FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, July 5, 1999

Wild Wild West...Oliver Stone...George Jones...

By Joal Ryan Jul 06, 1999 12:00 AMTags
ROPIN' EM IN: The critically maligned Wild Wild West easily wins the holiday weekend box office with an estimated $37 million. Big Daddy was No. 2, South Park 3.

RAP SHEET: Former 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell arrested Monday for socking a man in the face with a bottle of Jack Daniels at a Miami night club.

OH, BABY! Cindy Crawford gave birth to her first child, a boy, Friday in Los Angeles, the supermodel's rep announced. The newly dubbed Presley Walker and mom are "in great shape."

THEY DID! Popster Posh Spice, 25, wed Brit soccer star David Beckham, 24, today in Ireland.

WEDDING ADD: Spices Baby, Sporty Scary and non-spice Elton John among the nearly 300 guests. (Just 29 attended the actual ceremony.)

REMEMBERED: Oscar-winning special effects whiz John Stears--the guy who created R2-D2, lightsabers and the Death Star--has died of complications from a stroke at age 64.

STEARS ADD: His other memorable effects included James Bond's fully loaded Aston Martin and the flying car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He was also the inspiration for the film F/X.

CODA: Mark Sandman, frontman of the Boston-based band Morphine (Cure for Pain), suffered a fatal heart attack during a concert outside Rome. He was 46.

BUSTED: Lawyers for Oliver Stone and the studio behind Natural Born Killers ordered to put in face time in a Louisiana courtroom July 22 for failing to provide info on litigation involving a shooting allegedly inspired by the film.

TOURIST ATTRACTION: George Jones' wrecked sports-utility vehicle (the one he drove into a bridge) now sitting along a Tennessee highway, to remind motorists not to drink and drive.