FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, September 15, 2005

DOWN WITH LOVE: Kenny Chesney and Renée Zellweger are seeking to annul their four-month marriage, their publicists confirmed Thursday.

OH BABY, BABY: Britney Spears welcoming a baby boy on Wednesday, her first child with husband Kevin Federline. The singer delivered her baby via C-section at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center around 1 p.m. "We are ecstatic," the couple proclaimed on Spears' Website.

REMEMBERED: Robert Wise, the four-time Oscar-winning director and producer whose career spanned more than 50 years and included such classics as The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Body Snatchers and The Day the Earth Stood Still, died Wednesday of heart failure in Los Angeles. He was 91.

NO FRIEND: A Santa Monica judge on Wednesday issuing a three-year restraining order against a homeless man accused of breaking into Jennifer Aniston's Malibu home last month.

HE'S NO ANGEL: Los Angeles photographer John Rutter sentenced to three years and eight months in state prison for attempting to leverage a multimillion-dollar payday from Cameron Diaz after threatening to sell topless photos he took of the star a decade earlier.

HE'S NO ANGEL, EITHER: A Los Angeles judge ordering Tom Sizemore into a Pasadena rehab center for another 30 days for violating his probation on a drug-possession charge. But she was pleased enough by his progress to allow him to step out once in awhile for work and charity events.

LOOKING FOR RODMAN: A Colorado judge issuing an arrest warrant on Wednesday for ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman for missing a court date for two alleged traffic violations.

CALLING ALL OSCAR FANS: Movie fans hoping to attend the red carpet ceremonies come Academy Awards time next March at Hollywood's Kodak Theater must enter a random online drawing by Sept. 26 to win one of 300 bleacher seats. Visit www.oscars.org/bleachers for more information.

BAD VIBES: Jimmy James Johnson pleading guilty Wednesday to punching Dr. Dre and sparking a brawl at last year's Vibe Awards. Johnson was sentenced to a year in jail and three years' probation and ordered to stay away from Dre.

LIL' REALTY SHOW: Variety reporting Lil' Kim filming a reality series documenting her final days of freedom. The rapper is set to begin serving her year-long jail sentence Monday.

PAYING TRIBUTE: Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci and Bob Balaban signing on to helm remakes of three films by the late Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who was murdered last November in Amsterdam by an Islamic radical.

HITTING THE ROAD: Kanye West kicking off a fall tour with Common, Fantasia and Keyshia Cole on Oct. 11 in Miami that will run through Dec. 11 in Vancouver.

BAD KARMA: Lennon, the new Broadway musical based on the life of late Beatle John Lennon, ending its run at the Broadhurst Theatre on Sept. 24 after opening in July.

DOING THEIR PART: Pearl Jam set to play a rare club show at Chicago's House of Blues on Oct. 5 to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Tickets are going for $1,000 each.

TELE-FLOP: Fewer than 24 million viewers tuning into last Friday's multi-network telethon, Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, despite the fact that it was carried on 29 networks. In contrast, 89 million people tuned into the post-9-11 telethon, America: A Tribute to Heroes.

DEEP POCKETS: Though the telethon was watched by a comparatively low number of viewers, the American Red Cross and Salvation Army raising an estimated $30 million in donations.

ON THE OFFENSIVE: Singer-songwriter Tom Waits suing General Motors' Opel and ad agency McCann Erickson in Frankfurt, Germany, for allegedly impersonating his singing voice for a series of car commercials after he turned them down.

TOUCHDOWN! ESPN sealing a deal Wednesday with Major League Baseball to air games on Sunday nights under a new eight-year contract worth $2.368 billion.

TUBE NEWS: Nick Lachey and Brandy signing development deals with the WB Network to either star in or create new series.

HOT TO TROT: Denis Leary's FX firefighter drama, Rescue Me, attracting 3.6 million viewers Tuesday night for its season finale, one of the highest-rated series finales so far this season among original series.

BACK TO THE ZOO: DreamWorks Animation announcing Madagascar 2, a sequel to the animated film that has earned more than $500 million at the worldwide box office, making it the company's most successful original film. Ben Stiller and Chris Rock returning to reprise their roles.

HE'S THEIR MAN: Per Variety, 40-Year-Old Virgin star Steve Carell signing on to star in Dan in Real Life, a Disney romantic comedy about a widower with three daughters who writes a parenting column for a local newspaper. The film will be directed by Peter Hedges (Pieces of April).

THOU SHALT DIRECT: Gus Van Sant and Nicole Holofcener signing on to helm installments of FX's The Ten Commandments, an epic limited series exploring spiritual and moral issues concerning modern Americans and inspired by Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue.