January 12, 2000
THE NEW CEO AT TOYS 'R' US AIMS TO USE FAO SAVVY
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amWhat's the difference between hawking an $8,000 toy train set and a $14.99 Bath Boutique Barbie? Not much, says John Eyler. And the 52-year-old executive is betting his career on...
YAHOO! PROFITS ROCKET 1,076%
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe bulls and the bears will be duking it out over Yahoo! today. After the market closed yesterday, the nation's biggest web navigator said it boosted its quarterly earnings by...
HEY TED, YOU'VE GOT $6B; HOW ABOUT NBC?
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amAt last, Ted Turner can afford his dream of owning a big network all by himself -- with NBC available at around $6 billion. The 61-year-old mogul's personal fortune has...
MARKETS BACK OFF AFTER AOL BINGE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amAfter celebrating the biggest acquisition in history -- cutting a deal with Time Warner -- America Online suffered a bit of a hangover yesterday, with its stock sliding $6 to...
LEVIN'S NEW LOOK PANNED BY CRITICS
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amAfter the shock of Monday's AOL-Time Warner blockbuster wore off, media insiders focused on the truly important question -- What in heaven's name was Gerry Levin wearing at the press...
IT'S TIME FOR NEW MILLIONAIRE$ - AFTER AOL DEAL, 2,000 EXECS GET A 401(K) WINDFALL
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amWho wants to be a millionaire? Between 1,000 and 2,000 of the 12,000 employees at Time Inc. alone are worth $1 million or more in Time Warner stock, following America...
AOL'S OLD MEDIA PARTNERS MAY DISCONNECT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amIn the wake of AOL's mega-acquisition of Time Warner, the online giant's old media partners may start logging off. Less than a day after the historic $173 billion deal was...
HANK'S FOR THE MEMORIES: FOR AMERICAN JEWS, BASEBALL GREAT GREENBERG HAD REAL IMPACT IN THE BATTER'S BOX
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amTHE newspapers dubbed him Hammerin' Hank. The sportscasters called him Hankus Pankus. But to countless American Jews, slugger Hank Greenberg was "the baseball Moses." While the Detroit Tiger's on-field achievements...
FOOD FOR THOUGHT FROM FERGIE: A NOW SVELTE DUCHESS ADMITS WEIGHT WOES AND SELF-ESTEEM ARE STILL HEFTY ISSUES IN HER LIFE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00am"I always wondered why I never got anorexia," the Duchess of York muses, shaking her auburn tresses. "I was very conscious of Diana's eating disorder -- we talked about it...
GETTING TO KNOW NOBU: THE SUSHI MASTER REVEALS HIS PLAN FOR A PARTNERSHIP WITH GIORGIO ARMANI
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amSushi baron Nobu Matsuhisa is a difficult interview to nail down. "I travel around the world every month (always with stops London and his hometown Tokyo)," says Matsuhisa when we...
NEW FRONTIER LOOK & GOOD OLD FAVES
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amSITTING in Leshko's, my dining pal can't help harking back. "I don't believe it," he says. "This used to be the greasiest spoon you can imagine!" That was then. These...
GO TO ICON AND FEEL LIKE A KID AGAIN
January 12, 2000 | 5:00am'THIS is so Austin Powers," my lunch companion No. 1, a lady, observes of Icon's red-and-silver dining room one afternoon. "This is totally Austin Powers," lunch companion No. 2, a...
DON'T SKIP THIS 'DOG'
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amYOU might be tempted to walk out during the first 10 minutes of "My Dog Skip," an often lovely adaptation of late magazine editor Willie Morris' memoir of his 1940s...
A WONDERFUL, LOVING LOOK AT A MAJOR-LEAGUE MENSCH
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amMORE than a sports documentary, "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg" makes a good case that the baseball Hall of Famer was "the most important American Jew of the...
ICE CUBE MELTDOWN
January 12, 2000 | 5:00am'NEXT Friday" is a slack sequel to 1995's "Friday," a video hit about street life in South Central L.A. that helped launch the career of Chris Tucker. Here Tucker is...
CITY BALLET'S NEW BREED STAGES BALANCHINE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amBALANCHINE ballerinas are not Balanchine ballerinas anymore. It's odd, but the genius of George Balanchine, who died 17 years ago, is now largely dependent on the kindness of strangers. Luckily,...
THE STARR REPORT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe duellists While CBS shoots its JonBenet Ramsey movie in Denver, Fox is shooting its JonBenet project, "Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?" Judi Luciano, who played Paulina in "Another World," will...
JOYCE-FUL & TRIUMPHANT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amIF you want a theatrical treat that enchants, surprises and finally thrills with unexpected depth, get thee double-quick to the Belasco Theatre. For James Joyce, life was a cycle of...
MOTHER LOVE NOT IN FOR-GIVENS MOOD
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amDON'T hold your breath waiting for Mother Love to embrace her replacement on "Forgive Or Forget," Robin Givens. The closest the two have come to being in the same place...
MARY KAY'S BABY STORY LOCKED UP
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amUSA Network's much-publicized interview next week with Mary Kay Letourneau is in trouble -- because the former schoolteacher has been thrown into solitary confinement for trying to contact her teenage...
'X-FILES' FUTURE STILL A MYSTERY
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amPASADENA -- With only a few weeks left, the future of one of the decade's most popular TV series, "The X-Files," is still up in the air. The series, now...
NOTHING ON BUTT HER 'BLUE' SMILE; RICK'S NEW GIRL MAKES FLESHY DEBUT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amNYPD Blue" fans didn't get to see newcomer Sheeri Rappaport's bare bottom on last night's season premiere -- but they saw pretty much everything else. "You see everything but my...
UNITED KILLERS OF BENETTON
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amBenetton has come up with a unique way to express its opposition to the death penalty , while also hyping its sweater line: The Italian clothing manufacturer has created "We,...
NASSAU DEMS EYEING ALLEGED GOP ABUSE$ AT COUNTY JAIL
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe new Democratic majority in the Nassau County Legislature is set to open hearings probing years of alleged Republican administration abuse at the county jail. At issue are millions of...
CALL IT THE SMOKING GUN - POST EXPOSE PROMPTS SECOND SEX CLAIM AT CIGAR COMPANY
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amAS she read the newspaper article, her hands began to shake. Her body trembled. Then, she began to sob. For months, Alicia Hansen, a grandmother and trusted legal secretary to...
GLITTER CUBA-BOUND?
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amShamed Brit "glam rocker" Gary Glitter was secretly released from prison yesterday after receiving death threats - and is reportedly planning to flee the country for Cuba. Later, Glitter openly...
HONEST LADY TAKES A RIGHT TURN WITH 75G
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA church secretary could have been sitting pretty after she found a check worth $75,000 in a Bronx subway station - but Georgia Bishop says she couldn't think of doing...
RETIRED BORIS LOOKING TO BECOME A MUSEUM PIECE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amNew retiree Boris Yeltsin may create a political foundation that would run a museum and library honoring his eight years as Russia's first democratically elected president, his spokesman said yesterday....
CITY CRIME STATS TAKE SURPRISING TICK UPWARD
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amAfter dropping eight percent last year, crime in the Big Apple has inched up in the first nine days of the year - led by a staggering increase in rapes....
EITHER WAY, ELIAN LOSES AGAIN - NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HIS DAD AND FREEDOM
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amTO hear both sides in the Elian Gonzalez dispute tell it, the issue is clear-cut and unambiguous. Both sides also insist that politics has nothing to do with it --...
BEAUTIFUL MUSIC AS VIOLIN IS FOUND
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe Juilliard grad student who mistakenly left a $40,000 violin in a cab Sunday didn't have long to wait for the Big Apple to come through. Cabby Wilson Toala of...
BARAK SET TO SELL VOTERS ON PACT HE DOESN'T YET HAVE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak returned home empty-handed yesterday -- but expressed confidence he would convince voters to approve a potential peace pact with Syria despite mounting opposition. "When we...
$2B FOR MTA COULD PUT 2ND AV. SUBWAY ON TRACK
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amGov. Pataki's new budget pie has a $2.2 billion slice for the MTA's construction program for the next five years -- money that could finance a Second Avenue subway and...
TIME IS MONEY ONLY IF YOU'RE IN THE AOLOOP
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amH ERE'S some free therapy for those of you who greeted the news of the stupendous Mother of all Mergers with a combination of befuddlement and agony. You are not...
DOCTORS RULE PINOCHET IS UNFIT FOR TRIAL
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amBritish doctors concluded that Gen. Augusto Pinochet is unfit to stand trial for human-rights abuses, a ruling that may end the legal battle over the fate of the former Chilean...
'PENNY UP' FOR STAMPS, SAYS U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe post office wants an extra penny for your thoughts. Starting early next year, the cost of sending postcards and letters would increase one penny, to 21 cents and 34...
SHOSHANNA COLLARS DRESS-TAKER
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amShoshanna Lonstein had a "Seinfeld" moment when she spotted a woman wearing one of her hot designer dresses -- just a day after it was swiped from her brand-new collection....
LEGAL STINK LINGERS IN DUNG-ART BATTLE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA panel of high-ranking judges put city lawyers on the hot seat yesterday in their legal war with the Brooklyn Museum over its controversial "Sensation" art exhibit. The exhibit closed...
VALLONE HITS GIULIANI AS A ONE-MAN GOVERNMENT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amCity Council Speaker Peter Vallone tore into Mayor Giuliani yesterday, charging he lacks both compassion and "true" leadership skills. "The sign on the Statue of Liberty says, 'Give me your...
BARBRA 'STALKER' FREED FOR LACK OF EVIDENCE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amMALIBU, Calif. -- A defiant paparazzo walked out of jail a free man yesterday and vowed to keep snapping pictures of Barbra Streisand -- even after the diva had him...
'TRUNK' CALL FREES CABBY TRAPPED BY THUGS
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA quick-thinking cabby who was thrown into the trunk of his car by two armed robbers in Manhattan early yesterday used his cell phone to call cops -- who were...
RAPES LEAD UPTURN IN CITY CRIME
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amAfter dropping eight percent last year, crime in the Big Apple has inched up in the first nine days of the year -- led by a staggering increase in rapes....
MAG IMPLIED WE'RE GAY, TRIO CHARGE IN LAWSUIT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThree Manhattan women have filed a $60 million lawsuit against Latina magazine -- charging the popular publication implied they're gay. Peggy, Jennifer and Jamie Castillo say they're straight, so when...
PATAKI PITCHES RECORD $76.8B FISCAL PLAN THAT HIKES SCHOOL SPENDING
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amALBANY -- Gov. Pataki proposed a whopping $76.8 billion "good times" budget yesterday that boosts spending on schools, health and the environment while it cuts taxes. Pataki's record-high plan, for...
STUDY: SMOKING MARIJUANA UPS RISK OF CANCER
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe latest dope on marijuana is that smokers face an increased risk of developing cancer of the head and neck, a new study says. The first study to tie cannabis...
BUSH CHARGES FOE'S TAX CUTS AREN'T ENOUGH
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amWASHINGTON -- GOP front-runner George W. Bush yesterday attacked Sen. John McCain's new tax plan, calling it inadequate -- and joking that it keeps changing. "Senator, is this your final...
O'CONNOR'S B'DAY BASH RAISING $4M FOR CHARITY
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amJohn Cardinal O'Connor's 80th-birthday dinner has already raised $4 million for charity. The Saturday night bash at the Waldorf-Astoria is expected to draw more than 1,500 people, said Joseph Zwilling,...
MEDIA TIES DOOMED CABLE KING'S BID
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA "disappointed" Charles Dolan put on his game face yesterday after losing out on his chance to buy the Jets. The billionaire cable titan tried for months to add another...
JEERS TO JANET, AND VIVA JURIST PRUDENT!
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amIT IS unseemly, almost ungentlemanly, to take some succor in a maiden's moment of distress -- but with Janet Reno, I will make an exception. Janet Reno, the faltering bullhorn...
RESCUE TRUCK KILLS MINISTER IN BROOKLYN
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA popular Brooklyn pastor was killed yesterday after a fire rescue truck heading to an emergency sideswiped his minivan as he drove through a Crown Heights intersection, investigators said. The...
RUDY: LET'S PRIVATIZE WORST PUBLIC SCHOOLS
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amMayor Giuliani yesterday said private companies can do a better job running the city's failing schools than the Board of Education and called on the board to give up control...
TOP 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK FIRST LADY
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amFrom The Post's home office on Sixth Avenue, here are the Top 10 questions David Letterman should ask Hillary Clinton: 10) Will you ban Bill from New York's cigar bars?...
DEM RIVALS KICK BUTT ON TOBACCO
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe Democratic 2000 presidential race was smoking yesterday -- Bill Bradley lit into Vice President Al Gore for being soft on tobacco and Gore lit into Bradley as "desperate." The...
STUDENT BUSTED FOR E-MAIL DEATH THREAT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA student at the acclaimed Bronx High School of Science was busted yesterday for sending an e-mail message threatening to shoot two of her teachers to death, police said. Blendal...
BURIED TORSO NOT THAT OF DOCTOR'S SLAIN WIFE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amAn Upper East Side woman's family spent 10 years believing they had laid their murdered loved one to rest when they buried a torso they were told was hers --...
HOLY WAR IS BREWING IN BID TO REPLACE POPE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA debate is raging inside the Catholic Church over whether Pope John Paul II should resign because of declining health -- a battle filling the halls of the Vatican with...
DEATH-DEFYING THUG LEAPS TO FREEDOM
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA vicious mugger turned into Spider-man to elude cops yesterday -- leaping from the 19th floor of one high-rise and into the window of another before disguising himself as a...
$635M LANDS JETS BACK IN BETTER HEALTH - BAND-AID HEIR BRINGS STABILITY TO GANG GREEN
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amGang Green is shedding its image as Team Turmoil. With the Jets' $635million sale yesterday to pharmaceutical heir Robert Wood Johnson IV, the franchise reclaimed some of the stability it...
BILLIONAIRE BOSS WANTS PARCELLS IN PILOT'S SEAT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amRobert Wood Johnson IV is a Jet fan's best friend. Not only has he told acquaintances that he hopes to talk Bill Parcells back into coaching Gang Green, but he...
VIRUS EYED IN GEHRIG DISEASE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amScientists have new evidence that a virus may be the cause of Lou Gehrig's disease -- a debilitating nervous-system illness that kills its victims within two to 20 years. Researchers...
CITY PROBING CONFLICT OF INTEREST; IN SCHOOLS PICK
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amMayor Giuliani's allies on the Board of Education are asking city lawyers to rule on whether Queens member Terri Thomson had a conflict of interest in voting for Citigroup colleague...
TAP ZEE TOLL HIKE MAY FUND NEW BRIDGE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA state plan yesterday recommended raising morning rush-hour tolls on the Tappan Zee Bridge and eventually replacing it with a spiffy new multibillion-dollar span equipped with train service. Gov. Pataki's...
DECATUR EXPULSIONS STICK
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amA judge yesterday upheld the expulsions of six black Illinois high-school students for brawling at a football game -- in a case that drew national attention after the Rev. Jesse...
HILL-BENT DAVE GETS INTERVIEW
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amFirst Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has torn up her "Top Ten Reasons Why I Won't Be a Guest on David Letterman's Show" -- she's agreed to appear tonight with the...
VAN GUNDY FEELS EWING'S PAIN
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES Jeff Van Gundy isn't naive. He knows Patrick Ewing said all the right things to the media following his benching for the final 16 minutes of Saturday's loss...
AMAKER'S PIRATES OFF TO HALL OF A START
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amDon't look now, but the hottest Big East team in the metropolitan area isn't St. John's. It's The Hall. Yes, Seton Hall (10-2, overall, 2-0 in the Big East) went...
PEDERSON JOINS LIST OF DEVIL GRUMBLERS
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amTAMPA - The words are terse, the inflection a mix of bewilderment and anger. Another of the Devils' bulging stable of young talent is finding the corral too crowded. "I...
DON'T FORGET THE QUINELLA
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amOne of the most frequent "shudda-wudda-cudda" comments you'll hear a horseplayer mutter after a losing bet is, "I should have boxed them!" when the horse he has on top in...
KITTLES' KNEE GETS DOCS' OK
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amNET NOTES No, that wasn't a strong wind blowing in from the East yesterday. That was just the Nets exhaling after Kerry Kittles visited the doctors. Kittles, who limped off...
STEPH HOPES HE BECOMES ALL-STARBURY
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amStephon Marbury says he does not want to talk about the NBA All-Star Game because he doesn't want to jinx his chances. See, he feels whenever he wants an honor...
JINTS, JIM TALKING EXTENSION
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amJim Fassel is getting closer to a contract extension with the Giants. Yesterday, his lawyer, Tom Curtin, met with John Mara, the Giants executive vice president and general counsel, to...
HALL CALLS PUDGE & PEREZ: STAR CATCHER, RBI MACHINE BROUGHT TO TEARS
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amFor one day out of the year, a number of the best living baseball players feel like awkward, marginal high school athletes, sweating out the posting of the cut list...
TYSON HAS BRITS IN SNIT: BOUT'S AN ISSUE IN LONDON MAYOR RACE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amFrank Maloney alone has had the guts to stand up for the right of Mike Tyson to fight in the U.K. on Jan. 29 while the rest of his opposition...
CHARA'S INJURED -- BUT IT'S ISLES WHO ARE HURTIN'
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amJust as the Islanders were beginning to "feel good about ourselves," as coach Butch Goring likes to say, Zdeno Chara is out for four weeks. After taking a glass-rattling check...
WATKINS LIFTS LOUGHLIN
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amH.S. HOOPS Loughlin 69 Molloy 64 Terrence Watkins has yet to choose a college for next season, and as much as his Bishop Loughlin teammates and coach want him to...
TUNA ON THE MENU ; JETS' NEW OWNER JOHNSON WANTS PARCELLS AS COACH
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amThe Jets have a new owner ... finally. Robert Wood Johnson IV won the marathon touchdown derby yesterday when the NFL finance committee met in Manhattan and approved his purchase...
GIVE JOB TO BEST GUY WHO REALLY WANTS IT
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amBILL Parcells always used to maintain you are exactly what your record says, never mind who you've played, how much better you are now playing or however few plays would...
'BLUE SKY' MAKES VAIL EVEN BETTER
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amALREADY one of the largest ski areas on the continent, Vail, Colo., just got bigger with the opening last week of its newest expansion effort, Blue Sky Basin. Blue Sky...
RODMAN GARDEN-BOUND? FUHGEDDABOUTIT!
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES If Latrell Sprewell were Knick GM, you might already have seen Dennis Rodman signed. However, since Dave Checketts and Scott Layden are in charge, forget about it. Steve...
PIRATES SPIT THE BIT IN LOSS TO HURRICANES
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amMiami 71 Seton Hall 64 It was enough to make the Seton Hall players, coaches and fans sick. The Pirates had a chance last night at the Meadowlands to build...
DEVILS REFUSE TO LOSE
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amDevils 6 Lightning 5 TAMPA -- They haven't developed a swagger yet, not with their recent post-season flops, but there was a certain very healthy arrogance in the Devils' latest...
SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES FOR ARTEST
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amONCE a home floor, always a home floor. Even if your dreams and uniform change. Ron Artest and Elton Brand, a couple of local guys, came home to the Garden...
THE AGONY OF VICTORY: VAN GUNDY BOILS AS KNICKS LOSE BIG LEAD BUT HOLD ON FOR WIN
January 12, 2000 | 5:00amHorrible. No, not the "Horri-Bulls." Horrible as in this horrible Knick trend of blowing big fourth-quarter leads -- a trend that's going to cost them in the spring. Coach Jeff...