FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, September 29, 2003

ROCK YOUR AWARD SHOW: Popster Justin Timberlake snagging a leading five nominations Monday for the MTV Europe Awards, including Best Pop Video for "Cry Me a River."

LESS SEX IN SYNDICATION: Old episodes of HBO's Sex and the City will begin airing on TBS in June 2004--minus its racier scenes and edited to allow for commercial breaks. The show will film its final original episode early next year.

OUT TILL HALLOWEEN: Phil Spector's bail extended till October 31 while prosecutors decide if they will file charges against him in the February 3 shooting death of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson.

REHABBING: Actor Tom Sizemore has entered an undisclosed rehab program, the Los Angeles City Attorney says, delaying his sentencing for assaulting ex-fiancée Heidi Fleiss. The hearing, originally scheduled for this Friday, has been pushed to October 9.

BACK ON THE TUBE: In her first acting appearance in eight years, Liza Minnelli will do a multiepisode guest stint on Fox's new comedy Arrested Development, set to debut on November 2. The famed actress will play a rich widowed socialite who is the Bluth family matriarch's biggest nemesis.

MORE TUBE TALK: Monty Python alumn John Cleese set to guest star on Will & Grace for six episodes, playing the father of Karen Walker's late husband's mistress. SUIT SWAPPING: More than 50 of the 261 federal lawsuits filed against alleged song-swappers for copyright infringement by the recording industry have been settled for an undisclosed amount, the Recording Industry Association of America confirmed Monday.

BRIDGING THE MUPPET DIVIDE: Sesame Workshop and Detroit Public Television announcing the development of a five-part series, Sesame Neighborhood, which will serve the Arab-American community. The series will be coproduced by the Egyptian non-profit Alam Simsim.

JOHNNY B. FRIED: Police in Wentzville, Missouri confirming that a September 20 fire that razed a building on rock and roll icon Chuck Berry's property was arson.

RESPECT: Aretha Franklin saying she's thankful that police will not press charges against her son, Eddie Franklin, who was eyed as a suspect in the arson fire that gutted her $1.2 million mansion in Detroit. The Soul Queen was fined $225 however for failing to clear away debris.

GOOD SIGNS: Director M. Night Shyamalan donating $1.5 million to help revitalize the South Philadelphia neighborhood that served as the backdrop to his hit 1999 film, The Sixth Sense.

BIG PIMPIN': Tickets to Jay-Z's November 25 benefit show at New York's Madison Square Garden, billed as the start of his last-ever promotional tour, selling out in a matter of hours on Saturday. Proceeds go to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund and the Hip-Hop Action Summit Network.

HELPING OUT: Sheryl Crow, Mya, and Debbie Harry, among the artists on the bill for Vanity Fair in Concert, an October 6 all-star benefit at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom that will raise money for Step Up Women's Network. Tickets are $65 and on sale via Ticketmaster.

FEEL LIKE JENNIFER: Jennifer Aniston's midnight blue vintage Halston gown that she wore to this year's Emmys proving to be a hot item on eBay as part of the second annual charity auction called Clothes Off Our Back, as 24 bidders have driven up its price to $4,100.

LESS ORLANDO: FX canceling its new late-night talker The Orlando Jones Show due to low ratings, the cable network confirmed on monday.

MOURNED: Oscar-winning filmmaker Elia Kazan, the man behind such classic films as On the Waterfront, East of Eden, A Streetcar Named Desire and Gentleman's Agreement, died Sunday at his New York home at 94. Kazan, reviled for "naming names" during the Communist witchhunt of the 1950s, received a controversial Honorary Academy Award in 1999.

HE MADE 'EM LAUGH: Veteran Hollywood song-and-dance man Donald O'Connor died Saturday in a Southern California retirement home of heart failure at age 78. O'Connor was best known for his "Make 'Em Laugh" routine in Singin' in the Rain and the hugely popular Francis the Talking Mule comedies of the 1950s.

HITTING BACK: Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines penning an open letter to the media, music industry, and fans on the band's Website saying they "don't feel part of the country scene any longer" and saying they now consider themselves "part of the big rock 'n' roll family."

SOLID AS THE ROCK: The Rock's crime caper The Rundown topped the box office with $18.5 million, while Diane Lane's romance Under the Tuscan Sun had the top per-screen average to earn $9.8 million in second place.

HARD KNOCK: Great White drummer Derrick Pontier briefly hospitalized following a three-car accident hours before the band's Saturday concert in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Pontier was treated for minor injuries and released.

MORE CASH: Indie label Scena Records releasing on September 23 Johnny Cash--Live Recordings from the Louisiana Hayride, rare 1955-63 live recordings of the Man in Black on the Shreveport, Louisiana, country radio showcase.

GREAT HONOR: Bob Hope inducted posthumously into the Reserve Officers Association Minuteman Hall of Fame for his 50 years of entertaining military troops overseas.

PSYCHO FAN MAIL: Popster Kylie Minogue calling in British police to investigate some 700 threatening letters sent to her, according to London's Sun newspaper.

OH BABY: Beyoncé's "Baby Boy" featuring Sean Paul topping the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the first song to earn Greatest Gainer/Airplay honors for seven consecutive weeks.

BUSTED: Police in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, arresting six security guards hired to protect the set of Wolfgang Petersen's epic Troy, starring Brad Pitt, and charging them with stealing an all-terrain motorcycle and tools belonging to the production crew.

LOTS OF CENTS: Rapper 50 Cent buying a 52-room Connecticut mansion that once belonged to former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson for $4.1 million.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS: Comedian Drew Carey entertaining the troops of the 4th Infantry Division for more than an hour at an American base in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.