FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, October 16, 2002

Fox pulls Phone Booth, Ryder's drug charge dropped, Kid Rock and Pam to marry? more

By Josh Grossberg Oct 16, 2002 7:35 PMTags

YANKED: Twentieth Century Fox pulling Phone Booth, a Hollywood thriller about a sniper terrorizing a man who answers a ringing pay phone, from its Nov. 15 release slot because of the sniper now terrorizing Washington D.C. It'll likely hit theaters now sometime in the spring.

COURTING: A Beverly Hills judge Wednesday dropping a drug charge against Winona Ryder and set a trial date of Oct. 24 for the actress. Ryder, who attended this morning's hearing, still faces three felony theft charges stemming from her alleged shoplifting spree.

WAG THE MOOSE: Dustin Hoffman in talks to co-star with Ray Romano in Mooseport, a political comedy in which Hoffman would play a former U.S. president who is asked by townsfolk to fill an empty mayor seat, but finds his adversary more popular than he is.

AT IT AGAIN: Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera drawing controversy following his visit to a local Hooters restaurant only minutes after grimly reporting at the scene of Friday's sniper killing in Virginia. Rivera reportedly had dinner and autographed the skimpy orange hot pants of several willing waitresses.

ONCE BITTEN: Angelina Jolie signing on to star in Bitten, a movie about a female werewolf who tries to lead a normal life as a journalist and fall in love, but is drawn back to the pack though, when a rogue band of werewolves starts drafting criminals.

TWICE SHY: The Scream team of director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson joining forces with Dimension Films for Cursed, a film that will poke fun at the werewolf genre while offering up chills à la what the pair did with Scream. The film is set for release next August.

PREGGERS! JAG star David James Elliott and wife Nanci expecting their second child, Entertainment Tonight reports.

FOR SALE: Sony Corp. in talks to sell its famed Culver City Studios lot where Citizen Kane, King Kong and Gone with the Wind were filmed. The site, originally built in 1919, is valued at $80 million to $90 million.

IN STYLE: Rapper Eve winning Breakthrough style award while singer-actress-designer Jennifer Lopez, was named most influential performer of the year at Tuesday's VH-1 Vogue Fashion Awards.

TRUMPED: The New York Post reporting that an Arizona clothing manufacturer suing Ivana Trump for fraud, accusing her of looting her clothing company for personal use to buy property in Florida and pay for repairs to her yacht.

AH-NULD SPEAKS! Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger giving an address on October 17 about the importance of after-school programs for children as part of Town Hall Los Angeles' new series, "Who's Saving America's Kids?"

ON THE MOVE: Chicago, Broadway's longest-running musical revival, moving to the Ambassador Theater on January 29 after more than five years at the much larger Shubert Theater to make way for Bernadette Peters' revival of Gypsy opening next April.

STARTING A NEW CHAPTER: Longtime New Yorker fiction and literary editor Bill Buford stepping down from his post to continue his own career as an author.

CONTROVERSIAL PICS: The former fiance of Rebekah Revels, the Miss North Carolina who resigned after the Miss America pageant learned about nude photos of her, turning over the pictures on Tuesday, just before his contempt hearing was to begin.

TYING THE KNOT? Hank Williams Jr., who has recorded with Kid Rock, telling a concert audience last weekend that his pal and Pamela Anderson are getting married next month at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Rock's tour takes him to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on November 9.

BACK ON THE ROAD: After postponing several shows due to lead singer Scott Stapp suffering from laryngitis, Creed set to return to a revamped tour itinerary that will see the band playing 21 gigs through early December.

PATRON OF THE ARTS: Actor Cheech Marin, who owns the largest collection of Chicano art in the world, loaning out some of his paintings to the Smithsonian as part of a five-year art tour that Marin hopes will introduce people to Mexican-American life in the city.

EYE TO EYE: CBS winning its third consecutive week of the new TV season on the strength of a surging CSI, which eclipsed NBC's Friends as this season's most popular series, snagging 30.7 million viewers. But the peacock network again took the lead among young-adults.

STANDS TO REASON: Victorian supersleuth Sherlock Holmes becoming the first fictional character Wednesday to be granted an honorary fellowship by Britain's prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry.

FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: A judge scrutinizing Constantin Costa-Gavras's 1982 film Missing on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the murder of U.S. journalist Charles Horman in Chile after the bloody 1973 coup by General Auguste Pinochet.