FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, July 21, 1999

Ben Stiller...Friends...The Emmys...

By Joal Ryan Jul 22, 1999 1:15 AMTags
IMPOSSIBLE MISSION: Paramount moving Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 2 to summer 2000, from December 17. The original date called too ambitious in Daily Variety.

MYSTERY MOVE: Summer comedy Mystery Men, with Ben Stiller, also getting a new opening date: August 6, back from July 30.

BIZKIT BAKED: The Backstreet Boys reclaim the top slot on the pop charts, knocking out reigning champs Limp Bizkit.

BACK UP THE TRUCK: NBC ready to pay as much as $5 million an episode to the producers of Friends to keep the top-rated sitcom running through spring 2002, Variety says.

EYES WIDE CLOCKED! A ticket-taker in Brownsville, Texas, attacked by two teens denied access to a screening of the R-rated Eyes Wide Shut, police say.

HONOR: The Los Angeles chapter of the British Film Academy to rename its prestigious Britannia Award after director Stanley Kubrick.

UPDATE: The bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law recovered today from plane wreckage off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

BAD TIMING: ABC's Diane Sawyer back at Good Morning America today, after excusing herself for two days due to grief over the Kennedy story.

EMMY WATCH: Prime-time Emmy nominations out tomorrow, bright and early, at 5:30 a.m. (PT).

HAWKEYE NESTS: M*A*S*H vet Alan Alda to guest in five episodes of NBC's ER next fall. He'll play an Alzheimer's patient.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg shooting down a report he's bound for soon-to-be honcho-less Warner Bros., in the new Liz Smith column.

OH, THAT BRITISH PRESS: London Sunday People says popster Elton John will go talk-show host in a series of six hourlong celebrity specials for U.K. TV.

DOVE: United Nations Messenger of Peace Michael Douglas calling for a global end to weapons proliferation.

STILL FIGHTING: Mohamed Al Fayed suing a Beverly Hills attorney, three others for allegedly trying to sell him bogus info about the car crash that killed Princess Di and his son Dodi.

AKA, THE GOOD STUFF: Comic Steve Allen and singer Naomi Judd among those signing an "appeal" calling for less TV sex and violence.

PIRATE RADIO: U.S. radio stations asked to stop playing a cyber-bootlegged version of the new Paul McCartney track, "Run Devil Run."

HOTTER WATER: In Mexico, an arrest warrant issued now for Latin pop star Gloria Trevi. She faces police questioning about luring teen girls to have sex with her former manager.

STARRED: Country singer Charley Pride got the Hollywood Walk of Fame treatment in ceremonies today.

MILESTONE: Emmy-winning Barney Fife portrayer Don Knotts turns 75 today.

OBIT: TV producer Anthony W. Marshall, father of actor/directors Penny and Garry, died July 12, it's now reported. He was 93.