FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, September 14, 2006

THEY WILL SURVIVE: Survivor: Race Wars--oops--Cook Islands, that is, kicking off Thursday night on CBS, with teams divided according to ethnicity. The wait is on to see if segregation equals big ratings.

BRINGING BACK THE MUSIC: U2 and Green Day slated to make a special appearance to mark the reopening of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans during ESPN's Monday Night Football pregame show.

YESTERDAY GOOD FOR TODAY: Approximately 7 million viewers tuning in for Meredith Vieira's debut on the Today show Wednesday, leading Good Morning America by 2.5 million viewers. So--a good day for Today, a bad day for Diane Sawyer.

MAKING IT OFFICIAL: Christie Brinkley officially filing for divorce from her estranged husband, Peter Cook, two months after reports surfaced of his alleged affair with an 18-year-old employee.

FEELING FAINT: Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel's 20-year-old daughter, Alex Ray, fainting before a performance Saturday night. The aspiring singer attributing the spell to "stress, lack of sleep and overall exhaustion" on her MySpace page.

SPLITSVILLE: Whitney Houston filing for divorce from Bobby Brown, the singer's rep confirmed to E! News. We look forward to her upcoming reality series, Being Bobby Brown's Ex.

AILING: Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger's girlfriend from the '60s, canceling a world tour after being diagnosed with breast cancer. The 59-year-old singer is expected to make a full recovery.

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? Keith Urban announcing that his upcoming album will be titled Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing. But, seriously, Nicole, don't take it personally.

COLLARED: Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman arrested for kidnapping in Hawaii in connection with the Andrew Luster case. Chapman found the Max Factor heir in Mexico and brought him back to the U.S. to face rape charges in 2003, ignoring the fact that bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.

NO LONGER LONELY: Jessica Lee Rose, aka Bree, aka Lonelygirl15, stating she is "amazed" by her newfound fame. Rose was forced to reveal her identity after Internet sleuths discovered the truth behind the series of online video episodes that became a YouTube phenomenon.

SIDELINED: INXS canceling its European tour because guitarist Tim Farriss needs knee surgery, the band said on its Website.

UNDER INVESTIGATION: Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer, Michael Scott, stating that it was necessary to sedate Smith in order to check her out of the hospital, and the combination of her devastation over her son, Daniel's death and the sedation caused her to suffer memory loss of the event. Scott also stating the mysterious third person who was in the room at the time of the incident, according to police, was Smith's other lawyer, Howard K. Stern. Smith expressing support for an inquest into her son's death.

WEIGHTY MATTER: Sean Penn stating that his brother, Chris Penn's death was caused by his "some hard living, but particularly weight." The actor, who reportedly weighed 300 pounds at the time of his death, was found in his Santa Monica apartment on Jan. 24.

CONSOLATION PRIZE: People naming Jennifer Aniston its best-dressed woman of 2006, the magazine said Wednesday. Somehow, we doubt that heals the scars left by the mag's choice for World's Most Beautiful Family earlier this year.

ROCK ON: Goth rocker Lukas Rossi chosen as the winner of Rock Star: Supernova Wednesday and will front a new group that includes Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. As for what that group will be called--well, that's still up in the air. (See below.)

WHAT'S IN A NAME? The band from CBS' Rock Star: Supernova will have to change its name when it goes on tour, a judge ruled, siding with a Southern California band that has used the name since 1991 and sued the network for unfair competition and trademark infringement.

NO MOVES: Tucker Carlson becoming the first pseudostar to fall on Dancing with the Stars Wednesday, a result that we're sure pleases Jon Stewart immensely.

GROUNDED: Russian parliament turning down a lawmaker's proposal to send Madonna into space as a passenger on a Russian flight to the international space station in 2008. Lance Bass sending his sympathies.

SMASH HIT: The woman involved in a traffic collision with Ellen DeGeneres earlier this month charged with DUI, authorities said. Just a little something extra for Ellen's Oscar shtick.

ON THE DOWNLOAD: ABC offering one million free downloads of the season finales of Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Lost through the iTunes Music Store, in an effort to catch viewers up on their favorite shows before the new season premieres.

DADDY MCDREAMY: Patrick Dempsey and his wife, Jillian Fink, expecting their second child together, the actor's rep said Wednesday. The couple already have a four-year-old daughter.

BACK TO WORK: Jay-Z coming out of retirement to release a new album, Kingdom Come, later this fall, he told Entertainment Weekly in its fall preview issue, out Friday. But what about all that talk of The Black Album being his last? We feel so deceived.