FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, April 11, 2004

THE PASSION'S BACK: Over Easter weekend The Passion of the Christ was revitalized, moving back to the top of the box-office. Earning an estimated $17 million, Mel Gibson's tough love depiction of Jesus' journey to the cross crucified the competition and raised its seven week earnings to $354.8 million, the eighth best ever domestic gross.

TRAGIC ACCIDENT: The elderly parents of Grammy-winning recording artist "Weird Al" Yankovic found dead in their suburban San Diego home, apparently victims of carbon monoxide poisoning after recently starting up a wood fire in the fireplace, officials confirmed.

REMEMBERED: Actress Carrie Snodgress, who scored an Oscar nod for the 1970 movie Diary of a Mad Housewife but gave up a promising film career to raise a child with rocker Neil Young died April 1 of heart failure in Los Angeles. She was 57.

ON THE REBOUND: Famed broadcaster Pat Summerall, 73, undergoing a liver transplant Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida and is now recovering in an intensive care unit, a hospital spokeswoman confirmed.

YOU KNEW SHE HAD TO DO IT: Janet Jackson parodying her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" in the opening skit last night on Saturday Night Live when she pretended to be national security adviser Condoleezza Rice opening her blouse at the Sept. 11 commission hearings.

WUSSING OUT? Partly as a result of Jackson's Super Bowl boob stunt and the current FCC crackdown on indecency, Victoria's Secret confirming it is canceling its nationally televised fashion show this year.

SPLITSVILLE? Star magazine reporting that John Stamos and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos have called it quits after five years of marriage because he wanted kids and she didn't. According to the tab no third party is involved.

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN: Sony Pictures snagging the film rights to Against All Enemies, the best-selling book from former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke that accused the Bush administration of ignoring the Al Qaeda threat. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

NOT SO LUCKY STAR: Madonna stirring up controversy and criticism from conservative Christians in Ireland on Friday after it was announced the sexually provocative icon would be playing her first ever Irish concert on a Sunday--August 29 at Slane Castle, north of Dublin.

BACK IN THE OLD HOME PLACE: Phish seeking a permit from the Federal Aviation Administration to close the Newport State Airport in Coventry, Vermont, to hold their latest outdoor summer festival. This would be the first major concert in their home state since the jam titans played Sugarbush in 1995.

ROCK THE CASBAH: A documentary on the Clash's late frontman, Joe Strummer, titled Let's Rock Again, will receive its world premiere next month at New York's Tribeca Film Festival.

MORE BILL: Quentin Tarantino telling Entertainment Weekly he's planning Kill Bill?Vol. 3, which would focus on Nikki, the daughter of Vivica A. Fox's Vernita Green character who wants revenge after The Bride killed her mother.

LETTING IT GO: Attorneys for Rick Salomon, the ex-boyfriend of Paris Hilton who appeared with her in her infamous sex video, dropping his $10 million slander lawsuit against the heiress and her parents. No reason was given for the action.

CHANGING HIS MIND: The judge in the Michael Jackson molestation case reversing his previous position and ruling on Friday that an audiotape of an interview conducted for the popster's legal counsel should be turned over to prosecutors after all.

WEDDING BELLS: Marilyn Manson going the traditional route and popping the question to his gal-pal, burlesque artist Dita Von Teese, on March 22, reports Us Weekly. A wedding is expected sometime this year.

ACTION HERO: Arnold Schwarzenegger coming to the aid of a fellow swimmer in Hawaii when he pushed the struggling man in to shore on a boogie board in the water off the coast of Maui, reports Access Hollywood.

STALKER BOI: Police arresting a Seattle man for allegedly stalking Avril Lavigne. James Speedy, 30, posted $5,000 bail and was released.

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS: Vince Neil pleading no contest to battery of a Nevada prostitute who accused the rocker of choking her and throwing her against a wall last year. He was fined $1,000 plus court fees and ordered to complete an anger management correspondence course within 60 days.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK: Saturday Night Live touting this weekend's host Janet Jackson with the tag line: "Anything could happen, as long as it meets FCC guidelines."

SHOCK JOCK DROPPED: Clear Channel choosing to drop Howard Stern's radio show from its chain, after facing a proposed $495,000 in FCC indecency fines stemming from 18 alleged violations during Stern's Apr. 9, 2003, show.

DESTINY'S PROBLEM: PETA placing a full-page ad in Billboard magazine next week to encourage Beyonc? to stop wearing fur because they say the singer has ignored their repeated pleas over the past two years.

GOOD TO GO? Scott Weiland has been cleared to tour with his new band, Velvet Revolver, beginning next month. The embattled frontman has spent the last few months in court-ordered drug rehab, after pleading no contest to heroin possession.

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