FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, September 8, 2000

STAND-UP GUY: Eminem winning top honors at the MTV Video Music Awards, walking away with the trophy for Video of the Year, along with Best Male Video. 'N Sync captured three awards, including Viewer's Choice.

BUSTED: Timothy Commerford, the bass player for Rage Against the Machine was arrested at the MTV Video Music Awards Thursday night and charged with resisting arrest. His antics delayed the show for 20 minutes as police tried to coax him down from a scaffold.

DENNIS FRANZ IN A TOGA? Television writer-producer David Milch (NYPD Blue) is working with DreamWorks to develop a TV cop show set in ancient Rome, Daily Variety reporting. Ridley Scott, who helmed Gladiator, would likely direct a two-hour pilot for the show.

NOT SHOCKING ENOUGH? Howard Stern's radio ratings are going down, according to the latest Arbitron numbers. His cumulative audience on WXRK-FM in New York has dropped 12 percent from 1.2 million weekly in 1998 to 1.05 million now.

ALIEN-ATED: Jeff Bridges is in negotiations to star opposite Kevin Spacey in Universal Pictures' sci-fi fable K-PAX for director Iain Softley. Bridges will play a psychiatrist who tries to understand a mysterious new mental hospital patient (Spacey) who claims to come from a distant planet called K-PAX.

BARRELS OF LAUGHS: Oscar winner Joe Pesci developing a sitcom for Big Ticket Television about the world of stand-up comedy. Pesci will star in the pilot and have a recurring role in the untitled series as a mid-level mobster who acquires a comedy club as collateral for a debt.

KATHIE LEE WHO? Ratings for Regis Philbin's daily talk show have been soaring since his former cohost, Kathie Lee Gifford, left in July. The first three weeks of Live with Regis had 26 percent more viewers than the same three weeks of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.

CHICKEN? The Rock, the WWF's top-rated grappler, is bailing out of an untitled sci-fi action film under development at Sony-based production company Revolution Studios. The Rock, whose real name is Dwayne Johnson, is popular on both the World Wrestling Federation's Smackdown! on the UPN's WWF Raw.

A LONG 15 MINUTES: CBS writing Survivor winner Richard Hatch into an upcoming episode of Becker. Hatch will play himself and be examined by the doctor, who will find "interesting things in his stomach," according to a CBS press release.

BRING YOUR I.D. Days before the government is expected to release a report criticizing the entertainment industry for marketing adult movies, music and video games to children, Kmart and Wal-Mart announced plans to clamp down on children's purchases of video games designed for adults, carding would-be buyers.

WINNERS: ABC News signing on Ted Koppel for another five years. The move comes as the net raked in 11 news and documentary Emmy Awards--more than any other network. Five of those Emmys went to Nightline.

WHO? Skip Caray being hired to act as a reliever for NBC's Bob Costas during the National League playoffs while Costas is in Sydney for the Olympics.

LAUGHING AT THE BANK: NBC says all of the commercial spots for the 2000 Summer Games are sold out, harvesting a record $900 million in gross network sales.

HIGH-CLASS TABLOID: Opera legend Maria Callas bore the love child of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1960, but the baby boy died of natural causes within hours, Vanity Fair reports in its October issue.