FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, June 19, 2001

Tue., Jun. 19, 2001 2:50 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

PHANTOM DVD! Fox announcing Tuesday it plans to release Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace on DVD October 16. It's the first of George Lucas' Star Wars films to be distributed on the digital format.

DIVERTED: West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin getting sent to a drug diversion program after pleading guilty to charges stemming from his airport drug bust earlier this year. All charges will be dropped in 18 months if he remains clean.

OOPS...THEY WON'T DO IT AGAIN: The Dallas deejays who spread the Justin-and-Britney are dead hoax have been fired. KEGL said Kramer and Twitch were let go Monday.

PAYING TRIBUTE I: Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, filmmaker Steven Spielberg tipping his hat to director Stanley Kubrick by describing his new movie, A.I., as a collaboration with the late legendary director.

PAYING TRIBUTE II: The American Cinematheque honoring actor Nicolas Cage at this year's annual gala on September 22, which will be hosted by Samuel L. Jackson and broadcast on TNT October 10.

PASS DA BEER NUTS: Cheers stars George Wendt and John Ratzenberger, who played Norm and Cliff on the sitcom, settling their lawsuit against Paramount Pictures. The studio licensed Cheers theme bars in airports and installed life-sized robots modeled after the pair without their permission

TOMMY LEE UPDATE: Rocker Tommy Lee telling a 911 operator Saturday that a four-year-old boy who drowned in a pool during a birthday party at his home had been left alone "for a minute."

MASTER OF HER DOMAIN: Former Seinfeld costar Julia Louis-Dreyfus will play a nightclub singer/voiceover artist residing in L.A. for her new untitled sitcom debuting next fall. Also added to the ensemble cast are The Daily Show's Steve Carell and actor Peter Stormare (Chocolat, Fargo).

DENIED: A federal judge in California rejecting a motion by Anna Nicole Smith to dismiss her former stepson's appeal of the $474 million judgment by a bankruptcy court that went in her favor.

GETTING OUT OF JAIL: Death Row Records cofounder Marion "Suge" Knight scheduled for release from federal prison on August 9, after serving half a nine-year sentence for violating probation

THOU SHALT GIVE IN TO TEMPTATION: The producers of Fox's Temptation Island announcing casting calls this week in Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland. Participants can neither be married, nor expecting a child, and must feel comfortable wearing a bathing suit and be willing to have their lives taped 24 hours a day.

PLENTY OF TIME: While Hollywood actors' film-TV contract with studios expires on July 1, a strike would not be able to start until a month from now at the earliest because the acting unions must submit a strike recommendation to all its members. Both sides are expected to settle, however.

THE TRIBE HAS SPOKEN: Survivor host Jeff Probst's directing debut, Finder's Fee, which he also wrote, winning Best Picture Monday at the 27th annual Seattle International Film Festival. Actor Tim Blake Nelson took home Best Director for O, a modern-day telling of Othello.

HERE NOW: Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher telling London's Daily Telegraph he feels much happier since giving up drugs, wants to be a good father and says he and his brother, Liam, are getting along much better now.

LIFE RECIPES: Martha Stewart to publish an autobiography, tentatively titled Martha: Really and Truly. It's set to his book stores by 2003.

STORM'S AFTERMATH: A judge ruling a lawsuit filed by the families of fishermen and others portrayed in last summer's movie, A Perfect Storm, can go to trial. The suit against Warner Bros. says the movie cast boat captain Billy Tyne in a negative light and was produced without the families' consent.