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

TITANIC TYKE: James Cameron telling Variety that his new wife, Suzy Amis, is expecting their first child next year. The couple, who met while filming Titanic, married in June.

BOMBSHELL: J. Howard Marshall II, the megabucks oilman who married Anna Nicole Smith, had once considered adopting her to save money on taxes. The revelation came during testimony Thursday in Smith's trial seeking a chunk of Marshall's estate.

SMITH ADD: Marshall ultimately decided against adopting the former pinup because, says his former attorney, "The problem with that is you can't marry your own child."

NEVER TOO YOUNG: Britney Spears, 18, named as host of the American Music Awards on January 8. She's the youngest emcee since Debbie Gibson shared the job in 1989.

KINDA LIKE GROUNDHOG DAY: Julia Roberts is in negotiations for Replay, a film about a 43-year-old man who dies of a heart attack, then wakes up as himself in college to correct mistakes, one of which includes a lost love. He keeps dying on the same date and coming back to start from scratch--his memory of the previous experiences intact--as he falls in and out of love.

GET YOUR VCRS READY! 'N Sync, Ricky Martin, Sisqo, Faith Hill, Mystikal and Creed performing at the 11th annual Billboard Music Awards, airing on Fox from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on December 5.

THE TRUTH HURTS: Pierce Brosnan accusing Hollywood bosses of being lazy and unimaginative after they decided not to release his latest movie, Gray Owl, because, he says, it did not contain violence or sex.

FREEDOM? MTV reporting Death Row Records cofounder Marion "Suge" Knight is expected to be released from prison in April. Knight has been locked down since 1997 for his involvement a 1996 beating.

SMALL CLAIMS: Former Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman losing a judgment on Judge Mills Lane Thursday in a suit filed by the Los Angeles bus driver he got into a fight with over an autograph. The pint-sized actor must pay $1,600 in medical fees.

SHE'S BACK: Former Beverly Hills, 90210 bad girl Tiffani Thiessen to star in an ABC comedy pilot tentatively titled Something About Tiffani, about a beer-guzzling, tart-tongued woman who ditches her fiancé at the altar.

YOU, TOO, CAN BE TARA REID: Universal Pictures and Hypnotic.com are hosting an online casting call for American Pie 2, the sequel to last year's hit high school comedy. Two individuals, one male and one female (of legal voting age), will be extras in the picture and will receive all-expenses-paid trips to Hollywood.

NO REGRETS: After learning that the Grammy ceremonies would stay in Los Angeles for the third year in a row, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told the New York Post: "The heck with the Grammys--we don't need 'em."

SUPER SALES: Three months before Super Bowl XXXV, CBS has already sold 80 percent of its ad inventory for the game, Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports. The network is also close to selling out all the commercial time for Survivor: The Australian Outback.

OBIT: Larry Rhine, a comedy writer whose half-century career included a Golden Globe Award for All in the Family, died last Friday of natural causes. He was 90.

ATTENTION, PARROTHEADS: Jimmy Buffett naming his new island-themed eatery after his song--"Cheeseburger in Paradise." It will open next year. The location is still undetermined.