FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, October 28, 2004

THE SPIN STOPS HERE: Bill O'Reilly has reached a settlement with the TV producer who accused him of sexual harassment. Terms of the deal are confidential with neither side admitting any wrongdoing. O'Reilly has also withdrawn his extortion suit against Fox News producer Andrea Mackris.

KNIGHT RIDER PARKED: David Hasselhoff pleaded no contest Thursday to DUI charge in California. The former Knight Rider star was ordered to attend a treatment program for six months and to perform 200 hours of community service. KITT had no comment.

TORN WASN'T RIPPED: Actor Rip Torn was acquitted of drunken driving charges Thursday in New York. Jurors said the prosecution failed to prove that Torn was drinking prior to a minor accident involving a taxi earlier this year.

DIGITAL KUDOS! OutKast snagging top honors from the recording industry for music sold through Internet-music services, picking up honors for downloads of at least 400,000 for their "Hey Ya!" and another for sales of 200,000 each for "The Way You Move" and "Roses."

DADDY TO THE RESCUE: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell racing to defend son FCC Chairman Michael Powell after Howard Stern accused him of getting his job through family connections. "My son is an enormously qualified individual, and I think he has served...with great distinction," Powell told CNBC Wednesday.

ROLLING IN: Sony and director John Carpenter teaming up to produce a remake of his 1980 horror-thriller The Fog, but someone else will direct, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film takes place in a Northern California town haunted by long-dead mariners whose ship sank off the coast during a thick, eerie fog.

FEEL THE LOVE: A judge ordering Courtney Love to stand trial on felony assault charges. Ruling comes after musician Kristin King testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday that Love threw a whisky bottle at King's head, sat on her, pulled her hair, pinched her breast and slapped her across the mouth during an April altercation.

OUT TO SEA: The Wallflowers set to perform a Halloween weekend concert aboard aircraft carrier the USS John C. Stennis, welcoming the crew home after a five-month deployment.

ON THE MEND: Former Soft Cell singer Marc Almond, 47, moved out of intensive care. He had been in the ICU at a London hospital following a near-fatal motorcycle crash last month.

STANDING UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Angelina Jolie paying a three-day visit to refugees in Sudan's Darfur region; the long-time goodwill ambassador for UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, calling the crisis there "unbelievably horrible" and the worst rights abuses she's ever seen.

AH-NULD FOR PRESIDENT? California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger telling 60 Minutes this coming Sunday that he supports a constitutional amendment allowing immigrants such as himself to run for president.

AH-NULD ADD: Meanwhile, Schwarnegger expressing disbelief that Mel Gibson complained that he never called him back when The Passion of the Christ director called him to express his view against funding embryonic stem-cell research.

MORE FAVA BEANS: Silence of the Lambs author Thomas Harris publishing a new Hannibal Lecter novel, Behind the Mask, next fall. No word yet whether Anthony Hopkins will reprise the good doctor for a movie version.

YOU KNEW IT WAS COMING: Bravo introducing Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, a new weekly one-hour series featuring "The Gal Pals" making over a straight woman. It premieres in January.

BRITISH INDIES: Zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead and Mike Leigh's Vera Drake among nominees for Best Film at the British Independent Film Awards. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London Nov. 30.

FAILED BUSINESS: CNN announcing it will shutter its long-struggling CNNfn financial news network in mid-December.

MEA CULPA: Elton John apologizing to Madonna after an outburst in which he accused the popster of lip-synching. "It was something that was said in the heat of the moment, and probably should not have been said," John told Entertainment Weekly.

JUST WHAT WAS HE DOING THERE? For those who spotted Jimmy Fallon on the field after last night's Red Sox win, the actor was filming a scene for his next movie, Fever Pitch directed by the Farelly brothers about a guy who loves the Red Sox more than his girlfriend.

SOX ADD: The New York Daily News reporting that Maria Shriver became so excited during the Red Sox game five Championship Series victory against the Yankees that she jumped off a sofa, landed on one of her kids' shoes, and broke her foot.

MOUSE HUNT: Former Hollywood superagent Michael Ovitz testifying on Wednesday that he begged to remain in his job as Disney president, but was forced out by Mouse House big cheese Michael Eisner. As a result, the board awarded Ovitz a $140 million severance package, which shareholders want returned to the company.

BIG-SCREEN 9-11: NBC developing a miniseries focusing on the events leading up to and including the devastating terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, while ABC set to produce its own take on those events based on the federal 9/11 Commission Report which has become a bestseller and been nominated for a National Book Award.

LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD? President Bush overwhelmingly voted "Movie Villain of the Year" by British film fans in a poll in Total Film magazine thanks to his role in Michael Moore's hit documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11.

FAHRENHEIT RISING: Meanwhile, Fahrenheit set to air on an independent television channel in South Africa on Nov. 1, the eve of the U.S. presidential elections, to be followed by a panel discussion. No word whether the gadfly filmmaker will still be able to set up similar screenings in the U.S.

MORE MOORE ON TV: Variety is reporting Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 will indeed air on some pay-per-view cable systems Monday, the night before Election Day. PPV company In Demand backed out of a deal to air the controversial doc on its PPV system two weeks ago.

DIDDY WANTS YOU TO VOTE: Sean "P. Diddy" Combs launching a three-day swing state tour for his nonprofit Citizen Change/Vote or Die campaign urging young people and minorities to get out the vote. Combs is flying to Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Miami, Florida.

FODDER FOR JON STEWART? CNN trying to differentiate itself from rival Fox News by putting veteran newsman Wolf Blitzer before 72 TV screens that will display vote counts from all 50 states simultaneously when it covers election night.

HOT ROD: Rod Stewart topping the U.S. charts for the first time in 25 years with his latest release, Stardust...The Great American Songbook: Volume III, which sold more than 240,000 copies in the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan data.

HOT ROD PART II: Stewart telling a jury Wednesday that he believes he should be paid $2.1 million from shows scrapped in Central and South America by his business associates because promoters only paid a portion of the up-front fees.

MORE JESSICA: Jessica Simpson set to release an expanded edition holiday album, ReJoyce--The Christmas Album, as well as a concert DVD on Nov. 23, Billboard reports.

HAIL MARY: The Village star Bryce Dallas Howard signing on to play the title role in Warner Independent Pictures' historical drama Mary, Queen of Scots, produced by Ridley Scott.