FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, May 2, 2000

NOT OVER YET: The cable giant has given ABC parent Disney until July 15 to back off its demands to charge $300 million for Disney cable channels. Time Warner says that's too much and would mean higher costs for subscribers.

BLACKOUT-PROOF: Meanwhile, despite not being shown on Time Warner cable outlets, Monday's celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was the third-highest-rated show of the year, behind only the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

SWEEPING UP: ABC yanking Kyra Sedgwick's sitcom Talk to Me and reality series Making the Band this week, replacing them with reruns of The Drew Carey Show and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. They were scheduled to leave the airwaves after this week anyway, but the announcement hastens their departures.

OUR LAST MENTION OF ABC: In the Nielsen battle, the Alphabet Network tied NBC for the week ended Sunday, which included the first four days of May sweeps. ER was the top-rated show.

ON THE PROWL: Tiger Woods honoring the actors strike of the advertising industry by refusing to shoot a TV ad for Nike Tuesday.

GANGSTER COUPLE: Cameron Diaz in talks to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs of New York, the $80 million-plus Martin Scorsese drama set to begin shooting in Rome this August.

SAYONARA: Legendary music man Clive Davis, the man who discovered Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston and Prince, officially out as Arista Records boss, replaced by producer Antonio "L.A." Reid. The move had been rumored for months.

SICK BAY: Mambo king Tito Puente, 77, released from a Puerto Rico hospital Tuesday after two days of treatment for an irregular heartbeat. A full recovery is expected.

FUNNYMAN: Veteran comic Carl Reiner will be this year's recipient of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Award for contributions to the field of comedy. The awards ceremony will take place this fall.

GOSSIP IS OFTEN...WRONG: Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie are "very much together," says his publicist, Michelle Bega. But "they are not married and not engaged," contrary to a report from E! Online gossip columnist Ted Casablanca.

WHILE WE'RE TALKING DENIALS: Reps for Madonna and boy-toy Guy Ritchie denying British tabloid reports that they're close to splitting.

GETTING BACK: Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr hitting the road for a U.S. tour more than 36 years after the Fab Four first conquered America. The sixth All-Starr Band tour kicks off May 12 with a two-night stand in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

DARTH WANNABES: George Lucas screen-testing "a handful of candidates" for the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II over the weekend, according to a statement posted on StarWars.com. The would-be Jedis tested opposite Natalie Portman.

ROCKING IN SUMMER: Pearl Jam kicking off a 39-date, three-month North American tour August 3 in Virginia Beach and closing in the band's hometown of Seattle November 5. Sonic Youth will open the first half of the tour; Supergrass takes over in October.

JUSTICE FOR ALL: Metallica is naming names in its lawsuit against Napster: 335,000 users collected in two days who offered an average of five Metallica MP3 songs for illegal transfer.

WELCOME TO STARDOM: In an interview on NBC's Dateline tonight, the real Erin Brockovich says the consequences of her celebrity have not been what she had expected. Referring to an extortion plot against her by two former paramours, she says, "It's really impacting and ruining what was supposed to be a great message for America."

HE KEEPS ON GOING: CBS and producer Pearson Television extending 76-year-old Bob Barker's contract as host and executive producer of The Price Is Right for an unprecedented 29th year. Barker holds the record for the longest number of consecutive daily appearances for a non-news television personality.

EDITED: Authorities re-issuing a $25 videotape of the Columbine massacre sans its controversial pop music soundtrack. Sarah McLachlan said the use of her song in the tape was "sick."

KEEP YOUR EYE ON YOUR WALLET: Wells Fargo Bank rolling out a new type of ATM that will offer movie previews, advertisements and news headlines along with cash. Movie previews will play continuously until a customer begins a transaction. Up this week: the Gladiator trailer.

BACK TO BAYWATCH? Ex-Baywatch lifeguard David Hasselhoff's new TV show Doublecross (né AKA Picasso), a syndicated action series about an international art thief/agent slated to launch this fall, has been scratched after financing fell through.

PINNED: Three-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg being tapped as this year's recipient of the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The award will be presented to Spielberg November 4 in Century City, California.

CHECK UP: Legendary blues singer/guitarist John Lee Hooker, 82, consulting with doctors this weekend about possible surgery to correct a vascular problem diagnosed prior to his now-canceled European tour.