FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, April 3, 2000

Mon., Apr. 3, 2000 5:00 PM PDT by Emily Farache

I'M SPECIAL: Sean "Puffy" Combs wants a New York City judge to dismiss the gun and bribery charges against him. Puffy's attorney says if the charges aren't dropped, at least the authorities could try Puffy separately from the other defendants.

PAPERBACK WRITERS: The three surviving Beatles writing a book setting the record straight, Paul McCartney's spokesman says. McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr spent six years writing the Beatles Anthology, to be published this fall.

HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR: Jet-setting money manager Dana Giacchetto, whose Cassandra Group advised the likes of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Mike Ovitz and Phish, was charged on Monday with illegally transferring $20 million out of celebrity clients' accounts and pocketing at least $6 million of it.

THAT'S WHAT HE'S BEEN UP TO: Quentin Tarantino writing liner notes for a new Johnny Cash's 3-CD package called Love, God, Murder. The collection is due out May 23 on Columbia Records.

ERIN GOLD, EL DORADO SILVER: Erin Brockovich was the number one movie for a third week, earning $13.8 million, according to final figures Monday. The Road to El Dorado earned $12.8 million.

CELEB COURTHOUSE: A Los Angeles judge Friday ruled in favor of Dr. Dre in a dispute over a 1991 contract with a music-industry executive, calling the deal "unconscionably unfair" to the rapper-producer.

ALSO ON THE DOCKET: A woman Friday sued Steven Spielberg and his Shoah Foundation, claiming the Holocaust victims' foundation refused to hire her because she is black.

HALLE ON WHEELS: Halle Berry, facing a misdemeanor charge for leaving the scene of a February car accident, surrendered to police for booking Saturday. She's due in court next month.

SLIDING IN: American Beauty's Thora Birch inking seven-figure deal to star in The Hole, a British film about four students without adult supervision who experience things going awry.

NICK OF TIME: A security guard's suit against M?tley Cr?e for more than $75,000 was settled out of court days before it was to go to trial. The security guard said he was physically and verbally abused at a 1997 concert.

VANISHING: Paperback editions of the latest Harry Potter tale are outselling other children's books by a ratio of five to one.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN: Jerry Bruckheimer's Pearl Harbor, starring Ben Affleck and Cuba Gooding Jr., kicked off shooting Sunday in Hawaii with a wreath-laying ceremony on the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.

IT'S A DEAL: Tribune Broadcasting got the first off-network syndication deal on Dharma & Greg for its New York and Chicago stations, while Fox got the show for its Los Angeles station. The companies paid about $80,000 a week for the show.

SIGNING OFF: Radio talk-show host Art Bell is retiring for the second time--this time for real--due to false allegations that he is a child molester.

ALMOST A DECADE: After eight years and four albums, Luscious Jackson confirming rumors they are calling it quits. "The band just came to its natural conclusion," said bassist-vocalist Jill Cunniff.

TOP HONORS: The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation honoring Hilary Swank, Elton John and Marlo Thomas for their contributions to gay rights.

DONATION: Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda giving his Oscar statuette to a university in Poland.

GOLD COINS: Roger Moore, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador since 1991, receiving a Hans Christian Andersen prize Sunday in honor of the famed fairy tale writer's 195th birthday.