February 18, 2000
ORANGE CO. IS THE PLACE FOR ME! - GREEN GRASS! FRESH AIR! ALL JUST 80 MINS FROM NYC
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amAPARTMENT living is all very well and good -- but a house, well, that's a home. Or so my wife and I believed when we bought a cabin in the...
WHY THE FED HEAD HAS GIVEN UP ON CPI
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amALAN Greenspan said a lot yesterday. Most people paid attention to his views that the economy was growing, that he was worried about inflation and that interest rates will be...
LVMH PICKS UP ANOTHER HOUSE: PUCCI
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amLike a Pac-Man gobbling up dots, Bernard Arnault has bought yet another fashion house. Yesterday's meal of the day was the house of Emilio Pucci, whose wild geometric prints and...
STAR'S STRUCK BY TOP-LEVEL CHANGE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA one-time royal watcher from a London tabloid has ascended to the editor-in-chief spot at Star, in the latest change to rock shell-shocked staffers on the magazine since David Pecker...
GREENSPAN HITS MARTS - PROMISES MORE RATE HIKES; DOW PLUNGES ON NEWS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amFederal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan spooked the markets into a sell-off yesterday after saying the Fed will hike rates again. Greenspan's words, made in Congressional testimony, turned a positive day...
RETIRING BLASS GIVES HIS REPLACEMENT FREE REIN
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amNow that he's officially retired, designer Bill Blass plans to stay out of the hair of his new top designer. "It's not fair to a new designer to have someone...
HACKER PUTS FAKE MERGER ON WEB SITE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amHackers are up to more than just pranks -- they're posting bogus takeover rumors on the Web to make quick trading windfalls. The latest incident of Web sabotage came yesterday...
MEN IN (BURBERRY) PLAID SEE RED
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amBurberry is getting rave reviews for a new creation paraded down the runway a few weeks ago -- only it wasn't Burberry's runway. Burberry CEO Rose Marie Bravo threatened legal...
GATES OFFERS UP WINDOWS' CODE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amBill Gates held out his first major peace proposal yesterday in hopes of stopping the government's antitrust steamroller over his giant Microsoft Corp. Gates said he would be willing to...
KURT WARNER SCORES A $600G BOOK DEAL
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amSuper Bowl MVP Kurt Warner has scored a touchdown with a deal for a memoir on his championship season for an estimated $600,000. "It's a true 'bags to riches' story,"...
TRUMP'S IN DUMPS - CASINO OPERATIONS ON LOSING STREAK
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amHis Atlantic City casino business posted a huge loss for the year, a financial bailout plan from friends is off the table and rumors are swirling that his CEO is...
THE DONALD ON SPOT FOR $26M LOAN
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amAnd then there's the case of the $26 million loan. As Trump looks forward to a tough 2000 turning his casino business around, he also has to personally cough up...
BONY EMPLOYEE: 'NOT GUILTY'
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA low-level Bank of New York employee pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges she lied to a grand jury about a massive $7 billion money-laundering scheme. Svetlana Kudrayavtsev then walked...
LADIES LOVE LUIS AT RADIO CITY
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amBEFORE Ricky Martin lit the fuse for the Latin explosion at last year's Grammy Awards, Luis Miguel was already firmly entrenched as one of the genre's greatest crooners. Though a...
CURRENT WISDOM - MEET POWERMAN 5000'S MASTERMIND
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amMIKE Cummings is the frontman, lyricist and thinker of Powerman 5000, a band that's taken a 10-year route to overnight success.The quintet can be loud enough to blister paint on...
HARD TO CONNECT WITH MAWKISH 'HANGING UP'
February 18, 2000 | 5:00am'HANGING Up" is the beneficiary of the most deceptive movie marketing campaign in years. The ads make it look like a cheery if shmaltzy "First Wives Club"-style comedy about three...
A KILLER COMEDY
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amJUST when you thought it was safe to go back to the movies, here comes another mob comedy.But it turns out that "The Whole Nine Yards" is an offer you...
GLIMPSE OF EARLY SONDHEIM
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amSTEPHEN Sondheim's 1955 musical "Saturday Night" was a might-have-been show, until recent revivals brought it to life in London, Chicago and here at the Second Stage Theater. The show is...
IMPERFECT 'PITCH' FULL OF FAMILIAR NOTES
February 18, 2000 | 5:00am'PITCH Black" is essentially a mediocre but nonetheless entertaining copy of the "Alien" films, with the action transferred from a leaky and rusty spaceship to a spectacular desert planet that...
RISKY BUSINESS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amWHO wants to be a millionaire? Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), the morally challenged hero of "Boiler Room," writer-director Ben Younger's exciting debut feature, certainly does. Overly eager to win the...
'ALCHEMIST' UP TO OLD TRICKS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA servant and two pals of his use an empty house and elaborate schemes to gull a procession of delicious suckers in Ben Jonson's 1610 "The Alchemist," now being done...
WHEN 'LESS' IS MORE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amCONTEMPORARY Chinese movies are invariably filled with gorgeous photography, and "Not One Less" -- a winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the first major film...
PRETTY ON THE INSIDE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amINSIDE "Beautiful People," a film by London-based Bosnian director Jasmin Dizdar, there's a terrific film trying to get out. Unfortunately, it's smothered by an excess of plot lines, an abundance...
THE STARR REPORT
February 18, 2000 | 5:00am'PIX gets Smart Convicted hubby killer Pamela Smart really wanted to be a TV anchor -- not doing life for plotting to whack her husband. "I wanted to be a...
MY KINDA DRAG - LITTLE RICHARD BECOMES A LEGEND IN LIP-SCHTICK
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amI was frightened half to death. The opening sentence of the press kit for "Little Richard" says, and I quote, "He is widely recognized as the true architect of rock...
IS LLOYD WEBBER ON HIS 'GAME'?
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amABOUT 100 close friends and business associates of Andrew Lloyd Webber convened at the Cambridge Theater in London last Saturday to see a private run-through of the composer's new musical,...
HERE AT LAST: 200 CHANNELS - TW PROMISES TO DOUBLE ITS CABLE LINE-UPS IN 2001
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amTIME Warner cable says it will expand to 200 channels within 14 months -- bringing New York's antiquated cable in line with other systems elsewhere around the country. The new...
LANDLORD TORTURED, SLAIN
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA 73-year-old Bronx landlord was tortured, then beaten to death in the basement of his building, police said yesterday. The suspects, a woman and two men, cut Fook Sie Chin's...
STOX WHIZ LOSES CAR IN DWI BUST
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amCops seized a $65,000 Porsche after stopping a stockbroker racing up First Avenue in Manhattan and accusing him of being drunk and reckless, police said yesterday. Marco Ponti, 26, who...
L.I. KID MIGHT BE WITH CHAT PREDATOR
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amThe family of a missing, 13-year-old Long Island girl fears she was lured to Brooklyn by a man she met on a telephone chat line, police said yesterday. Nassau County...
REFORMERS PREDICT WIN IN IRAN VOTE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amIran's voters go to the polls today in parliamentary elections viewed as a referendum on efforts to reform the country 21 years after Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution. Supporters of reformist...
MARRYING THE WRONG MULTIMILLIONAIRE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amON Tuesday night, while the political class was glued to CNN, watching the Republican debate in South Carolina, real people in this country were tuning into the head-spinning "Who Wants...
UNITED VICTIMS OF BENETTON - FAMILIES SPEAK OUT AGAINST ADS THAT HONOR THEIR LOVED ONES' KILLERS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA BENETTON ad has finally managed to bring the races together -- in outrage and pain. Joyce Wright is white; Cindy Finley is black. Both Eugene, Ore., women have suffered...
LONG-DISTANCE BILL MAY PROVIDE AOL OF A $HOCK
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amSome America Online subscribers have been socked with huge phone bills after their local access numbers were reclassified as long distance, state investigators say. A probe by the state attorney...
HILLARY TAKES A NEW DIG AT 'BULL(Y)DOZER' RUDY
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amHillary Rodham Clinton yesterday plowed into Mayor Giuliani for razing a beloved community garden on the Lower East Side -- accusing the mayor of trying to "bulldoze" his way to...
DIALLO COPS FACE THE LONGEST DAYS OF THEIR LIVES
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amALBANY -- The four cops accused of murdering the unarmed Amadou Diallo returned home yesterday for their final weekend before a jury begins deliberating their fate. The cops aren't due...
SHOW'S AWFUL, DEMEANING -- AND IRRESISTIBLE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amTHERE is only one honest answer to the provocative question posed this week to the vast, unmarried or unhappily married TV-watching public -- "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" Like,...
IRISH GAYS LOSE PARADE CASE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA gay-rights group lost its latest legal fight over the St. Patrick's Day Parade yesterday after a Manhattan jury found the city had not violated its free-speech rights. The Irish...
HE DONATES KIDNEY -- TO HIS BOSS! - LAWYER COULD BE LIFESAVER FOR DA
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amMario Mattei puts his heart and soul into his job -- and yesterday, his kidney. The 44-year-old prosecutor and his boss, Staten Island District Attorney William Murphy, 55, are recovering...
INDIAN PT. 'HOT STUFF' MADE ITS WAY TO QUEENS IN '84
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amThe radioactive leak at Con Edison's Indian Point 2 power plant was not the first time poison found its way outside, The Post has learned. Radioactive material was "erroneously" moved...
STATION-HOUSE MONSTER BRUTALIZES PROSECUTION
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amANALYSIS The lunch break couldn't have come soon enough yesterday for federal prosecutors in the Abner Louima case. For more than an hour, assistant U.S. attorney Lauren Resnick cross-examined Justin...
PLENTY OF LITTLE SIGNS ALL POINT TO MCCAIN VICTORY
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amMODUC, S.C. -- Bussey's bait shop on Strom Thurmond Lake sells chewing tobacco along with herring for bait -- but it also offers clues to who'll vote in South Carolina's...
BRADLEY AIMS ABORT AD AT MARCH 7 STATES
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amWASHINGTON -- Bill Bradley, fighting back after Al Gore got the thumbs-up from a powerful pro-choice group, airs a new TV ad today, hailing his "longtime" support for abortion rights....
BRIDEGROOM'$ A LAUGH RIOT - STANDUP GUY TOOK BRIDE FROM TV LINEUP
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amThere are a few things "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" bride Darva Conger should know about her new husband, Rick Rockwell. He does a mean impression of a garbage...
FIRST LADY 'BONDS' WITH WAITRESS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amMORE than a week after stiffing an upstate waitress, Hillary Clinton has finally taken care of business. Clinton yesterday sent single mom Tricia Trupo, 31, of Albion a $100 savings...
BUSH DRAWS THE LINE AT HIRING GAYS - COURTS THE RIGHT WITH S.C. RACE A DEAD HEAT
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amFLORENCE, S.C. -- Republican George W. Bush yesterday stopped just short of saying he wouldn't appoint anyone who is openly gay to his administration -- as polls showed him in...
GRIFTER 'SMELLED LIKE JAIL' TO DOOMED MILLIONAIRESS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amIrene Silverman said the only way she'd ever give up her $5 million East Side townhouse was "over my dead body," the former caretaker for the presumed-murdered millionaire testified yesterday....
JERRY SAYS: HEY, LADIES, SORRY ABOUT SEXIST RANT
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amComedian Jerry Lewis offered a "humble apology" last night for trashing women comedians -- but insisted his words were twisted. "There are times when half-statements get misinterpreted, and that's what...
HUMBLED VOLPE SAYS SCHWARZ WAS NOWHERE NEAR LOUIMA
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA contrite Justin Volpe told a hushed courtroom yesterday that convicted cop Charles Schwarz wasn't in the bathroom during the Abner Louima attack -- but that Officer Thomas Wiese was...
MADONNA MAY MAKE SPERM-BANK WITHDRAWAL
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amMadonna might not be having her next baby the old-fashioned way. The Material Mom, in an apparent bid to return to her Italian roots, has had her assistants reportedly contact...
THE TRUTH MUST SET CHUCK FREE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amIF the energy of lawyer Marvyn Kornberg could have been bottled yesterday, you could have abandoned gasoline to run your car. "What did I tell you? What did I tell...
STATE POL URGES LEVY TO PROBE KID'S SUICIDE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA key state lawmaker yesterday called on interim Schools Chancellor Harold Levy to investigate the suicide of a 10-year-old Bronx boy who hanged himself because, apparently, he was distraught over...
LENNON'S PIANO ON BLOCK
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amImagine -- $1.6 million for a piano! That's what the upright Steinway on which John Lennon composed his hit song "Imagine" is expected to fetch at an Internet auction this...
TEENS TERRORIZE KIDS ON IRT
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA pack of teenage thugs robbed homeward-bound students aboard an IRT No. 7 train in Queens yesterday, brandishing a handgun to force them to turn over backpacks, a jacket and...
INS OFFICIAL WAS SPY FOR CASTRO: FEDS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA top-ranking U.S. immigration official in Miami was busted yesterday for allegedly spying for Cuba, the FBI said. Mariano Faget, 54, who works at the Immigration and Naturalization Service as...
DANEYKO'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amBefore he walks away from the team he has owned for 17 years, John McMullen will probably give one last reward to the defenseman who has been a Devil nearly...
EXEC MAY CONDEMN COLISEUM LEASE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amPHILADELPHIA - Nassau County Executive Tom Gulotta is considering condemning SMG's lease on the Nassau Coliseum, which could hasten the sale of the Islanders to Bob Gutkowski and Charles Koppelman,...
NCAA RULE BOOK WAS MADE TO BE BROKEN
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amALL this gnashing of teeth about the NCAA going out of its way to do dirt to St. John's brings to mind a story that a Division I athletic director...
BARBER MAKES CUT AT CH. 2
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amGiants RB, kick-returner and renaissance man Tiki Barber has been hired as a sportscaster on Ch. 2's "Early Show" morning newscasts. In Barber, 25, Ch. 2 News GM Tony Petitti...
HIGH YIELD MORE THAN READY
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA muddled Triple Crown picture should become much clearer tomorrow when 11 3-year-olds clash at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 1, $200,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes (ESPN, 5 p.m.), the...
LEARNING ON THE FLY
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amTHE SUN will have to be just a little higher in the sky before we can feel the warmth of the coming spring, but in the meantime we can think...
BLUESHIRTS CAN'T STOP THE BATTERING
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amIT HAS become more than the matter of trying to make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. For the Rangers, the season has turned into an almost...
CONRAD BLOCKING MCNEIL DEAL - CONCERNED BY STATUS OF HAMILTON, CORNER MAY PASS ON GIANTS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amGIANT NOTES Ryan McNeil does not sound like a player who is interested in signing with the Giants knowing there's a chance he will sit and watch Conrad Hamilton in...
CALLING ALL HANDICAPPERS!
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amEntries are still available for the 2000 Suffolk OTB Handicapping Challenge 1 on Feb. 26 at the Suffolk OTB Tel-A-Race in Hauppauge, N.Y. Entry fee is $100 with a limit...
FORTSON MAY BE JUST WHAT KNICKS NEED
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amWith starting point guard Charlie Ward and sixth man Marcus Camby both out an extended period, Jeff Van Gundy said the Knicks are still seeking another body. Van Gundy said,...
ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR ROCKET - BEGINS YEAR TWO WITH LESS FANFARE & MORE OPTIMISM
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amTAMPA -- Roger Clemens checked into his second Yankees camp yesterday much like the Mike Graces, Mike Jerzembecks and other pitchers you needed a scorecard to identify. A year ago,...
BETTOR PUTS 51G ON DERBY FIELD
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amIt was "Hi-yo Silver, away!" at 1:15 p.m. yesterday, less than two hours after betting opened for the first round of the 2000 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, when a mysterious...
JETER STILL WAITING FOR MYTHICAL OFFER
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA -- Derek Jeter's money issue refuses to drift into the backdrop provided by pitchers and catchers reporting to Yankee camp. One day after George Steinbrenner hinted he...
METS TO BENITEZ: YOU THE MANDO! - LOCK UP CLOSER WITH $22M DEAL
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE -- At 1 o'clock yesterday morning, GM Steve Phillips and agent Mike Powers made the 23rd save of reliever Armando Benitez' Met career. In the early morning...
LOVABLE LOSER'S NOW DEFINITION OF A WINNER
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amTAMPA -- On the first day four years ago, the new manager with the old losing label sat at his desk. The background -- a row of medicines -- seemed...
NETS HAVE BIG DREAMS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amA big man, a big man, the Nets' kingdom -- or at least some of the players they can trade -- for a big man. One week before the trading...
MARIANO, YANKS MUM ON SETTLEMENT
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amTAMPA -- If the Yankees offered to settle their arbitration case with Mariano Rivera prior to yesterday's four-hour hearing, GM Brian Cashman wasn't saying. Nor was Rivera. Ditto Rivera's agent...
LEFTY BOBBY JONES FRONTRUNNER FOR JOB AS AMAZIN'S NO. 5 STARTER
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amMET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE -- The right-handed Bobby Jones will be the Mets' No. 4 starter and now it appears certain that lefty Bobby Jones will be the fifth...
JAYSON RE-BUTTS STEINBRENNER
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amNow here is an undercard for the Dennis Rodman-David Stern bout: Jayson Williams vs. George Steinbrenner. In a joking fashion, Williams yesterday responded to Steinbrenner's charge made in Florida that...
LAYDEN NOT HIGH ON WEIS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES Knicks GM Scott Layden's top priority over the summer is either signing a free-agent center, drafting one, or inking an established European pivot not named Frederic Weis, sources...
FRANCO CAN ONLY GRIN AND BEAR IT
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE -- If closers sit in penthouse offices that have breathtaking views in every direction, the rest of the relievers are the working stiffs on the outside, risking...
RIDER'S NO EASY SELL - HAWKS MAY RELEASE OFT-TROUBLED STAR
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amSHOULD THE Hawks be unable to traffic J.R. Rider before the Feb. 24 trading deadline expires, management, sick of his sulking and selfishness, is almost completely committed to releasing him...
YORK'S EDWARDS HONORED BY CUNY
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amThe CUNY Athletic Conference held its annual postseason awards banquet yesterday, with the Division III league of city schools naming its all-stars and coaches of the year at Manhattan's Water...
FOREMAN'S GOTTA BE GRILLED ON BRIBE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amThird in a series documenting the federal racketeering case against the International Boxing Federation. LIKE Watergate, the IBF scandal reaches into the highest levels of professional boxing and soils the...
POSTSEASON COULD BE RISKY BUSINESS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amThe NCAA's probe of St. John's continues at a break-neck pace. Where and when it will end is anyone's guess. But if you're a St. John's player, coach or fan,...
NCAA PUTS PRESS ON ST. JOHN'S - INVESTIGATOR SEEKS CLUES AT QUEENS JEWELRY STORE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amThe interview took place Monday night at the Starbucks on 28th Street. It lasted about an hour and one half. Deana Garner, the investigator for the NCAA who is looking...
FORSBERG HELPS AVS KNOT DEVILS
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amDevils 5 - Avalanche 5 The argument continues to rage, and on it, the Devils' dream hinges. There was the evidence of what the injection of a major star could...
LAWRENCE'S FIRST IS WORTH A POINT
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amPHILADELPHIA -- So much was expected of Mark Lawrence this season. With a scorching finish to last year, the 6-4 right wing was projected to be one of Butch Goring's...
GULOTTA MAY CONDEMN LEASE
February 18, 2000 | 5:00amPHILADELPHIA -- Nassau County Executive Tom Gulotta is considering condemning SMG's lease on the Nassau Coliseum, which could hasten the sale of the Islanders to Bob Gutkowski and Charles Koppelman,...