FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, May 21, 2002

THE FORCE WEAKENED: 20th Century Fox revising downward its estimate of the weekend box office for Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones, from $116 million to $110.2 million.

IS SHE BLUE? NYPD Blue executive producer Steven Bochco telling TV Guide Online there are no plans to bring Kim Delaney back to the series after she left to star in Bochco's now-cancelled Philly. Delaney's contract stated she would have been able to return to Blue if Philly was axed within 13 episodes. The show actually lasted 22 episodes.

THE NEW JERRY LEWIS: Oscar-nominated director and Cannes favorite David Lynch receiving France's Legion of Honor on Tuesday. The award is the country's highest honor.

DIAGNOSED: 7th Heaven star Barry Watson diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a form of cancer. According to the actor's publicist, doctors say the disease is 95 percent curable.

STORK REPORT: Jenny McCarthy and her husband, director John Asher, celebrating the arrival of their first child, a boy named Evan. He was born Saturday in Los Angeles, weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces.

HOT SUIT: A photographer suing singer Rod Stewart for copyright infringement, claiming pictures she took have appeared on T-shirts and in the musician's concert program books without her consent. Stewart has countersued, claiming she's trying to extort $500,000 from him.

BONO THE STATESMAN: U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Bono beginning an African tour Tuesday, which the U2 singer hopes will convince the Republican that Western aid to the poverty-stricken continent can be put to good use.

A NEW CASE HAS COME: A woman claiming she was raped by Celine Dion's husband facing felony charges in Las Vegas this week for writing bad checks in 1999 and 2001. Dion's husband, Rene Angelil, denies raping Yun Kyeong Sung Kwon at a Vegas hotel in March 2000.

NEW SPIN: Columbia Pictures and Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin snagging the rights to turn computer videogame Deus Ex into the studio's next feature franchise. The film is set in 2052 in a world reeling from the effects of disease, economic collapse and global terrorism.

CYBERSTAR: Creative Artists Agency signing on to represent digital star Lara Croft of Tomb Raider fame for new products and promotional tie-ins.

HEADED FOR SPRINGFIELD: Pop-punk band Blink-182 set to guest star on the 300th episode of The Simpsons, which will air next season. The episode features Bart moving out of the family home and getting his own apartment with the band and pro-skater Tony Hawk as neighbors.

KUDOS: Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan winning the 2002 Taurus Award for Best Action Movie Star, an international stunt-acting award handed out at the World Stunt Awards. He succeeds Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won the honor last year.

KUDOS ADD: Veteran singer Tony Bennett receiving the Pied Piper lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Monday.

HIS HOMETOWN: Bruce Springsteen appearing in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, over the weekend to dedicate a park in honor of Gordon "Tex" Vineyard, a resident who supported the town's youth and let the Boss' first band practice in his duplex.

HECHE OF A SHOW: Actress Anne Heche officially signing on to replace Jennifer Jason Leigh July 2 in Broadway's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Proof, about an enigmatic young woman and her relationship with her math genius father.

HE'S GOT A FRIEND: The city of Hillsborough, North Carolina, voting Tuesday night on a resolution asking the state's board of transportation to name a bridge after singer and favorite son James Taylor, who grew up in the area.

JERSEY BOUND: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, who star in director Martin Brest's upcoming Gigli, reteaming for filmmaker Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl, about a man named Ollie and the effects a new wife and daughter have on his seemingly full life.

OOPS: Penthouse settling a lawsuit brought by the woman the magazine incorrectly identified as Anna Kournikova in a series of topless shots. No word on how much the magazine paid to Judith Soltesz-Benetton. She had been seeking $10 million in damages. The magazine also apologized for the mix-up.

FAREWELL: Veteran Los Angeles news anchor Jerry Dunphy, considered the model for The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Baxter, died Monday of complications from a heart attack. He was 80.