February 8, 2001

FASHIONMALL TO ENTER JOINT VENTURE

Fashionmall.com and GenesisIntermedia are putting off merger talks, but now plan to enter into a joint venture of sorts. The two companies said in a joint announcement that Fashionmall.com has...

NEWS CORP. EARNINGS UP 7.1 %

News Corporation said yesterday its second-quarter operating earnings rose 7.1 percent, beating Wall Street estimates, on the strength of films such as "X-Men" and cable networks including the Fox News...

VERIZON SAYS EQUIVALENT OF 10,000 JOBS WILL DISAPPEAR

Cost-cutting spread yesterday to local phone giant Verizon, which will eliminate the equivalent of 10,000 jobs this year. Verizon, the nation's largest local phone company, with 200,000 employees, said it...

MENSWEAR A NO-SHOW - DESIGNERS CHOOSE INFORMAL 'PRESENTATIONS' OVER CATWALKS

Menswear designers are stepping off the runway. Instead, many designers are choosing to show their fashions in presentations at which editors and buyers can touch and see the clothing up...

GUCCI GETS MAJORITY CONTROL OF BOTTEGA VENETA

Gucci got it. Domenico De Sole's Gucci Group N.V. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire control of Italian luxury leather goods company Bottega Veneta. The talks were first reported...

STAMPEDE FROM CISCO - BELLWETHER'S TROUBLES CAUSE FLIGHT FROM TECHS

Cisco System's disappointing earnings pulled down stocks around the world yesterday, as it provided one more piece of evidence that even the most solid of tech companies remains shaky. The...

B&N.COM UNPLUGS 350 WORKERS AFTER LOSS

Barnes & Noble's online store announced it would fire 350 workers yesterday on news that its fourth-quarter loss had widened. Sixteen percent of Barnesandnoble.com's staff will get the boot because...

TW'S BIG CABLE BILL - WILL PAY TO SETTLE ANTITRUST SUIT WITH SMALLER RIVAL

Time Warner agreed yesterday to settle a $1 billion civil lawsuit brought by a small cable company that charged the corporate giant with a range of antitrust violations, The Post...

SUSPENDED ANIMATION - ICEBOX CARTOON SITE PUT IN DEEP FREEZE

Being cool is not enough. Nor, apparently, is edgy. Online animation site Icebox said yesterday it will pull the plug Friday due to lack of funds. The company, which produces...

ACURA'S NEW PERFORMANCE SPORTS SEDAN

ALTHOUGH Honda makes some of the best-selling models in the world, its luxury nameplate, Acura, is nowhere near as popular. Say the words "luxury import" to most people and they...

CONJURING UP A HARLEM OF YORE

THE CONJURE MAN DIESAt the Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand St. Through Feb. 11. Call (212) 353-1176 or Ticket Central, (212)279-4200. --------- ONE of the lost lights of the Harlem...

CRITICS HOPE TO MAKE EMINEM EAT HIS WORDS

EMINEM'S flair for sparking outrage has crossed the pond, where he kicks off a sold-out British tour today.Gay rights activists there have vowed to stage protests at the rap giant's...

WHO'LL TAKE ON JULIA?

AS sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, Julia Roberts will get a nomination for "Erin Brockovich." But in a bumper year for female lead roles, it's much harder to...

CINEMA SCORES IN SYMPHONY HALLS

MOVIE music is coming out of the theater and into a concert hall near you.Not since John Williams led the Boston Pops in "Star Wars" have so many hallowed halls...

SO MANY WEB SITES, SO LITTLE TIME

THE thrill is gone. The novelty of the Internet has worn off.Web surfing has become a national pastime - but users have already become jaded. The majority of Web surfers...

THE STARR REPORT

'GMA' baby bonanza a Texas-sized winner "Good Morning America," which featured five live births on Tuesday, got a little bit of a ratings bump from the February sweeps stunt. In...

WILL THE SECOND ROUND OF SMASHMOUTH FOOTBALL ... XCEL? FLOP? OR WILL THE WHOLE THING GO LIMP?

THE XFL's "smashmouth football" ripped a ratings touchdown last weekend in its debut - but can it pull an instant replay this weekend? "The ratings were phenomenal," says industry analyst...

DEVIL WOMAN

THE DEVIL'S MUSIC: THE LIFE AND BLUES OF BESSIE SMITHAt Theatre 3, 311 W. 43rd St. Through March 3. Call Ticket Central (212) 279-4200. -------- BESSIE Smith was a hell...

ANOTHER SORE LOSER - 'SURVIVOR' STACEY ISN'T THE FIRST TV CONTESTANT TO CRY 'I WUZ ROBBED!'

WHAT do Stacey Stillman, Herb Stempel and Sinisa Savija have in common? They all emerged disappointed from their experiences as participants in TV game shows. In 1958, Stempel ushered in...

AND THEN THERE WERE 3 'TEMPTATIONS'

EMOTIONS were raw on last night's edition of "Temptation Island," when all but three of nine beautiful single women were sent packing. The sexy singles, handpicked for the show by...

BACK DOC DISCOVERS AN 'ORGASMO' GIZMO

A doctor using a device to cure back pain has found it delivers unexpected benefits: orgasms. Dr. Stuart Meloy made the discovery when he hooked it up to a female...

IT'S ALMOST GETTING TO BE A REGULAR EVENT

Security breaches, involving gunmen, unarmed intruders and even a small plane, have plagued the White House for years. * March 3, 1984: David Mahonski, under surveillance by the feds because...

BRAVEST $TEP IT UP AT EMPIRE STATE

The city's' Bravest climbed their way to a $10,000 finish yesterday in the 24th Annual Empire State Building Run-Up, while two veteran race champs pulled off thrilling three-peats. Some 150...

TEACHER'S SEX RAP SHEET GROWS

A former city schoolteacher who faces charges of having sex with five teenage girls on Long Island was indicted yesterday for raping two students at a Hell's Kitchen school. Anthony...

IRAN COURT REJECTS APPEAL OF 10 JEWS

Iran's supreme court yesterday rejected the final appeal of 10 Iranian Jews sentenced to prison on charges of spying for Israel in a case that drew international condemnation. IRNA, the...

CITY HOPES $3M 'ADS UP' TO A BIG TOURISM BOOST

It could be "I Love New York" all over again. The city's tourist bureau is spending $3 million on a first-ever nationwide TV ad campaign to lure visitors - and...

DUBY'S FEMALE TROUBLE - MUST CLOSE THE ELECTORAL GENDER GAP

WASHINGTON. PRESIDENT BUSH has a woman problem. While it's not a White House intern scandal - such as the one that almost cost Bill Clinton his presidency - Dubya's inability...

MCCALL SET TO SUPPORT FERRER'S BID FOR MAYOR

State Comptroller Carl McCall, New York's highest-elected black official, plans to endorse Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer's mayoral bid on Tuesday, The Post has learned. McCall, who is running for...

CRITICS: BILINGUAL ED TRANSLATING TO FAILURE

An advocacy group says some bilingual classes are little towers of Babel - with children who speak a jumble of foreign languages mixed in together. More than one-third of bilingual-education...

VANDAL TRASHES CHURCH STATUE

A landmark Catholic church near Battery Park was vandalized yesterday when a statue of Christ was knocked off a cross and left at the front door. Police said the vandal...

RON'S ELLEN NOT WEDDED TO KEEPING KOSHER

Ellen Barkin says things aren't always kosher in her marriage to billionaire Ron Perelman. The sexy blond movie star reveals that while the Revlon cosmetics czar keeps a strictly kosher...

TORRICELLI HAMMERS ACCUSER IN $$ PROBE

WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Torricelli yesterday denied telling an FBI witness against him to flee the country instead of talking to probers. Torricelli (D-N.J.), who is under federal investigation for...

TERROR WITNESS' RADIOACTIVE REVELATION: SAYS BIN LADEN WAS OUT TO BUY URANIUM

Terror overlord Osama bin Laden may have bought uranium - a key ingredient in building a nuclear bomb - while preparing his minions to attack the United States, a former...

EX-1ST COUPLE GIVES BACK 28G WORTH OF PRESENTS

WASHINGTON - The Clintons yesterday gave back some of the goodies they took with them when they left the White House - until federal officials sort out who really owns...

HILLARY WANTS TO MAINTAIN LEGAL DEFENSE FUND

WASHINGTON - In an echo of the past - or maybe a hedge against the future - Sen. Hillary Clinton has quietly taken steps to keep her legal defense fund-raising...

WESTERNS QUEEN DALE EVANS GOES TO LAST ROUNDUP

Dale Evans, who reigned as Queen of the West and rode down happy trails with her late cowboy-king husband Roy Rogers, died yesterday. She was 88. Evans died of congestive...

POLS EYE BUBBA ACT TO TIGHTEN RENT LAW

Bill Clinton's "extravagance" in picking his pricey post-presidential office may push Congress to clamp down on taxpayer-funded rents, and two key lawmakers are teaming up to lead the charge. "Clinton's...

CRUISE MISSILE: TOM FILES DIVORCE PAPERS

Tom Cruise threw the first grenade in the bust-up of his marriage to Nicole Kidman yesterday - officially filing for divorce against the sexy redhead actress. The Hollywood power couple...

SHOPPING ON MICK'S MONEY - WE JOIN LOVE KID'S MOTHER ON $PREE

LUCIANA MORAD took Mick Jagger's money shopping yesterday - 24 hours after she settled her year-long child-support battle with the ramblin' Rolling Stone. The Brazilian bombshell whizzed through Prada stores...

HOUSE PANEL TO GRILL BILL'S FORMER AIDES ON PARDON

WASHINGTON - A congressional committee is set to quiz two former Clinton administration officials today on their conflicting versions of how the outgoing president pardoned fugitive oil trader Marc Rich....

IS BILL COOKING HIS LIBRARY BOOKS?

IT'S a measure of how queasy Democrats are getting about Bill Clinton that some now fear there could be a link between large secret gifts to the Clinton library and...

ANOTHER VICTIM PUTS GUN IN PUFFY'S HAND

The last of three gunshot victims in the Club New York shooting trial testified for the DA yesterday that Sean "Puffy" Combs had a gun - and that a defense...

LIVID JUDGE SLAMS STAR SCAMMER BEHIND BARS

A federal judge ripped into disgraced celebrity money manager Dana Giacchetto yesterday, accusing him of stonewalling investigators to protect his famous clients while "the little people" got nothing. Judge Robertson...

TEAM BUSH'S 'MISTAKE' ON AIDS OFFICE

WASHINGTON - The Bush White House did a quick flip-flop yesterday and insisted Chief of Staff Andrew Card made a "mistake" when he said the president planned to shut a...

ARTFUL DODGER MAY HAVE MADE OFF WITH $50M

A Manhattan art dealer may have swindled galleries for $50 million to $75 million - the biggest such fraud in history - a shocking new report says. Michel Cohen, who...

DOORMAN DEATH WAS SLAYING: M.E.

A well-liked doorman at the Central Park West building "The Century," found last November dead of a single gunshot wound to the head, was murdered, the medical examiner ruled yesterday....

'ROUGH STUFF' PRINCIPAL NABBED

A principal at an Upper West Side middle school was busted yesterday for allegedly manhandling an 11-year-old student - dragging him out of an auditorium assembly by the neck, then...

GUNMAN OPENS FIRE AT WHITE HOUSE - EX-IRS WORKER MAY HAVE BEEN MAKING BIZARRE SUICIDE BID

A former IRS accountant with a grudge against the government opened fire outside the White House yesterday in a bizarre mini-rampage described by police as a failed suicide-by-cop attempt. A...

NYPD TRANSFERS DESK-JOCKEYS TO ENFORCEMENT, PATROL DUTIES

Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik yesterday ordered 92 desk-bound cops at Police Headquarters back onto patrol or into specialty units, The Post has learned. Kerik believes many officers are doing work...

LINDBERGH'S WIDOW DEAD AT 94

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, widow of aviator Charles Lindbergh and mother of the baby whose murder was one of the 20th century's most infamous crimes, died at her Vermont home yesterday...

MAYOR HOPEFULS TALK ISSUES AT VILLAGE FORUM

The four Democratic mayoral candidates attacked social problems rather than each other at a candidate forum in the West Village last night. Public Advocate Mark Green, Bronx Borough President Fernando...

LIST OF DUBIOUS PARDONS GROWS

The number of last-minute pardons or commutations handed down by President Clinton that skirted the normal Justice Department review process is reportedly more than double the number originally revealed. Included...

DA: HONORS STUDENT MADE FAKE LICENSES

A Long Island high-school honors student was charged yesterday with selling to underage kids fake driver's licenses made on the teen's home computer. A Nassau County assistant district attorney said...

TERM-LIMITS FIGHT HEATS UP AT CITY HALL

The term-limits debate led to an angry confrontation at City Hall yesterday when a community activist charged that local legislators would have nothing to do but watch "soap operas" if...

ARISTIDE IS ONCE AGAIN HAITI'S PREZ

To the throbbing beat of drums and the joyous cries of thousands dancing in the streets, Jean-Bertrand Aristide resumed the presidency of Haiti yesterday. Holding his hand on the Bible,...

TWO COPS NABBED IN SEPARATE ACCIDENTS

Two cops have been busted for fleeing the scene after getting into separate off-duty accidents, police said yesterday. In the more serious case, Sgt. Frank Santaromita, an eight-year veteran assigned...

'ESCH' HAS A HEALTHY RESPECT FOR ADMIRAL

Looking back, Evan Eschmeyer should have stayed in bed. It was back when the season had real hope for the Nets. They were stumbling after a 6-4 start and Eschmeyer...

BYRON DOESN'T SEE BLOCKBUSTER

NET NOTES If you're looking for a player shake-up via trade before the Feb. 22 deadline, don't bother, Nets coach Byron Scott says. Scott simply doesn't see it happening for...

BACK UP THE ZAMBONI - TIME FOR SATHER TO RID RANGERS OF FAT CATS

WHEN the going got tough, Neil Smith bailed out on both Colin Campbell and John Muckler and everybody within the organization knew it. By the end, half of the players...

VELASQUEZ BECOMES SANTOS' AGENT

Former Eclipse Award winner Jose Santos has announced that he has hired Hall of Fame jockey Jorge Velasquez to be his agent. Velasquez recently was in New York handling the...

MOGILNY'S ROAD TO RICHES THROUGH TUNNEL? - ALEX MAY TAKE BLUESHIRT GREEN

KANATA, Ont. - The Devil with the most to gain this summer peered over the list that could mean bad news in the big bucks department. "Wow. This is pretty...

JETS TAB RISON AS WR COACH

The vacancy list for Jet assistant coaches has been cut to one or two after yesterday's hiring of Mose Rison as receivers aide. The move leaves the Jets needing only...

COOK, HAMILTON ON THE BLOCK - AMAZIN'S ARE HOPEFUL OF DEALING THE PAIR

Who wants a millionaire? That's the new twist on the saying today. Outfielder Darryl Hamilton and lefty reliever Dennis Cook, who are both going to make a few million dollars,...

EAGLES ARE SEEING ORANGE - SURPRISING BC SOARING IN RARE SYRACUSE AIR

CHESTNUT HILL - It's almost impossible to gauge how far Boston College's basketball team has come in the past year. It's nearly impossible to describe the 17th-ranked Eagles' flight from...

NO SLEEP THROUGH BROOKLYN - BOROUGH NABS TOP FOUR SEEDS IN PSAL HOOP CHAMPIONSHIP

At the beginning of the season, the talk around the PSAL was that the best basketball in the league would be found in Brooklyn. That proved to be true and...

'X' MARKS THE SPOT FOR CUBAN

As far as professional sports owners go, Mark Cuban seems to have a different agenda than, say, Wellington Mara. In his latest attention-grabber, the Mavericks' billionaire owner offered several sexually-explicit...

WILL REAL KNICKS PLEASE STAND UP

HERE WE are at the halfway point of the NBA season and I'm still not convinced we should waste any more of our depleted sports energy expecting great things from...

YANKEES THROWN A CHANGEUP - MO, DEREK DEALS DELAYED AS SPRING TRAINING NEARS

In a stunning transformation, the Yankees just might sign Mariano Rivera to a multi-year contract and end up arbitrating with Derek Jeter. The team is still closer and more likely...

EAGLES CLIP 'CUSE BY A CLAW - BOSTON COLLEGE EXACTS REVENGE ON ORANGEMEN

Boston College 65 - Syracuse 63 CHESTNUT HILL - A second after Boston College guard Troy Bell tipped away Kueth Duany's last-ditch pass - an instant after Bell's third great...

SPREWELL'S OVERTIME WORK PAYS OFF

After logging 50 minutes of court time last night, an exhausted Latrell Sprewell might have looked forward to a relaxing weekend off from basketball. Instead, the Knicks' 30-year-old guard has...

BUBBA SNUBBA! - EX-PREZ NOT INVITED TO KNICK GAME

Is the Garden prez snubbing the ex-prez? In failing to do the obvious, Garden president Dave Checketts has not yet and has no plans to invite Bill Clinton to a...

VAN GUNDY ORDERS UP MORE RICE

KNICK NOTES Jeff Van Gundy said before last night's game he would spend the All-Star break trying to find a way to get Glen Rice more minutes in the season's...

NYK MARATHON - SPREWELL, KNICKS OUTLAST MIRACLE MAVS IN TWO OTS

When Michael Finley's 12-foot prayer went through the net at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime, Dallas' eccentric owner Mark Cuban went nuts. Sitting behind the Mavericks bench, Cuban...

'X' MARKS THE SPOT FOR CUBAN - MAV OWNER STANDS BY GRAPHIC MAG INTERVIEW

As professional sports owners go, Mark Cuban seems to have a different agenda than, say, Wellington Mara. In his latest attention-grabber, the Mavericks' billionaire owner offered several sexually-explicit answers in...

KURT'S RETURN MEANS CRUNCH IN FRONT COURT

KNICK NOTES With Kurt Thomas returning last night from a five-game absence, the minutes crunch will be like never before in the front court. While Luc Longley clearly became the...

MORE RICE, PLEASE - VG PRAISES GLEN, MULLS PLAN TO GET HIM MORE MINUTES

Jeff Van Gundy said before last night's game against the Mavericks at the Garden that he would spend the All-Star break trying to find a way to get Glen Rice...

MO NEGOTIATIONS THROWN A CURVE

The uneasy negotiations between the Yankees and Mariano Rivera were complicated further when the multi-media corporation SFX fired two of the closer's long-time representatives, Jim Bronner and Bob Gilhooley, Tuesday....