March 25, 2004
110 STAFF FIRED AS ARISTA FOLDS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amAt least the fabled Arista Records is going out on a high note. As expected, Arista, part of Bertelsmann's music unit BMG, is being folded into RCA Records. About 110...
REFINANCING TO AID VERSACE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amVersace, the Italian fashion house, said yesterday it has hired Banca Intesa to refinance its debt ahead of a crucial bond payment due this summer. The large Italian bank has...
A YES TO GEORGE - DOLANS STRIKE OUT IN CONTEST OVER YANKEE FEES
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amAn arbitrator has ordered the Yankees back onto basic cable at Cablevision - a giant victory for George Steinbrenner and his partners at the YES Network. The ruling is a...
EVERCORE MUSCLES IN TO BUY LEINER
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amEvercore Partners and Golden Gate Capital are nearing a deal to buy Leiner Health Products, one of the country's top makers of private-label vitamins, dietary supplements and over-the-counter drugs, The...
PUMP PRICES PINCH ECONOMY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amAmericans are paying more at the pump than ever before - and may soon pay more at the airline ticket counter and the department store. "The days of cheaper oil...
MFS REVEALS FEES TO BROKERS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amAfter months of getting hammered by regulators, mutual fund giant MFS disclosed how much it pays brokerage firms to peddle its investments. The move comes as regulators and government investigators...
RAINES REAMS EX-COLLEAGUES, NEWS CULTURE AT GRAY LADY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amFormer New York Times executive editor Howell Raines has unleashed a blistering criticism of the paper where he worked for 25 years and of the onetime friend who ultimately fired...
P.R. GURU'S WILY EISNER DEFENSE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWalt Disney hired a politically connected lobbyist to help derail a shareholders' reform movement. Although the shareholders who sought to oust Disney chief Michael Eisner were narrowly defeated, their unprecedented...
EDGAR FACING SHOWDOWN WITH MAVERICK MADONNA
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amThe bitter dispute between Madonna and Warner Music will be fought in the courts. Warner Music yesterday filed an action in a Delaware court asking a judge to declare that...
MFS DRAWS BACK CURTAIN ON FEES PAID TO FUND BROKERS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amAfter months of getting hammered by regulators, mutual fund giant MFS disclosed how much it pays brokerage firms to peddle its investments. The move comes at a time when regulators...
BOROUGH HAUL - BROOKLYN NIGHTLIFE IS HIP - BUT A HASSLE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amDON'T get us wrong: We love Brooklyn. Compared to Manhattan, it's cheaper, it has less attitude and - let's face it - it's just cooler. But there's a heavy price...
LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amEast 27th Street East 27th Street has a reputation as a strip of iniquity almost as old as that of Manhattan itself. In 1892, for example, when the great moral...
'I THINK SHE'S PRETTIER THAN I AM'
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amFORMER Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss is slamming the new unauthorized cable movie based on her life and its star Jamie-Lynn DiScala. "Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss"...
WEDDING BILL BLUES - TOO MANY PARTIES, TOO LITTLE MONEY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amFROM wedding bells to weddings hell. While a wedding may well be the most important moment in a couple's life, it's becoming more like a marathon for friends and family....
PRIESTLEY 'CALLING' -TEEN TV TITAN RETURNS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amYOU'LL be happy to know (well, at least I was) that one of the cute boys from the old "90210" - Jason Priestley - is back as a regular on...
HITTING B'WAY WITH A PASSION
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amIT'S a story about a big star who becomes obsessed with bringing a Passion play to a wider stage. No, not Mel Gibson - Alec Baldwin, or the character Baldwin...
BOND BOMBSHELL - BROSNAN MAY HAVE LOST HIS LICENSE TO KILL; BROSNAN'S STIRRED, NOT SHAKEN
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amHE'S been hailed as the best Bond since Sean Connery, but Pierce Brosnan may not be stepping into that tuxedo again. Negotiations over the next film in the franchise have...
'NANNY' IN NEW SITCOM
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amTHE star of "The Nanny," Fran Drescher, has signed on for a lead role in a new comedy. Drescher will star in a series called "Shacking Up" on the WB....
'TOP MODEL' HITS RUNWAY - PASSED TIME BABYSITTING
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amYOANNA House, the surprise winner of "America's Next Top Model" last Tuesday night, is going on her first high-fashion job interviews today. Despite the fact the show was taped months...
'FROZEN' LEAVES YOU COLD
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amFROZENAt the East 13th Street Theater, 136 E. 13 St. Through April 10. Ticket Central, (212) 279-4200. --- 'FROZEN" deals with three people who have become, in the judgment of...
POLITICAL 'PARDY - MEDIA BIGS FACE OFF ON 'JEOPARDY'
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amTHEY act pretty smart when they're on TV, but now, 15 personalities from the worlds of media and politics will get a chance to prove how smart they really are...
'IDOL' JUDGES SACK MATT
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amPUT a fork in Matt Rogers because he's done. The husky former football player from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., was eliminated last night on "American Idol." His exit leaves 10 finalists...
THE 9/11 HEARINGS: COMFORTING THE ENEMY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amDEMOCRACY is, by far, the greatest system of government yet created by human genius. The problem is the elections. In a routine presidential contest, the thundering emptiness of the rhetoric...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amJuror Jimmy Thompson was entering the Charleston County (S.C.) Courthouse when he emptied his pockets at the metal detector - and accidentally pulled out a bag of pot, authorities said....
KILL 'GOD,' PLEDGE FOE TELLS JUSTICES
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA California atheist told the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are unconstitutional and offensive to people who don't believe in a...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amMANHATTAN * A 21-year-old man was hospitalized last night after he shot himself in the leg while catching a movie at a Times Square theater, cops said. Anthony Clark was...
U.N. LET SADDAM ROB US BLIND: KURDS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The United Nations allowed Saddam Hussein to shortchange Iraqi Kurds out of billions of dollars from the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program, and funds for the oppressed population mysteriously vanished...
HALF-BAKED HEALTH PLAN HARD TO SWALLOW
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amMayor Bloomberg, a meat-and-potatoes man, might think he's doing the public a favor by suggesting that restaurant menus include caloric and nutritional breakdowns. Of course, it's the goofiest idea since...
WHINING 'WOLF' RAPIST GETS 22 YRS.
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amThe last of five wolfpack rapists who sexually tortured a Queens mom was sentenced to 22 years in jail yesterday, despite his efforts to convince a judge he had to...
BOMB BOY'S NIGHTMARE - * USED BY TERROR FIENDS FOR $20 * 'I WANT TO LIVE,' HE BEGS ISRAELIS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - This teenage Palestinian homicide bomber - wearing an 18-pound explosive belt - was discovered in the nick of time as he tried to cross a West Bank checkpoint....
MYSTERY CAR TOWED AWAY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA car abandoned on a lower Manhattan street was towed yesterday by the city Department of Investigation after The Post reported that it had been sitting in the spot for...
DEAD BABY'S MA SAID NOTHING WAS WRONG
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA Staten Island woman who found the corpse of her tenant's newborn baby girl in a garbage bag Tuesday said the tot's mom denied anything was wrong after giving birth....
ECO-HOLIC GANG GREEN FOES FUMBLE THE BALL
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amSAVE me from the politically correct, egghead, eco-holic smart alecs. I'm talking about the hoped-for Jets stadium. "It will mean the rezoning of a 50-square city block," Councilwoman Christine Quinn,...
HAMAS CALLS OFF U.S. JIHAD
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - Hamas yesterday backed off its threat to attack American targets after an apparent power struggle at the top of the terrorist group. Newly installed Hamas chieftain Abdel Aziz...
BUSH, CHIRAC MAKE PEACE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - President Bush will go to France in June to meet a chief foe of the Iraq war - French President Jacques Chirac - to show solidarity on the...
COUNCIL HAS OWN 'ALLEGIANCE' FLAP
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA move to support the Pledge of Allegiance in the City Council sparked fireworks after Pledge advocate Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) interrupted the proceedings to recite it. The councilman had gathered...
WIFE LIED FOR MAN WHO SHOT HER: POLICE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA Queens woman was so desperate to protect her husband that she refused to give him up to authorities the night after he shot her in the back and paralyzed...
JUDGE: HOW'D THE POST DO IT?
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA Brooklyn federal judge is considering calling in the FBI to help answer a question that's baffled The Post's competitors for years: How come the paper is so good? "This...
FIREFIGHTER WHO WAS CRITICALLY INJURED IN ASSAULT, WAS AMONG FIVE BRAVEST SUSPENDED ...
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amRobert Walsh, the Staten Island firefighter who was critically injured in a New Year's Eve assault, was among five Bravest suspended yesterday as a result of the boozy brawl. Walsh...
DWI RACE CARD - COP: BUSTED JUDGE CALLED ME BIASED
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA judge on trial on drunken-driving charges asked the cop who was about to bust her if she had hit anything or hurt anyone - and then declared "if I...
DOC DISTANCES JAYSON FROM GUS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amSOMERVILLE, N.J. - Jayson Williams' lawyers began making their case yesterday with a top medical examiner, who bolstered defense claims that the NBA star did not see the limo driver...
GRUESOME SLAY TALE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amAfter finding a condom in his girlfriend's toilet, Marc Payne put her in a chokehold until she couldn't breathe, stripped her naked, folded her like a "pretzel," and stuffed her...
CAN'T LAND HERE - WEST SIDERS TO JETS: NOT IN OUR BACK YARD
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA new stadium for the Jets isn't finding many fans in the West Side neighborhood. Residents and business owners yesterday said they're flexing for a goal-line stand against the team's...
CRIME FALLS AT COP-PATROL HS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amCrime at one of the city's most dangerous schools has dropped following a crackdown on violence, the Department of Education said yesterday. Sheepshead Bay HS, branded by the city as...
EAT IT AND WEEP - CITY WANTS CALORIES, FAT LISTED ON MENUS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWondering how many calories are in that baked Alaska at your favorite restaurant? The city's top doctor wants you to know, and he's encouraging restaurants to provide nutritional information for...
2ND RANGER CHEER GAL RAPS BRASS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA New York Rangers cheerleader says she and her teammates felt "pressured" into going out on the town with Madison Square Garden executives. "We're not forced into going out with...
AX KILLER: COPS WERE TOO ROUGH
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA Queens ax murderer, who beheaded his wife and son and killed his stepson, is taking the cops to court in a bizarre legal gambit he hopes will land him...
BX. COP BUSTED IN $CAM - RIPPED OFF ATM: PROBE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA Bronx cop was charged yesterday with pocketing a suspect's debit card and PIN and using them with a friend to withdraw $1,800 in cash. Officer Russell Argilla, 30, was...
VEEP TALK FOR KERRY & KERREY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amBOB KERREY'S star turn as a 9/11 commission member is sparking talk that he could join pal John Kerry on a 2004 Democratic ticket of Kerry-Kerrey. A Kerry-Kerrey ticket would...
'FRIENDS' FOTO FINISH - PICS GIVE FANS PEEK AT BELOVED SITCOM'S FINALE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amFarewell, "Friends." NBC released a glimpse of the final episode of the wildly popular series yesterday: three frames from the long-running comedy's highly anticipated finale on May 6. "The theme...
WHY OSAMA'S ALIVE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Bureaucratic confusion and the "moral" objections of top CIA officials to assassinations gummed up efforts to kill 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, investigators revealed yesterday. Because of the...
B'KLYN PLAN MAY GET RAILROADED
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amThe mayor's ambitious plan for skyscrapers in Downtown Brooklyn ran into an unexpected obstacle yesterday - the slave trade. A handful of residents are claiming their homes - now in...
INSIDE FDNY BRAWL - BOOZE & ELVIS SPARKED MASSIVE COVER-UP: REPORT
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amIt began about 5 p.m. on New Year's Eve when Capt. Terrence Sweeney gave firefighter Robert Walsh money to buy beer for the men of Ladder 76/Engine 151 in Staten...
CLARKE TRIPPED BY OWN WORDS - CAN'T KEEP STORIES STRAIGHT, RICE FUMES
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amNational Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice yesterday responded fiercely to Richard Clarke's charges that fighting terror was not a top priority for President Bush - noting the ex-White House aide's allegations...
WINDY CITY SCHOOLS LET UP - CHICAGO REVISES RULE ON SOCIAL PROMOTION
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amCHICAGO, Ill. - Chicago's school system yesterday scaled back its sweeping program to end "social promotions" - a week after Mayor Bloomberg forced through his own program requiring tougher graduation...
FIREMAN PUMPED UP WRONG WAY: COPS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amNext month, his rippling muscles will bulge out of the official FDNY calendar, but now Mr. April 2004 is striking a much less glamorous pose - for a police mug...
FOTOG KILLED PORN STAR: DA
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA photographer has been charged with fatally stabbing a Canadian porn actress, apparently after a grisly S&M shoot left him in the throes of a "sexual bondage fantasy," Pennsylvania prosecutors...
PIN-UP FIREMAN PUMPED UP THE WRONG WAY: COPS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amNext month, his rippling muscles will bulge out of the official FDNY calendar, but now, Mr. April 2004 is striking a much less glamorous pose - for a police mug...
AX KILLER SUES FOR 'BRUTALITY'
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA Queens ax murderer, who beheaded his wife and son and killed his stepson, is taking the cops to court in a bizarre legal gambit he hopes will land him...
CRIME DOWN AT DANGER HS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amCriminal incidents at one of the city's most dangerous schools have dropped following a new measure to crack down on violence, the Department of Education said yesterday. Sheepshead Bay HS...
CLARKE TRIPPED BY OWN WORDS - PRAISED BUSH ON QAEDA IN E-MAILS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amNational Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice yesterday responded fiercely to Richard Clarke's charges that fighting terror was not a top priority for President Bush - noting that the former White House...
CLASSROOM EXTRA: A REAL FIRST LADY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amEleanor Roosevelt gave new meaning to the title First Lady. She was a great humanitarian and one of the world's most beloved women. She was used to famous company. Both...
WIFE LIED FOR HUBBY WHO PARALYZED HER: COPS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA Queens woman was so desperate to protect her husband that she refused to give him up to authorities the night after he shot her in the back and paralyzed...
DEVILS OUT TO SHOW THEY CAN BEAT BEST
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - All the formalities are achieved. Now the Devils can concentrate on what's been difficult for them to master - regaining winning playoff form. Martin Brodeur's 400th career victory,...
BETTER DAYS HERE FOR SCARLET NIT'S
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amA rebuilding year isn't supposed to turn out like this. Not even close. Rutgers, after finishing the 2002-03 season with a 12-16 record, was picked to finish near the bottom...
LIMPING NETS LEANING ON JEFFERSON
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amThe Nets have three universally accepted All-Star caliber players. Two of them, Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin, are out with injuries. Gee, whom do you think everybody on the planet...
U.S. BOARDERS A BUSY BUNCH
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amIT was a long trip from the World Cup in Japan to the U. S. Open at Stratton Mountain, Vt., but for those riders who made the journey last week...
ACHING LEITER SKIPS HIS TURN
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amMET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Categorizing it as "more than normal soreness" in his left shoulder, Al Leiter was scratched from his scheduled start last night. "I think after...
'THE TITLE IS STILL OURS' - SYRACUSE STARS DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LOSE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amPHOENIX - They've yet to know the feeling of a season ending sadly, abruptly, completely. They have no idea what it's like to drag themselves back to a locker room,...
PIAZZA PACKIN' LOTS OF POP - HAPPY HOWE SEES THE 'MIKE OF OLD'
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - The first one was a low laser, one of those screaming ropes that burst out of the yard in seconds. The second one was an arcing...
OKLAHOMA STATE READY TO TACKLE CHALLENGE
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amYou've surely heard the football phrase, "Three yards and a cloud of dust." When Oklahoma State and Pittsburgh take the floor tonight, expect 3-pointers and a cloud of dust. One...
MICKELSON'S PUMPED - PHIL POISED FOR A RUN AT MAJORS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amPONTE VEDRA BEACH - There's an inner calm about Phil Mickelson at the moment that hasn't been present the last couple of few years. Mickelson, despite the verbal shots he...
JINTS HAVE NEW COUSIN
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWith Will Allen and Will Peterson as starters, the Giants believe they are set at cornerback; this offseason, they hoped to land a veteran nickel back. Yesterday they did just...
HEWITT, CAL OUT OF ST. JOHN'S MIX
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amPHOENIX - St. John's has yet to formally extend an offer to a head-coaching candidate, and already two of the Red Storm's top choices are out of the running. Georgia...
MADISON SORE GARDEN - INJURIES KEEPING GRIP ON KNICKS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWith Allan Houston and Tim Thomas missing last night's game versus Memphis and Penny Hardaway calling himself only "50 percent" ready, the swingman-depleted Knicks were in the improbable circumstance of...
ISIAH HAS STERN WORDS FOR TARDY TEENS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES Last week, Knick president Isiah Thomas caused a stir in the locker room with a postgame tirade that begged the Knicks to step up. Thomas took his motivational...
STEPH SAYS ACHY BACK NO BIG DEAL
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amWhile Stephon Marbury insists his aching back isn't much of an issue, his performances of late say otherwise. "At this time of the year, everyone is banged up, not just...
ON-MEND BERNIE FEELS JUST 'GREAT'
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA - Bernie Williams sailed through his first live action yesterday since undergoing an emergency appendectomy on Feb. 26. The Yank center fielder played the role of designated...
ALL ALIVE FOR NUMBER FIVE - FOUR ON FLOOR, AND TYLER, TOO
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amMets 4 - Astros 1 PORT ST. LUCIE - The race is still on. And it's starting to heat up. Keep the contenders coming in the Mets' fifth-starter derby. Not...
SIGH OF ROD-LIEF - ALEX ESCAPES SERIOUS EYE INJURY
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amYankees 8 - Red Sox 6 TAMPA - There was a hushed silence at Legends Field last night even though the place was sold out with more than 10,000 bodies...
BERNIE PASSES FIRST MAJOR TEST
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA - Bernie Williams sailed through his first live action yesterday since undergoing an emergency appendectomy Feb. 26. Williams played the role of designated hitter during a minor...
STEPH: OUR EFFORT NEEDS TO BE BETTER
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amThe Knicks may be without the injured Allan Houston and Tim Thomas, but Stephon Marbury admitted that their absence was not an excuse for the team's woeful performance. "Our effort...
KNICKS MEET WITH A GRIZZLY ENDING - HUBIE & CO. CRUISE IN GARDEN MAULING
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amGrizzlies 111 - Knicks 97 Allan Houston and Tim Thomas are ailing, Penny Hardaway is hurting, Stephon Marbury is pressing and the Knicks are dying. The Garden was a ghost...
AILING HERVE LIFTS RUTGERS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amNIT QUARTERFINALS: Rutgers 72 - Villanova 60 Rutgers' Herve Lamizana twisted his ankle during Tuesday's practice - so much so that he was a game-time decision for last night's NIT...
TALIEK HAS WHAT IT TAKES -UCONN SENIOR FIGHTS TO MEET EXPECTATIONS
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amPHOENIX - Former Connecticut coach Dee Rowe sat in the first row of seats at America West Arena yesterday and watched the Huskies go through an hour-long workout. "Look at...
MOOSE, YANKS EYE ORIENT SUCCESS - BUT BOMBERACE WARY OF 18-HOUR FLIGHT TO JAPAN
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - Mike Mussina was asked what he planned to do during the Yankees' 18-hour flight to Japan that begins late this evening. "I'm going to sleep, eat, sleep, eat...
IN GUARDS THEY TRUST - NELSON POINTS ST. JOE'S AT WAKE FOREST'S PAUL
March 25, 2004 | 5:00amThe game is bigger than any two players and any one particular duel, but that doesn't mean everyone's eyes and rapt attention can't be focused on the juicy confrontation tucked...