September 19, 2004

APPLE, POLISHED ; NEW IMAC IS COMPUTER AS ARTWORK

If Apple's new iMac G5, which premieres this weekend, looks familiar, there's a good reason: It resembles an iPod, supersized. By evoking the iPod's slimmed down innovative design, Apple is...

DVD'S DEF JAM- MGM DEAL HAS SONY EYEING HD

If you're one of the millions expected to buy the original "Star Wars" trilogy when it premieres on DVD this Tuesday, you may want to wait. Like a rebuilt Death...

ACADEMY FIGHTS OSCAR DVD PIRACY

Oscar "screeners" won't be passed among New York friends this fall if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has its way. The Academy plans to ship 11-pound "piracy...

GOOGLE PICKS GATES' BRAINS

Google, $1.67 billion richer from its August initial public offering, is spending its money poaching the brightest minds from arch-rival Microsoft and other tech giants. Based on the half-dozen hires...

BLISS FROM THAILAND

IT'S taken a while, but the 2001 Thai stunner "Blissfully Yours" is getting a commercial run in New York. Cine File first saw it in Rotterdam a few years back,...

SHELTER STARS; NEW AC&C PROGRAM PUTS ANIMALS' LIVES FIRST

WHEN a stray pit bull pup named Jackson was recently brought to the city shelter, Animal Care & Control, with a broken leg, vets were prepared to amputate the limb...

SWISS CIGAR FIRM STRIKES UP MATCH

THE World Cigar Chess Championship begins this week in Brissago, Switzerland - and will become the second major step this year toward unifying the chess world. Vladimir Kramnik, 29, is...

MEOW MIX - TYRA BANKS PLAYS DEN MOTHER ON 'AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL'

THE Barbie dolls on ''America's Next Top Model'' have claws this season. So forget the battling boxing shows, NBC's "The Contender" and Fox's "The Next Great Champ" - the real...

'REAL' OLD - AGING REALITY SERIES MOVES TO CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE

IT was only the first episode, and already someone came out of the closet. Karamo, one of seven housemates on MTV's "Real World: Philadelphia," revealed that he was a homosexual,...

COUNT ON 'SOPRANOS' TO SCORE AT EMMYS

NO category better illustrates the bizarro world of the Emmy Awards than this year's nominees for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. They are: A non-actor (Larry David, "Curb...

PRIME TIME PHIL MUSHNICK - TRUMP AND CUBAN IN REALITY-TV WAR

JUST when you thought that these reality shows have become bereft of redeeming values, something poignant develops. Donald Trump, star of NBC's "The Apprentice," and Mark Cuban, the progenitor of...

MOVIE PIX - OUR MOVIE CRITIC MEGAN LEHMANN'S BEST FILMS OF THE WEEK

- Titanic - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - The Song of Bernadette - The Producers - Once Upon A Time in the West - Pulp Fiction

HOT LIST - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

Classic rebel The classical world loves pimping out its hot young musicians. To wit: The New York Philharmonic is making a lot of noise about violinist Maxim Vengerov, who will...

A PARODY FOR THE PATRIOTIC

Bill O'Reilly's done it. So have Al Franken, Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson. Now, with the publication of "America (The Book)," Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" gleefully joins their...

THE EMPIRE'S NEW CLOTHES - TINKER-CRAZY LUCAS CREATES FAN FIRESTORM WITH LONG-AWAITED 'STAR WARS' DVD SET

THE original "Star Wars" trilogy finally makes its long-awaited arrival on DVD Tuesday - with the debate over George Lucas' proclivity for endlessly revising his seminal sci-fi epics reaching warp...

HEAR THIS

IN CONCERT * Today: Rockers the River City Rebels at the Continental (the band's new CD is free with admission). * R&B singer Angie Stone at B.B. King's. * At...

RISING STAR - HOT JAPANESE SINGER: I'M NO BRITNEY

Don't call Utada Hikaru the Japanese Britney Spears - even if she is Japan's hottest young female pop star. "I hate that! It's a pet peeve," says the 21-year-old "J-pop"...

SHE'S THE BOSS NOW - BRUCE'S WIFE, PATTI SCIALFA, STEPS OUT WITH NEW RECORD

She's married to the Boss, but Patti Scialfa misses the life she led before becoming Mrs. Bruce Springsteen. Her new album, "23rd Street Lullaby," wistfully recalls her bohemian days as...

THIS WEEK'S CDS

Green Day "American Idiot" (three stars) Reprise Records Green Day's new record is as catchy as it is rebellious. It's also the album that will earn the boys the respect...

WATERS' WORLD - TRUE TO FORM, 'SHAME' HAS SOMETHING TO OFFEND JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY

Ever heard of sploshing? How about a tickle top? If you have, you might not want to admit it. But John Waters isn't ashamed. The outrageous movie director, a longtime...

MOORE NYC - MANHATTANITE JULIANNE MOORE'S EERIE NEW MOVIE WAS FILMED CLOSE TO HOME

Julianne Moore ain't too proud to beg. The makers of her new movie, "The Forgotten," discovered that last year, when they were trying to decide where to shoot. Director Joe...

THIS WEEK'S MOVIES

FIRST DAUGHTER Katie Holmes is the president's daughter who wants a regular life. Michael Keaton is the commander-in-chief. THE FORGOTTEN This suspense flick is about a mom (Julianne Moore) in...

APPETITE FOR DISTRACTION - ROCKER-OWNED CLUB PUTS STEAKS, SPORTS AND SHOWS ON MENU

"I wanna rock 'n' roll all night - and party every day." When Kiss sang those lines back in 1975, the band might have envisioned a place like Snitch: New...

QUICK BITES: THE TASTIEST EVENTS THIS WEEK

IT'S A BLIMP!: Cheese steak aficionados now have another Philadelphia classic to satisfy their cravings. Ritz Carlton Central Park chef Mark Arnao has created a sandwich based on the hoagies...

MEET MARKET: THE PLACE WHERE THE POST HOOKS YOU UP AND SENDS YOU OUT

RADIOGRAPHER HAS X-RAY EYES FOR THE RIGHT LADY MEET Walter, 42, a vascular sonographer and radiographer - "I examine arteries and veins with ultrasound and I work with X-rays" -...

FASHIONABLE FLIRT HARTNETT

FASHION Week inspired everyone ... to hook up. Josh Hartnett apparently found love with a supermodel: Canadian Daria Werbowy, the brunette star of the new Gucci ads. The two, introduced...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Fries with that ice cream? You must be pregnant! Whether it's ice cream and french fries, garlic on crackers or brown sauce on everything, nearly 60 percent of pregnant women...

'I SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON TIME' - SLAIN WIFE'S PAINED PAL

He was supposed to be there - but he was running late. In an exclusive interview with The Post, the heartbroken boyfriend of murdered Long Beach mom Diane Malone fought...

THUGS BEAT OLD-TIMER CONEY CARNY

A 70-year-old Coney Island amusement park manager was beaten with a golf club, tied up and robbed by three thugs wearing Halloween masks who followed him home. Cops said the...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

THE BRONX *** Most cabbies hope they'll get a tip for a job well done, but one livery driver got less than that - he was bit on the face...

THE BATTLES OF REBUILDING

UP FROM ZERO: POLITICS, ARCHITECTURE AND THE REBUILDING OF NEW YORKBY PAUL GOLDBERGER RANDOM HOUSE, 273 PAGES, $24.95 THIS will have to do for now. The literature on Ground Zero...

BUSH: GUARD BRASS GAVE ME THE OK TO TAKE TIME OFF

President Bush yesterday defended his National Guard record, saying his military supervisors gave him permission to work on a political campaign while he served in the Air National Guard. "I...

WIDOW'S TORMENT ; 'I'LL SUE THE MET OVER HUBBY DEATH PLUNGE'

The widow of a maintenance worker who plunged 60 feet to his death while working on a glass ceiling at the Metropolitan Museum said yesterday she plans to sue the...

APPLE BOBBING ; IVAN'S RAIN PUTS CITY UNDER WATER

Killer storm Ivan slammed the city yesterday, hammering Manhattan and parts of the other boroughs with a hard, fast torrent of 2 inches of rain in less than two hours,...

MACAULAY POT-BUST PAL IS IN ON THE ACT

The friend busted with "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin in Oklahoma is an up-and-coming star himself. Brett Tabisel, 22, has had minor parts in TV shows, movies and Broadway. The...

CRADLE-ROB SUSPECT $TIFFED WIFE: PALS

WOODBURY, N.J. - The South Jersey computer whiz who allegedly convinced a 14-year-old girl to run away with him to Mexico wiped out his wife's savings account earlier this summer...

COP WENT UNDER THE KNIFE TO SAVE A LIFE

Marie Frawley is in the business of saving lives - in and out of her NYPD uniform. Nearly two months ago, the 12-year NYPD veteran donated a kidney to Jane...

DAD TRIED 'PUNCHING' DEATH TOT OUT OF SEIZURE: COPS

The sicko dad whose 3-year-old son turned up dead in a bag on a Queens church's steps gave cops a chilling account of how he brutally tried to stop the...

ALBANY'S CULTURE CRISIS

On Tuesday, votes in local primaries presented at least the glimmerings of a revolt prompted by Albany's cynical mindset. On Wednesday, Mayor Bloomberg's self-graded report card offered evidence of just...

BOGUS BOSOX FAN; RUDY RIPS KERRY'S BUMBLING ERRORS

Yankees superfan Rudy Giuliani has a warning for John Kerry, who's been touting his love of the Red Sox as he campaigns for the presidency: Get your facts straight. Kerry...

BLOODY KIDNAP - DAD KILLS MOM, SWIPES 3 KIDS

An incensed man shot his estranged wife dead in cold blood outside a Mamaroneck park and left her sister clinging to life last night, before driving off with his three...

'SEX PATCH' TIED TO 17 DEATHS: FDA

A trendy contraceptive patch - which has been aggressively marketed using sexy ads, fashion models and Olympic athletes - has been linked to the deaths of at least 17 young...

$44M FIASCO ON WALL ST. - CITY LOST BIG ON OFFICE PROJECT

THE city paid out $44 million - far more than it has ever revealed - when after 9/11 it backtracked on plans to buy and demolish a building across from...

THUGS BEAT ELDERLY CONEY CARNY

A 70-year-old Coney Island amusement park manager was beaten with a golf club, tied up and robbed by three Halloween-masked thugs who followed him home. Cops said the victim, Ellis...

HOW TRAGIC TOT MET VIOLENT END

The sicko dad whose 3-year-old son turned up dead in a bag on a Queens church's steps gave cops a chilling account of how he brutally tried to stop the...

MACAULAY POT-BUST PAL IS IN ON THE 'ACT'

The friend busted with "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin in Oklahoma is an up-and-coming actor himself. Brett Tabisel, 22, has had minor parts in TV shows, movies and Broadway. The...

FIREWORKS SCARE ON LA GUARDIA JET

The NYPD Bomb Squad was called in when a worker discovered powerful fireworks in a jet plane at La Guardia Airport early yesterday. The four devices - which sources described...

TRANSIT PAWS FOR A RESCUE

A black cat trapped in the ceiling of a Brooklyn subway station had its luck reversed yesterday when a team of firefighters and transit workers rescued it. The fearless feline...

APPLE BOBBING; IVAN'S RAIN PUTS CITY UNDER WATER

Killer storm Ivan slammed the city yesterday, hammering Manhattan and parts of the other boroughs with a hard, fast torrent of 2 inches of rain in less than two hours,...

'STAR WARS' GEEKFESTS; APPLE FANS HERALD TRILOGY'S DVD DEBUT

It's the DVD box set more anticipated than the rebels' defeat of the Empire - and to celebrate its New York release tomorrow at midnight, Star Wars fanatics are dressing...

'RULES' WRITER'S DENTAL DISASTER

A world-famous love expert says her celebrity dentist gave her "gigantic" teeth that drove her husband away and ruined her health. Ellen Fein, co-author of the dating bible "The Rules,"...

COPS IN OT PROBE; 2 IN BRONX DOUBLED PAYCHECKS

NYPD brass have grilled the department's two biggest overtime earners - an officer and a detective who work as partners in The Bronx - to assess whether their arrest records...

BILLION DOLLAR MORON; WACKY $11B 'DEPOSIT'

A Queens man with the same name as the author of the James Bond spy novels was nabbed trying to pull off a scheme worthy of an ambitious 007 villain...

BOGUS BOSOX FAN - RUDY RIPS KERRY'S BUMBLING ERRORS

Yankees superfan Rudy Giuliani has a warning for John Kerry, who's been touting his love of the Red Sox as he campaigns for the presidency: Get your facts straight. Kerry...

'KEY' TO A MEMO SCAM; '70S TYPEWRITERS COULDN'T PRODUCE DAN'S 'EVIDENCE'

WASHINGTON - The latest typewriters known to have been in use at the Texas Air National Guard base where George W. Bush was stationed in the early 1970s can't produce...

PAST WOES AT TRAGIC DAY-CARE CENTER

The owner of a Queens day-care center was found by city inspectors to be running an overcrowded, unlicensed facility only weeks before a baby in her care mysteriously died. Neither...

HOW PAXIL KILLED OUR SON

JAKE Steinberg had bitten his nails since childhood, but when a doctor noticed the California college student's antsy habit, he prescribed a medication to stop it: Paxil. "It was a...

PANEL'S PUSH FOR LIFESAVING LABELS

The Food and Drug Administration should require the boldest warning - a black box with white letters - be stamped on labels of antidepressant pills, cautioning that their use can...

SARAH'S LAST CHANCE TO BE STATUE-ESQUE

Sarah Jessica Parker is a hot favorite to finally break her five-year Emmy drought tonight by clinching Best Actress honors, but she'll have to beat Jennifer Aniston - and history....

'KEY' TO A MEMO SCAM - '70S TYPEWRITERS COULDN'T PRODUCE DAN'S 'EVIDENCE'

WASHINGTON - The latest typewriters known to have been in use at the Texas Air National Guard base where George W. Bush was stationed in the early 1970s can't produce...

SLEEPERS, KEEPERS! OUR ALL-BARGAIN TEAM

WITH two weeks left in the season, the first-place team in most fantasy leagues has already been fitted for rings and all that's left is to etch its name into...

IT'S NOW A NON-CONTACT SPORT

AND so it isn't enough for Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors to merely stop the games from being played until they get what they want. No; the commissioner...

TIKI: WE'VE GOTTA KEEP RUNNING BALL

GIANT NOTES The Giants are facing a blitz-happy Redskin defense today that allowed an NFL-low 30 yards on 15 carries in their season-opening win over Tampa Bay. But RB Tiki...

JETS MUST PUT THIS L.T. IN A SACK

JET NOTES SAN DIEGO - The task is daunting: sack L.T. This L.T. doesn't wear No. 56 and menaces quarterbacks. This L.T. wears No. 21 and helps quarterbacks. This isn't...

ENJOYING THE LIFE OF RILEY

BLOOMFIELD TWP., Mich. - You knew Chris Riley "Got It" when he told Hal Sutton he would be at the Ryder Cup regardless of whether his wife Michelle might be...

ROCKET RETURN TO APPLE NOT LIKELY

YANKEE NOTES In what is another sign Roger Clemens intends to pitch in 2005, he is not shutting down at the end of this season. Instead, The Post has learned...

RUSTY GIAMBI SITS THIS ONE OUT

Jason Giambi had no problem with Joe Torre sitting him yesterday against the Red Sox and Derek Lowe. Not after going 0-for-11 with six strikeouts since returning from the disabled...

COMACINA TESTS BOYS ; FILLY GOES IN FUTURITY

Only 17 horses were entered in today's three stakes at Belmont Park, but they include three of the best fillies and mares in training, one of which is facing the...

FIGHT FOR THE AGES II - HOPKINS OUT TO REARRANGE OSCAR'S FACE

LAS VEGAS - You see it as soon as you step off the plane. You see it in hotels and on billboards and on posters in store windows. Oscar De...

A-ROD PUTS BIG HURT ON BOSOX

It wasn't too long ago that Alex Rodriguez tried to KO the Red Sox and catcher Jason Varitek with his fists in a bench-clearing brawl at Fenway Park. But yesterday...

TY ISN'T WIGGIN' OUT; SLUMP WON'T GET EX-MET DOWN

PITTSBURGH - You didn't really expect Ty Wigginton to change his game just because he'd changed his area code, did you? In New York, Wigginton earned a reputation for his...

BUCS' BAY ANOTHER ONE THAT GOT AWAY

MET NOTES PITTSBURGH - Pretty soon, the Mets' trade on July 31, 2002 may rank as one of their worst in recent history. Actually, it probably already does. If you...

MONTY TAKES A BREATHER

CUP NOTES BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - The U.S. Ryder Cup team finally stopped Colin Montgomerie yesterday. When he and Padraig Harrington were defeated by Davis Love III and Stewart Cink,...

DOWNING, SHARKS FLEX MUSCLES VS. TOTTENVILLE

Sheepshead Bay 32Tottenville 7 Lamont Downing spent much of Friday night playing a football video game and as he usually does, the Sheepshead Bay senior played with the Kansas City...

YANKEES LIEB BOSOX IN DUST; RIGHTY'S PERFORMANCE JON FOR THE BOOKS

THEY STOOD, they cheered, then most left. Those from an announced crowd of 55,153 who stuck around Yankee Stadium through fits of rain, a chill in the air and a...

DEREK LEAVES FEELING MIGHTY LOWE

Friday, the Red Sox raved about Derek Lowe's recent mound presence. Yesterday, he didn't have much of one, figuratively or literally. Lowe disintegrated in the first inning and exited without...

CALL HIM OL' DEPENDABLE ; BERNIE ALWAYS CAN FIND A WAY TO LIFT YANKEES

HE always was the easiest of the core Yankees to overlook, because he was so quietly proficient, because he rarely showed up on Page Six, because there always seemed to...

TORRE: 'I COULDN'T BE MORE PROUD'

Yankees 14Red Sox 4 Their high-priced chins weren't scraping The Bronx pavement on the way out of Yankee Stadium Friday night. Yet Joe Torre said his club was down after...

WE NEED A MIRACLE - EUROS FIGHT OFF U.S. COMEBACK

BLOOMFIELD TWP., Mich. - Brookline, anyone? Actually, it's going to take an even more unrealistic, colossal comeback than the U.S. team produced in 1999 at The Country Club to shock...

RED SOX BATS TAKE SNOOZE IN BLOWOUT LOSS

Most of the Red Sox' starters had already left a one-sided rout by the time David Ortiz batted with two outs in the seventh yesterday. Jon Lieber had buzzsawed through...

'FELINE' PURRS IN FLORAL PARK

In the Floral Park Handicap for fillies and mares at six furlongs, the first of yesterday's three stakes, front-running Cologny appeared home free leading by daylight in deep stretch, but...

A-ROD BATTERS BOSTON

It wasn't too long ago that Alex Rodriguez tried knocking out the Red Sox with his fists in a bench-clearing brawl. Yesterday, the Yankees third baseman knocked them down and...

U.S. LEGACY GETTING TARNISHED

BLOOMFIELD TWP, Mich.- When he was asked earlier this week to defend his mediocre Ryder Cup record, Tiger Woods quizzed the media about how Jack Nicklaus had fared in this...

WE'RE THE NEWSPAPER PEDRO LOVES TO HATE

Pedro Martinez is ticked at The Post. On the eve of one of the biggest regular-season starts of his illustrious career, Boston's ace yesterday was distracted by being dubbed "The...

EXECUTIONER'S CUT - HOPKINS TO OSCAR: STAND UP AND FIGHT

LAS VEGAS - When Bernard "The Executiuoner" Hopkins stripped off his baggy blue jeans and white T-shirt to reveal a perfectly chiseled, 156-pound body with a 27-inch waist, the crowd...

EUROPEANS EYE RECORD BLOWOUT

BLOOMFIELD TWP, Mich. - Brookline, anyone? Not today. Not this time. Perhaps never again. By dinnertime tonight, the Ryder Cup will be headed back to Europe, where it truly belongs...

AL'S OUTLOOK LEITER; WANTS TO RETURN

MET NOTES PITTSBURGH - One day after saying on a radio interview that he wasn't sure he wanted to be back with the Mets next year, Al Leiter clarified himself....

LANGER'S ROOKIES RED HOT

BLOOMFIELD TWP, Mich. - The importance one of the eight matches played in yesterday's Ryder Cup second round cannot be overstated. It came from Paul Casey and David Howell, two...

CASEY GETTING TEST VS. TIGER

RYDER CUP NOTES BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Perhaps as reward for his brilliant four-ball victory yesterday, Paul Casey got his wish. Casey, the brash European Ryder Cup rookie who went...

TODD CATCHES UP ; ZEILE PROPELS METS

10 INNINGS Mets 8 Pirates 7 PITTSBURGH - This was supposed to be Todd Zeile's night. Until Jason Bay ruined it. First, the 39-year-old Zeile got behind the plate to...

RAMS D-FEAT LIONS

Fordham 17Columbia 14 During a fourth-quarter timeout, Fordham coach Ed Foley found a pack of his players sprinting and screaming toward the sidelines. Foley figured the ranting would go the...

'EXECUTIONER' SLAYS OSCAR ; HOPKINS SCORES TKO IN 9TH

LAS VEGAS - A tension hung over the ring in the MGM Grand for eight rounds as "Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins engaged in...

MCGREEVEY'S HUNTING POLICY UN-BEAR-ABLE

NEW Jersey's Gov. McGreevey and his DEP commissioner Bradley Campbell are trying to give the animal-rights people everything they want before the governor leaves office in November. In a letter...

JEFF: AMAZIN'S DON'T HAVE SON POISONING - YOUNGER WILPON DEFENDS FAMILY'S COMMITMENT TO WINNING, ASSURES REBOUND

I AM not an idiot, I am not abrasive, I am not running the day-to-day workings of the baseball operations, I "feel the pain" of Mets fans because I am...

THE O.C. IS JETS' KEY - HACKETT NEEDS TO STAY ON ATTACK IN S.D.

SAN DIEGO - The Jets get their chance to make the daunting walk from Pretender, U.S.A. to Contender, U.S.A. today against the Chargers. Beat the Chargers in their home opener,...

'DOGS ON SHORT LEASH - 'SHAMEFUL' GIANTS HAVE LOT TO PROVE TO HOME FANS

Is there any word that conjures up a feeling of disgrace and embarrassment more passionately as the one chosen by Giants co-owner Wellington Mara to describe his team's performance at...

WASTING TIME - NO SUCCESS ON COUGHLIN'S WATCH UNTIL VETERAN CREW'S SENT PACKING

The new coach fines players for being late even when they arrive two minutes early. It delivers a message of misrepresentation, not punctuality, but ironically it all seems appropriate. To...

BIG-LEAGUE BOZOS SOLD MAYHEM

WE NEVER miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. That chair-throwing hassle at the Rangers-A's game on Monday was followed by the requisite woe-is-us stuff. Two days' worth, the usual....

WHEN THE SNIT HITS THE FAN: PLAYERS MUST RESIST, EVEN IF ROWDIES DESERVE SLAP

THIS isn't to excuse Frank Francisco, OK? We should get that out of the way first. The second Francisco, a relief pitcher for the Texas Rangers, grabbed that metal chair,...

HEAD TO HEAD

Post baseball writers Michael Morrissey and Mark Hale slug it out over who will win the National League pennant Michael Morrissey: Mark, who cares what the wild-card standings are or...

BIG DADDY'S LAST STAND - BOWE'S WILD RIDE FROM CHAMP TO PRISON AND BACK TO RING

SHAWNEE, Okla. - Riddick Bowe sits in the passenger seat of his manager's black Hummer H2 singing along with Marvin Gaye on the radio. Then, something strikes the former heavyweight...

EYES OF A 'NATION' ON COMEBACK

SHAWNEE, Okla. - This town's logo says, "The Center of it All." It's more like the middle of nowhere. Located 30 miles east of Oklahoma City, this city of 26,000...