July 8, 2005

KOBE BRYANT LEAPS BACK IN NEW NIKE PROMOTION

Two years after his arrest on a sexual assault charge, Kobe Bryant has leaped back into the endorsement game. The Los Angeles Lakers star is featured in a two-page Nike...

WALL STREET'S SECURITY GETS TURNED UP A NOTCH

Wall Street's firms reacted to the terror attacks by expanding their already serious security efforts. The most obvious example of a beefed-up security presence yesterday was at the New York...

BIGWIGS ON GUARD - SECURITY A CONCERN AT MOGULS' CONFAB

THE London terror attacks overshadowed the usual mogul activities here yesterday, with organizers adding a high-brow panel on terrorism to the morning agenda. Time Warner chief Dick Parsons said he...

U.K. ATTACKS NOT SLOWING AIRLINE REVENUES: ANALYSTS

Horrific as yesterday's bombings in London may have been, they are not expected to negatively influence summer and full-year travel prospects - provided the incident is an isolated one. That...

$700M ANTED IN POKER DEAL

Poker icon Doyle Brunson may be playing for the biggest pot of his life: the entire World Poker Tour. Brunson, 71, said yesterday he and a team of financial backers...

$44M FAREWELL - PURCELL NOT LEAVING MORGAN EMPTY-HANDED

Phil Purcell might have been shoved out at Morgan Stanley against his will, but the former chief has 44 million reasons to leave the firm's Times Square headquarters a happy...

PURCELL'S GOODBYE SMOOCH: $44M

Phil Purcell might have been shoved out at Morgan Stanley against his will, but its former chief has 44 million reasons to leave the firm's Times Square headquarters a happy...

'STARS' FINALE REALLY SWINGS

WEDNESDAY's finale of "Dancing with the Stars" waltzed off with over 22 million viewers - big numbers for a summer series. "Dancing" led ABC to an easy prime-time victory -...

SHALLOW END

WALTER Salles' haunted-apartment thriller "Dark Water" doesn't sink like a stone, but for a movie with such a pedigreed director and a cast headed by Jennifer Connelly, it doesn't exactly...

JENNINGS SNAGS SEVEN EMMY NODS

BOTH ABC and PBS garnered 27 News and Documentary Emmy nominations each yesterday - the most of any news and broadcast outlets. ABC's "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" received...

'STEVE + SKY' = DRECK

HUGELY tedious and mostly incomprehensible, Quen tin Tarantino-wannabe Dutch director Felix van Groeningen's "Steve + Sky" is the kind of foreign movie that gives subtitles a bad name. Statuesque beauty...

THERE'S DEEP-SEATED BEAUTY IN 'COUNTRY'

HANDSOMELY photographed, gracefully underplayed and a little dull, "The Beautiful Country" tells the standard immigrant saga of young Binh, a Vietnamese villager searching for his mom and GI dad (Nick...

PRISON CELL PEACE OF MIND

WHAT could make a hardened criminal cry on the shoulder of a prison guard? The answer, it seems, is Vipassana, a 2,500-year-old form of Buddhist meditation that worked wonders at...

GRIM WEEPER

SPOTTING my DVD of Ingmar Bergman's six-hour TV miniseries, a friend remarked, " 'Scenes from a Marriage'? Sounds depressing." Quite so, and 30 years later Johan (Erland Josephson) and Marianne...

DOC WINS RACE

AMONG the few bright spots in this dismal summer movie season have been documentaries like "Mad Hot Ballroom" and "March of the Penguins," which put most Hollywood blockbusters to shame...

'FANTASTIC' SNORE - DR. DOOMED BY BAD ACTING, BAD SCRIPT, BAD DIRECTION; IT'S GOOD 'FOUR' NOTHING

IT'S clobberin' time - as The Thing would put it - at Twentieth Century Fox, where a decade of trying to bring "Fantastic Four" to the big screen has yielded...

MESSY TABLOID DRAMA

SCATHING indictment of the tabloid media! Film at 11! That's how "Crónicas" sees itself, but all I could see was a scathing indictment of writer-director Sebastian Cordero's ability to put...

3 DOORS LOCKED IN

WITH melodies that alternated between Southern rock, grinding metal and emo sighs, Mississippi's 3 Doors Down played an outstanding gig at the Meadowlands Wednesday. While the band's three albums all...

IN ROCK HISTORY, HE'S SUPER KOOPER

AS a musician, songwriter, arranger, producer and label owner, Al Kooper has worked with practically every musician who's ever mattered. He's the man at the Hammond B-3 organ on Bob...

STIFF UPPER LIPS - WEST END VOWS TO BOUNCE BACK AFTER BOMBINGS

ALL the shows in the West End - London's Broadway - were forced to cancel performances last night due to yesterday's terrorist bombings. The National Theatre, the crown jewel of...

STARR REPORT

It's 'Geek' to them Ashton Kutcher's "Beauty and the Geek" went out a winner Wednesday night. The WB reality show snared 4.3 million viewers - an increase of 1.1 million...

BROTHERS DIM - HANDSOME 'PRINCES' ONLY PRETEND TO BE SLACKERS

NOT since "I Love Lucy," and "The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet" - two classic 1950/60's sitcoms - has there been a show like "The Princes of Malibu." In fact,...

CASH COUPLE - IS 'BOBBY BROWN' WORTH $3 MILLION?

'BEING Bobby Brown," a reality show that follows the singer/former jailbird and diva wife Whitney Houston, may have cost Bravo close to $3 million, according to industry sources. While the...

MARY'S HOT PICK

Maynard Ferguson, 77, may be best known for his 1978 smash hit "Gonna Fly Now," the theme from "Rocky," but the artist is also a world-renown jazz trumpet player and...

ROCK PICK

If you see Brooklyn hipsters grooving with rasta men and hippie types Sunday at the Central Park SummerStage, the apocalypse isn't near - it's just Citizen Cope. Raspy-voiced Cope (left)...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

A lovestruck goofball proved how hot he was for his girlfriend - by lighting himself on fire and proposing. First, Todd Grannis, 38, of Grants Pass, Ore., set his gas-soaked...

PRAYERS OF MONSTER'S MOM TOO DAMN LATE

THROUGH convulsing sobs, she spoke of God and of offering prayers for the families. "I'm so sorry, so sorry, a little baby, the families." Talking between tears was Margo Heidgen,...

PYRRHIC TERROR - AL QAEDA JUST LOST GROUND

IT was inevitable. Terrorists struck again. In one of the West's great capitals. Killing innocent civilians. Winning the day but losing the greater struggle. Yesterday, during the morning rush, Islamist...

BUSH & BLAIR: WE ARE UNITED TO CRUSH KILLERS

WASHINGTON - An unwavering President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair - interrupting the G-8 summit in Scotland - yesterday condemned what Blair called the "barbaric" London bombings, and...

B'KLYN POL MUST FACE TRIAL: COURT

An appellate court ruled that Assemblyman Clarence Norman will have to face trial in Brooklyn for allegedly filing bogus travel voucher claims - even though he submitted the paperwork in...

FDNY'S FLAGS BACK FROM BATTLEFIELDS

New York's Bravest gave an emotional salute to Old Glory yesterday as four flags returned home from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fifteen flags had been presented in...

DRUG DEAN IN SCHOOL OUSTER

A disgraced Staten Island middle-school dean who was snorting cocaine while heading a drug-counseling program for youngsters should be barred from the school system, a state appeals panel ruled yesterday....

SUBWAY DREAD - WHAT 7/7 MEANS FOR NYC

THE attacks in London weren't just about London. They represented yet another announcement to the nations of the West about the preferred means and method of terrorist murder. Their weapons...

TUSH COMES TO SHOVE IN PERV BUST

Police say they have busted a serial pervert who trailed women home from a Long Island Rail Road station and grabbed their buttocks. Rahsaad Peterson, 30, followed and fondled five...

EMBATTLED PRINCIPAL QUITS BROOKLYN HS

The principal of one of the city's most troubled schools, once accused of ignoring violence against Asian-American students, is stepping down after four years at the helm, The Post has...

AMERICA'S RAIL SYSTEMS ON HIGH ALERT

Law-enforcement officers flooded trains and transit stations nationwide yesterday as word of the London bombings spread, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged an increase in patrols, spot car inspections,...

EERIE DEJA VU FOR VISITING RUDY

Rudy Giuliani lived through the second terror strike of his life yesterday during a business trip to London, where he called the transit bombings an "eerie" reminder of Sept. 11....

WORRIED EXPATS FRANTIC FOR NEWS

For British citizens in New York, yesterday was spent making frantic phone calls home, swapping news with fellow expatriates, and hoping for the best. Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett, a Londoner who now...

TRAGIC PASSER-BY - KILLED BY JUST-SHOT BX. DRIVER

A Bronx pedestrian was killed yesterday when a driver was shot in the head and lost control of his vehicle - sending it plowing into a street sign that smashed...

ALL SIGNS POINT TO QAEDA

WASHINGTON - With little to go on, British authorities last night were sifting through clues to the London terror attacks, which Foreign Minister Jack Straw said had all the "hallmarks...

MIDAIR MAYOR GOT NEWS & HUSTLED BACK

The call came in at 35,000 feet. Mayor Bloomberg was flying back from Singapore on his private jet - a 26-hour odyssey - when aides awoke him to take an...

COPS' GUTSY CHASE - COURAGE IN GUNFIGHT

A hero cop didn't hesitate to chase after a gunman on the streets of Harlem - even though he saw that the wildman had a pistol in each hand. "I...

SEAL'S TRAGIC LOVE - SLAIN L.I. WAR HERO HAD GIVEN GAL PAL ENGAGEMENT RING

War didn't scare heroic Navy SEAL Michael Murphy. What really scared him was popping the question to his girlfriend of five years, Heather Duggan. Murphy, a Long Islander who achieved...

FAST-FOOD SCALD SUIT

A Bronx woman claims she was severely burned on her face, arm and upper body when a White Castle cashier threw hot water at her - and hopes to put...

GAL'S ORDEAL: FINDING HER SISTER'S BODY PARTS

A sister of a Bronx woman whose body was discovered chopped to pieces Wednesday described the horror of finding the body parts scattered near a secluded pond. Angie Parasran, 40,...

SLAIN TEEN TO BE BURIED WITH IPOD

Christopher Rose, the 15-year-old fatally stabbed over an iPod last week, will be buried with the music player tomorrow in Cypress Hill Cemetery. The iPod's owner hopes that will help...

FINEST RACE INTO ACTION - LIGHTNING RESPONSE FLOODS APPLE TRANSIT HUBS

The NYPD flew into counter-terrorism overdrive within minutes of yesterday's London blasts, flooding the city's streets, subways and bridges with thousands of extra cops - and even dispatching detectives to...

MAKE THAT NYP'T' - FOR TEDDY BEARS

Tough New York cops are really cuddly teddy bears - at least on Fifth Avenue. NYC Marketing, the agency that forged the $126 million deal between Snapple and city schools,...

WTC SURVIVOR'S SIMPLE TRAIN RIDE BECOMES ACT OF DEFIANCE

FIXING her stern gaze on a crack in the linoleum, Michelle Sutton boarded the downtown R train. In the last four years, the young Bronx woman has had to relearn...

JUDGE OKS BAIL FOR 'MOB' COPS - CALLS CASE AGAINST THEM 'VERY THIN'

Two reputed mob cops were handed a double dose of good news yesterday, as a federal judge agreed to release them on bail - and then called much of the...

SUICIDE BOY WAS 'GOOD KID'

A family friend recalled with shock and sadness the 14-year-old who went berserk Wednesday, burning his family's Bronx home and shooting himself to death after a dispute over summer camp....

A'TTY. WANTS BAIL FOR 'FAT NICK'

The lawyer for Howard Beach bat basher Nicholas "Fat Nick" Minucci - who's being held without bail - said yesterday that she plans to ask an appeals court to set...

SPORTS CAR KILLS COUPLE IN L.I. CRASH

A young Queens couple died early yesterday when a sports car doing 100 mph sideswiped their Honda Civic - smashing it into a tree - on the Southern State Parkway,...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

MANHATTAN (lcf) * A bus struck a wheelchair-bound woman and her infant son in Morningside Heights last night, police said. Lee Nghi, 32, was carrying her five-month-old son in her...

NYPD'S MAN WAS ON SPOT

The NYPD's detective in London experienced yesterday's attack firsthand - he was riding the subway when the terrorists struck. Detective Ira Greenberg, who has been in London for nearly a...

POL: MTA $ECURITY GOING OFF-TRACK

A Queens lawmaker yesterday blasted the MTA for "moving at a snail's pace" since 9/11 to terror-proof the city's transit system. City Councilman John Liu, a Democrat, ripped the agency...

MOB BOSS' LETHAL 'CODE': FEDS

Reputed acting Bonanno boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano was arraigned yesterday on charges he conspired to kill a family capo via coded messages to jailed don Joseph Massino. Basciano, already...

'EERIE' DEJA VU FOR VISITING RUDY

Rudy Giuliani lived through his second terror strike yesterday - in London - and called it an "eerie" reminder of 9/11. The ex-mayor was at a breakfast business meeting less...

'SPIDEY' NABBED - RAPE-SPREE SUSPECT

Cops last night arrested an ex-con believed to be the "Spider-Man rapist" after determining his DNA matched semen discovered at the scene of one of the horrific sex attacks, a...

EYE ON 'MADRID' BOMB CELL

WASHINGTON - British cops probing the London bombings are focusing on a loose-knit network of North African Islamic extremists who carried out terror attacks in Spain and Morocco, U.S. intelligence...

BE ON GUARD, STRAPHANGERS - FINEST FLOOD BIG APPLE'S TRANSIT HUBS

New York straphangers were warned yesterday to be on the lookout for unattended bags and any suspicious activity on buses and trains, as the NYPD flew into counterterrorism overdrive within...

BULLETS & BRAVERY - COPS' GUNFIGHT HEROISM

A hero cop didn't hesitate to chase after a gunman on the streets of Harlem - even though he saw that the wildman had a pistol in each hand. "I...

'SPIDEY' SNARED - PAROLED RAPIST NAILED BY DNA IN SEX ATTACKS

Cops last night arrested an ex-con believed to be the "Spider-Man" rapist, after determining his DNA matched semen discovered at the scene of one of the horrific sex attacks, a...

MUSLIM NATIONS - AND EVEN HAMAS - JOINED THE REST OF THE WORLD IN CONDEMNING ...

Muslim nations - and even Hamas - joined the rest of the world in condemning yesterday's terror attacks in London as barbaric. "Targeting civilians . . . is denounced and...

'MOB' COPS FREE - CASE 'VERY THIN'

Two reputed mob cops were handed a double dose of good news yesterday, as a federal judge agreed to release them on bail - and then called much of the...

ROUNDERS (1998)

Over the last few years, poker's popularity has increased exponentially, largely due to ESPN incessantly replaying the World Series of Poker. So we have decided (or ESPN has for us)...

DOUBLE PLAY ON WORDS - STERLING, LORENZ CHEAPEN YANKEES

IF PROS such as John Sterling and YES Yankees studio host Bob Lorenz truly grasped and respected the "Pinstripe Pride" they always are pushing, they'd cease committing crimes against its...

NYC'S HARVEY HAS NEW STATE OF MIND

ABCD CAMP Eugene Harvey arrived at St. Benedict's High School in Newark two years ago and almost left immediately. "I was coming from Boys [High] where there were 5,000 kids...

PEDRO: I'M NOT GOING - MARTINEZ TO PASS ON ALL-STAR GAME

WASHINGTON - Two days from now, Pedro Martinez will take the mound for the Mets against the Pirates. That's why four days from now, he won't take the mound at...

NHL SIDES DENY DONE-DEAL REPORT

Hurdles remain before the NHL lockout ends, but sources say they may be cleared in time for an agreement in principle this weekend or early next week. Both sides branded...

MARA: WE WANT JETS IN NEW STADIUM

John Mara, the Giants executive vice president and driving force behind the construction of a proposed 80,000-seat stadium, said this week that he intends to speak with the Jets "very...

SHAREEF HAS NETS WAITING

Now comes the hardest part for the Nets: the waiting. A two-day courtship tour of the area and team facilities for free agent Shareef Abdur-Rahim concluded yesterday, and now the...

YANKS ROCKET TO MELKY WAY - CABRERA PROMOTED TO PLAY CF

Melky Cabrera's favorite player is Chipper Jones, but the Yankees hope his future resembles another Atlanta player with that last name. Capping a meteoric rise through the Yankees' farm system,...

LAIMBEER ASSURES KNICKS FANS: 'ALL I DO IS WIN'

LAS VEGAS - Bill Laimbeer has a message for skeptical Knicks fans: I'm a winner. With Larry Brown's Knicks candidacy on shaky ground after his wife Shelly guaranteed in The...

PAVANO ACCEPTS TRIP TO DL

YANKEE NOTES Even though his MRI came back clear, Carl Pavano had no problem being placed on the disabled list with right shoulder tendinitis. "To go out there and pitch...

MOOSE MUST FLEX MUSCLES

THE center fielder for the weekend - and the Yankees really hope for much of the rest of the season - is 20 years old, with nine games of Triple-A...

PIAZZA D'RESISTANCE - MIKE COMES THROUGH WITH 11TH-INNING SINGLE

11 INNINGS: Mets 3 Nationals 2 WASHINGTON - With a tie game in extra innings yesterday afternoon, the Nationals wanted Mike Piazza at the plate. In the top of the...

METS GET BIG RELIEF FROM 'PEN

MET NOTES WASHINGTON - The Mets bullpen gave up one hit yesterday and did not allow a run in four innings. That was its worst performance of the four-game series...

EMPIRE OF THE SUN - LIBERTY GIVING CHASE IN EAST

When the Liberty opened the season by dropping its first two games at home, coach Pat Coyle defiantly said that no WNBA team was going to run away and hide...

NO HOOP SCREAMS - BOONE FOCUSES ON PRESENT AS PAST FADES

Aaron Boone has no regrets. "None," he said, sitting in the visiting dugout yesterday afternoon, back at Yankee Stadium for the first time since he was a member of the...

CHANNING IS STILL LEARNING

KNICK NOTES LAS VEGAS - Channing Frye has a lot to learn. The Knicks first-round draft pick was pushed around early in yesterday's NBA summer league game by Magic center...

SHAREEF KEEPS NETS WAITING

Now comes the hardest part for the Nets: the waiting. A two-day courtship tour of the area and team facilities for free agent Shareef Abdur-Rahim concluded yesterday, and now the...

MELKY'S DAY - FIRST GAME, HIT FOR ROOKIE CF

Melky Cabrera's favorite player is Chipper Jones, but the Yankees hope his future resembles another Atlanta player with that last name. Capping a meteoric rise through the Yankees' farm system,...

LIBERTY MAKE SURE SUN DON'T SHINE

When the Liberty opened the season by dropping their first two games at home, coach Pat Coyle defiantly said that no WNBA team was going to run away and hide...

FORGET THE PAST - BOONE WON'T DWELL ON HR, INJURY

Aaron Boone has no regrets. "None," he said, sitting in the visiting dugout yesterday afternoon, back at Yankee Stadium for the first time since he was a member of the...

A-ROD HAS HIS OWN HR DERBY

Alex Rodriguez will not participate in the Home Run Derby at next week's All-Star Game in Detroit. Instead, he's been holding his own home run derby throughout the season and...

A-ROD PUTS ON HIS OWN HR SHOW

Alex Rodriguez will not participate in the Home Run Derby at next week's All-Star Game in Detroit. Instead, the Yankees slugger has been holding his own derby throughout the season...

JOLTIN' JASON ON POWER TRIP - RED-HOT GIAMBI CONTINUES SURGE

Yankees 7 - Indians 2 It initially looked as if Cleveland right fielder Casey Blake had robbed Jason Giambi of a homer in the second inning last night at the...

MOOSE, UNIT MUST BE BIG

JOE TORRE, announcing he was not "at liberty" to announce tomorrow's pitcher, pleaded the fifth about a guy, Darrell May, unlikely to last the fifth. Melky Cabrera, the new center...

JOLTIN' JASON - RED-HOT GIAMBI CONTINUES SURGE

Yankees 7 - Indians 2 It initially looked as if Cleveland right fielder Casey Blake had robbed Jason Giambi of a homer in the second inning last night. But the...

FISHING LOOKS LIKE 'SHORE' THING

FISHING offshore this past week saw some exciting moments with the shark action reaching a peak and bluefin tuna coming within a few miles of South Shore beaches. Inshore fishing...

'CONTENDER' ZIPS PAST WINNER

Tragic result in yesterday's roughly run fourth race. In full field of 2-year-old maidens going 5 ½ furlongs, first-time starter Chief Two Crowns, Smoke Glacken colt ridden by Jerry Bailey...

FENWAY FEVER! - YANKS INVADE BOSTON WITH EYES ON OCTOBER

The Yankees and Red Sox have started imperfectly this season, which could lead to the perfect ending. The chant of 1918 has faded, but 1978 might be making a comeback....

RENEW-AL AT SHEA? - LEITER COULD LAND IN MET BOOTH, IF ...

One of the more intriguing possibilities for the new Mets Network next year could be the return of Al Leiter to the organization. Since Marlin manager Jack McKeon has removed...

5 QUESTIONS FOR TOM SEAVER

This week, NYP TV Sports' Andrew Marchand spoke with Hall of Famer Tom Seaver. Seaver, 60, is a Met TV analyst for WPIX-11. Q: What is the top moment of...

MARCHAND'S MEMO OF THE WEEK

To: WFAN executives From: Andrew Marchand Re: Adam Schein CC: Sid Rosenberg Dear WFAN executives: When fill-in host Adam Schein first started on WFAN, his exaggerated delivery felt like nineinch...