion for the first time since 1999.

IT'S BLEEPIN' OVER: The Osbournes ending its four-year run on MTV Monday night, with Dr. Phil stopping by for a visit with the family.

MIND THE GAP: British soul singer Joss Stone set to replace Sarah Jessica Parker as the Gap's celebrity spokesperson for its summer ad campaign.

GETTING OFF EASY: Time Warner announcing it will pay $300 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges that it scammed investors by inflating online ad revenue and customer rolls at its troubled AOL sister company.

SEX AND VIOLENCE: A new Time magazine poll reporting that most Americans wouldn't mind stricter regulation of sex and violence on the tube, however a majority believed the FCC overreacted to Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during last year's Super Bowl halftime show.