World Series Dreams Gone

The fans believed and they cheered. They stood faithfully in the rain and prayed for the Mets to defeat the Cardinals and move on to the World Series, but that wasn't enough as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Mets 3-1. St. Louis will now face the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

MATTER OF TIME

ELISABETH Hasselbeck just can't get a break. Not only is she continually butting heads on "The View" with Rosie O'Donnell, but there's now a contest to guess when she'll leave the show. "We've all had experiences that have turned disastrous," says Rick Ellis of allyourtv.com. "You're working away, enjoying your life . . . Then, suddenly, you get a new co-worker and it all turns into a relentlessly painful horror . . . While O'Donnell might be doing wonders for the ratings, she's not doing much for young Hasselbeck's blood pressure." Ellis' Web site is offering prizes to whoever guesses the closest date to when Hasselbeck quits.

MADGE CROSS-CUTTING AT NBC

TO the relief of beleaguered NBC, Madonna has agreed to cut the controversial crucifixion scene from her upcoming network concert special.

The Material Girl - who's been getting crucified by the press over her fast-track adoption of an urchin from Africa - agreed to drop a scene from her special in which she sings "Live to Tell" while hanging from a huge, mirrored "disco cross" and wearing a crown of thorns.

NBC officials said yesterday that the scene, shot during the London stop of Madonna's summer "Confessions" tour, had been "revised," The Post's Don Kaplan reports.

Religious groups and family-value organizations that were upset enough by the mock crucifixion during Madonna's tour were enraged that it would be included in the Nov. 22 show on NBC.

Apple Patent For Recording Satellite Radio/WiFi

Apple has filed for a patent to capture AM/FM/XM Satellite Radio and WiFi broadcasts onto an iPod, identify the song artist/title, and give to option to buy it. This is the best indication yet that a Satellite Radio/iPod will happen.

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Internet Explorer 7: Less then 24 hours passed an a vulnerability is found

Less than 24 hours have passed and there is already a vulnerability in the Internet Explorer code base.

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Apple's share of U.S. PC market jumps to 6.1 percent

U.S. sales of Apple's Macintosh computers over the past twelve month's have grown faster than any other major PC manufacturer, boosting the company's share of the U.S. PC market to 6.1 percent, according to data released by Gartner on Wednesday.

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Core 2 Duo MacBook and MacBook Pro due this November?

Good news for all of you's eyeing those jazzy laptop numbers of Apple's, but still waiting for them to get out of the cro-mag era and entertain some Core 2 Duo processors.

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CONFIRMED: Touchscreen iPod To Come This December

Title says it all.....

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ODD........From Chinese jail to Miss Tibet? A girl's dream

walks during the 'swimwear round' of Miss Tibet open to the public for the first time this year in Dharamsala, in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, October 13, 2006. Three years ago, at the tender age of 17, Lhanzey sat in solitary confinement in a pitch dark, filthy and horribly cramped Chinese prison cell in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. This weekend, the nervous 20-year-old is dreaming about being crowned Miss Tibet in a small but controversial beauty pageant held by Tibetan refugees in northern India. Photo taken October 13, 2006.

Woman brings pistol to N.Y. court

A South Korean immigrant who arrived at federal court on Wednesday to become a U.S. citizen took her right to bear arms a little too seriously, authorities said.

Mal Soon Jin, 49, was arrested after an X-ray machine at the entrance of the Brooklyn courthouse revealed she was carrying an unloaded .22-caliber pistol in her handbag, authorities said.

The arrest forced her to miss a swearing-in ceremony in favor of an arraignment in the same court on a charge of knowingly possessing a firearm in a federal facility. She was released on $100,000 bond.

Her brother-in-law Francis Jin said the family was mystified by the incident.

The defendant, who has been in the country 20 years and ran a fruit stand with her husband, "doesn't even know how to shoot a gun," he said. "She's scared about those things."

She could face up to 16 months in prison if convicted.

Thieves steal NY mayor's car

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's car was stolen on Wednesday and his assistant was punched in the face during the carjacking, police said.


Bloomberg was not in the 2001 Lexus, which was stolen while the aide was running an errand in Hackensack, New Jersey, local police said.

About 9 a.m., a woman approached the window of the car and asked Bloomberg's employee for money, Hackensack police said. When he refused, a man opened the car door and began to argue, they said.

"He punches the driver in the face. She reaches into the car and starts grabbing at the driver and at some point ... they wrestle (the driver) out of the car," a Hackensack police spokesman said.

The car was found about two hours later, abandoned by the side of a road in Fair Lawn, N.J. Police said they were still searching for the two suspects.

Eva Longoria....

spoted at Christopher Barr Photoshoot

Mets Beat Cardinals' Ace to Force Game 7

Even before Game 6, the New York Mets were briefed on travel plans to Detroit for the World Series opener. Brimming with confidence and blocking out adversity, John Maine pitched a game to remember, making sure that itinerary would not be thrown away. And now, the NL championship series comes down to a winner-take-all finale.

The rookie dominated St. Louis with the poise of a veteran, Jose Reyes sparked the offense with a leadoff home run and the Mets rocked 'n' rolled at boisterous Shea Stadium to beat the Cardinals 4-2 on Wednesday night and force the NL championship series to a Game 7.

Missing Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez?

$5.4 BIL STUY TOWN DEAL SHATTERS RECORD

October 18, 2006 -- A joint venture led by New York developer Tishman Speyer announced yesterday that it will pay a record $5.4 billion for the giant apartment complex Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village - and promised thousands of tenants that their rent-stabilized apartments are "completely protected."

Tishman and its partner, BlackRock Realty, outbid several competitors - including tenants of the complex's 11,232 apartments, who, according to other bidders, offered $4.9 billion.

Tishman Speyer senior managing director Rob Speyer said the partners would keep the property as rental apartments.

"There is good business in residential," Speyer told The Post. "The opportunity to buy 11,000 units in Manhattan is what you live for."

The sale, expected to close before the end of the year, will be the biggest ever for a single piece of American real estate. Current owner MetLife expects to book a $3 billion profit.

'SOPRANO' EX ADMITS DWI RAP

October 18, 2006 -- The ex-girlfriend of cop-slay-suspect "Sopranos" actor Lillo Brancato pleaded guilty yesterday to DWI, and will have to attend alcohol-abuse counseling sessions and pay a $500 fine.

Stefanie Armento, 21, pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated, an unclassified misdemeanor under the vehicle and traffic law that will leave her with no criminal record.

She was busted in March for allegedly engaging in a wild drunken car chase with cops on and off the Sheridan Expressway in The Bronx. Her blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit of .08, authorities said.

"Are you pleading guilty voluntarily?" Judge Troy Webber asked Armento at Bronx Supreme Court.

"Yes," said Armento, who sported a tight black suit and long flowing hair.

Earlier, she winked at her grandmother in the gallery as the deal was being struck at the bench.

Brancato, who co-starred in the movie "A Bronx Tale" and a season of HBO's "The Sopranos," and Armento's father, Steven Armento, are charged with killing a cop in a botched Bronx burglary in December. They've pleaded not guilty and their case is still pending.

CRACKER CASE

THE Rev. Al Sharpton has a new cause. His camp plans to fund a lawsuit on behalf of comic Chris Rock's mother, Rose Rock, against the Southern food chain Cracker Barrel. Mama Rock claims she and her daughter were denied service at the country-style eatery near Myrtle Beach, S.C. Though a spokesperson for Cracker Barrel tells us, "We do not tolerate any form of discrimination," maybe they should have responded to Sharpton sooner. The suit will be announced today during a demonstration outside the eatery.

STORES HOT OVER ICE-T COVER

October 18, 2006 -- ICE-T and his stripper-wife, Coco, have caused a problem by posing nude in a steamy clinch on the cover of the rap legend's new album - and now stores across the country are demanding it be censored before they stock it.

"Gangsta Rap," Ice-T's first studio album in seven years, shows him lying on his back in bed with his ravishing wife's ample posterior in full view and one of her legs coyly draped over his private parts.

But while the cover just barely steers clear of being pornographic, it's way too suggestive for most retailers, according to Melee Recordings, which is releasing the record on Halloween. "We're getting lots of flak about it. What we're going to have to do is place stickers over parts of the photo to avoid any problems," one rep said.

Not that Ice-T, who stars on "Law & Order" and has appeared in "New Jack City" and "Frankenpenis," is concerned about the uproar. He told Page Six last night, "What can I say, I have been doing these kinds of things for years." Then, in a swaggering boast about his legendary sexual prowess, Ice-T added, "You should see the picture when Coco's leg is not there."

Mets Fall to Cardinals in Game 5 of NLCS

A big swing by Albert Pujols and another playoff gem from a rejuvenated Jeff Weaver put the St. Louis Cardinals on the cusp of the World Series.

Pujols' homer helped the Cardinals get to Tom Glavine at last, and Weaver shut down the New York Mets for a 4-2 victory Tuesday night and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven NL championship series.

Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter can close it out Wednesday night in Game 6 at Shea Stadium, which would give St. Louis its second pennant in three years and a date with the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

Rookie right-hander John Maine is on the mound for the Mets, who hope to force a Game 7 at home.

Pujols' homer put St. Louis on the scoreboard and snapped Glavine's 22-inning scoreless streak that dated to his final regular-season start at Washington. Playing on a sore right hamstring, Pujols also went to his knees at first base for Shawn Green's one-hopper in the sixth.

The 40-year-old Glavine threw four-hit ball for seven sharp innings in Game 1, beating Weaver 2-0 on Carlos Beltran's two-run homer. But Weaver got the best of this matchup.

Cast off by the Los Angeles Angels this summer to make roster room for little brother Jered, the St. Louis starter kept Beltran and Carlos Delgado in check, yielding only two runs and six hits in six strong innings.

The Mets put runners at second and third with one out in the eighth, but Randy Flores retired Green on a shallow fly and rookie Adam Wainwright struck out Jose Valentin looking to preserve a two-run lead. Wainwright finished for his second save of the postseason.

Movie Mistakes [PHOTOS]

Some of the best movie blunders in existence. Pretty funny! Check it out....

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Ashley Judd....Excusive !!!

Promoting the American Beauty SkinCare

Jessica hanging out yesterday in Beverly Hills....

EXCUSIVE !!!

Intel to Launch Quad-Core Chips on November 13

In a race with rival Advanced Micro Devices, Intel will bring its quad-core chips to market in a new line of Hewlett-Packard workstations due to be introduced on November 13.

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Apple to release two iPhone models, one with WiFi

Apple Computer plans to introduce two iPod-based cell phone models in the first quarter of 2007. One model will be a smart phone, including integrated keyboard, video and music capability, while the other model will be a slimmer phone with just music functionality.

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Carmen Electra

"this water isn't freezing face," Carmen Electra dazzles on a NEW YORK beach.

Ashley Judd signed autographs for fans in Jersey City.

Tonylimo Celebrity Chauffeur " Daily New York" News: FORMER PLAYMATE TELLS ALL.....

Tonylimo Celebrity Chauffeur " Daily New York" News: FORMER PLAYMATE TELLS ALL.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Denham

LEONARDO DiCa prio

LEONARDO DiCa prio - the environ mental avenger - has no problems preaching about the evils of gas-guzzling cars, but, like his green pal Laurie David, he just can't give up the fossil fuel- chugging pri vate planes. On Thursday, DiCaprio, his mom, his grandmother and girlfriend Bar Rafaeli flew on a private jet from Paris to Rome for a little vacation before the Rome pre miere of "The Departed." The group is keeping a low profile and is trying to go back to Paris for more fun after the premiere. "He asked Warner Bros. to put him up in the Bristol Hotel a little longer, and they said, 'Only if he would do more press,' " said our spy. No word on whether DiCaprio agreed. But nice to see he's pinching pen nies. A rep for DiCa prio was unaware of his itinerary.

FORMER PLAYMATE TELLS ALL.....

October 16, 2006 -- MANY of the horny actors and literary geniuses of 1950s and '60s Greenwich Village were hot and heavy with former Playboy Playmate Alice Denham, who's dishing the sexual dirt on James Dean, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth and others in a new memoir.
MANY of the horny actors and literary geniuses of 1950s and '60s Greenwich Village were hot and heavy with former Playboy Playmate Alice Denham, who's dishing the sexual dirt on James Dean, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth and others in a new memoir.

In "Sleeping With Bad Boys," Denham writes that Dean was a "tender and considerate lover" who instantly fixated on her size 36-DD breasts: "You're so huge for a small girl," he said. "Jimmy was a t - - man, and he loved to nuzzle . . . He was skilled." But the young star also had an Oedipus complex, once asking her, "Are you my mother? You are, I think. You look like her."

Denham also recalls that Mailer, one of her literary heroes, turned out to be a bit weird. At one party, Mailer and his second wife, Adele, stripped and began jumping up and down on a bed, with Adele trying to coax Denham to get naked, too. "Norman was just square, no particular waist or pectoral definition, sturdy legs, large at the knees," and an "ordinary" sex organ.When Hugh Hefner selected Denham as a Playmate, he brought her into his bedroom and, to set the mood, turned on a cheesy stag film called "Switcheroo," featuring a psychedelic orgy that was "about as sexy as a carwash." And while she admits that Hef "had staying power [and was] a good ride . . . I was left with no particular feeling, no personal feeling of connection or uniting."

Denham, who still lives in the Village, will read from her book Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Cornelia Street Café.

Movin' On Up

ROBERT De Niro has not only closed on the purchase of Harvey Weinstein's ex-wife's apartment on Central Park West, but has also gotten a fancy, gas-guzzling car to park in front of the plush new digs. The Post's Braden Keil reports that De Niro's wife, Grace Hightower, gave him a new $328,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom right after he handed over a $21 million check for the 15-room duplex, which originally had a $25 million price tag. No doubt he'll use the savings on the apartment to keep his tank filled. Neither De Niro nor his broker, G. Laurie Cooper, could be reached for comment.

Subway Turnstile Could Detect Explosives

A company that designs bomb-sniffing scanners used by the MTA is creating a prototype subway turnstile that would spot passengers carrying explosives.

Mark Elliott, a vice president of Smith Detection, says the turnstiles could block a bomb-toting passenger from entering the system.

The company is working with partner Red-X-Defense. They hope to demonstrate the prototype to the MTA next year.

MTA spokesman Tom Kelly says the agency will consider the turnstile and other technologies meant to detect bombs.

Javits Center $1.7B Expansion Project Underway

A crowd of New York leaders swung sledge hammers at a graffiti-covered wall on Monday to ceremonially begin demolition that will make way for a new convention center on Manhattan's West Side by 2010.

The project will eventually expand the Jacob K. Javits Center, which was built 20 years ago and covers five blocks from 34th to 39th streets near the Hudson River.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki have repeatedly said the current facility is woefully inadequate and causes New York to lose when competing with other cities for conventions, and the millions of dollars in revenue that they bring.

Bloomberg noted that today's Javits Center could fit twice into Chicago's McCormick Place, a sprawling convention center on the city's Lake Shore Drive.

``We've essentially had one hand tied behind our back,'' Bloomberg said. ``These new and expanded facilities will put New York City back in the running in the intense, nonstop competition to host major conventions.''

The $1.7 billion Javits expansion will increase exhibition and meeting space from 790,000 square feet to more than 1.3 million square feet. The plan also calls for a new hotel and loading facility.

PRISON TIME

Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to two years and four months months in prison on a terrorism charge Monday for helping an Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside. The 67-year old, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, smiled, cried and hugged supporters after the Judge announced he was dramatically reducing the 30-year prison term.

Ordonez Powers Tigers Into World Series

All those people who kept doubting the Detroit Tigers, take a week off and think again. Jim Leyland, Magglio Ordonez and the rest of the Tigers will be spending that time getting ready for the World Series.

Written off by the entire baseball world only three years ago, the Tigers made it official Saturday. They're back, and on the prowl.

Ordonez hit his second homer of the game, connecting for a three-run shot with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning that lifted Leyland's team over the Oakland Athletics 6-3 for a startling four-game sweep of the AL championship series.

"I think early on in spring training we had a lot of good players. We didn't have a good team," Leyland said. "And today I can make the statement that we've got a good team, and that's the thing that I'm proudest of."



With the crowd of 42,967 at Comerica Park in delirium, joined by fans watching from distant downtown buildings and all over Michigan, the Tigers rejoiced after their seventh straight postseason win.

The wild-card Tigers now get to rest up for Game 1, at home next Saturday night against either the New York Mets or St. Louis Cardinals. It will be their first Series appearance since winning it all exactly 22 years ago Saturday on Oct. 14, 1984.

In those days, Sparky Anderson, Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris were among the big names at Tiger Stadium, making history at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.

Starting next week, these Tigers get a chance to make their mark at the address of baseball's most surprising story - Woodward and Montcalm.

Mega Millions Jackpot Swells to $55 Million

The jackpot in the multistate Mega Millions lottery drawing grew to $55 million Saturday.

None of the tickets sold for Friday's $45 million drawing matched all five lotto numbers and the Mega Ball. The next drawing will be Tuesday.

There were five second-prize winners from Friday night's drawing, matching all five lotto numbers but not the Mega Ball number to win $250,000 each. Also, 28 tickets matched four of the five lotto numbers, plus the Mega Ball number. Those tickets are each worth $10,000.



winning numbers from Friday's drawing were 24, 27, 42, 47 and 50. The Mega Ball number was 8.

Police: Brooklyn Mom Kidnapped Own Daughter

Police are looking for a Brooklyn woman who allegedly kidnapped her own daughter.

Authorities say 22-year old Tiana James does not have legal custody of 4-year old Nevaeh James.

The girl's mother allegedly assaulted the girl's court-ordered guardian Friday night, grabbed the child and fled.

It happened at the Loring Avenue home in East New York where Nevaeh was living.

Police say the little girl was last seen wearing green and white Mickey Mouse pajamas.

Tiana James was last seen wearing a green army fatigue jacket, dark bandana and dark sweatpants.

Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to call police at 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls are confidential.

Brooklyn Woman Killed Crossing Street

Police say an 80-year-old woman died Saturday after she was hit by a car while crossing the street at Brighton Beach Avenue.

Maya Shegelman, of Brooklyn, died at the scene.

Police say the driver of the Toyota was issued a summons for failing to yield to a pedestrian.

Mets Shut out in St. Louis, Trail NLCS 2-1

First, Steve Trachsel was awful. Then, he got hurt.

Now it's up to Oliver Perez, yes, Oliver Perez, to keep the New York Mets in the NL championship series.

Trachsel lasted just three outs and 43 mostly mediocre pitches in the Mets' 5-0 loss Saturday night, which gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven-series. New York's batters were just as brutal, getting only three hits and extending their scoreless streak to 12 innings.

45% of computers bought at Princeton this year were Macs

Dude, you're getting a Dell! Well ... maybe not any more. According to the Office of Information Technology (OIT) at Princeton, 45 percent of computers purchased this year were Macs, more than in any previous year.

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ODD NEWS :Death-row prisoner gets pregnant in solitary

HANOI (Reuters) - A death-row inmate held in solitary confinement in Vietnam for almost a year is pregnant and is seeking a pardon to give birth, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted a police doctor as saying tests in September confirmed that convicted heroin trafficker Nguyen Thi Oanh, 39, was then 11 weeks pregnant.

The report said it was the first time that a death-row prisoner had become pregnant in Vietnam and that police were investigating how it had happened.

Oanh's husband was serving a jail sentence at another prison in another province, the newspaper said.

Oanh was due to face a firing squad this year after losing her appeal against the death sentence she received last year for possession of a billion dong ($63,000) worth of heroin.

Trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin in Vietnam is punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Woman "kidnaps" son four times for ransom

A Spanish woman staged fake kidnappings of her son four times and got his father to pay her more than a million euros ($1.26 million) in ransom money, newspaper El Mundo reported Friday.

Police in the southern Spanish city of Seville arrested the woman and five accomplices, including the 15-year-old son who cooperated in the deception by calling his father on the telephone and begging him to pay up.

The father paid ransoms after the first three fake abductions without realizing the involvement of his son's mother, from whom he had separated. He became suspicious the fourth time and hired a private detective, El Mundo reported.

Teen faces litter charge for bra antenna

A teenager who put her bra on a car antenna before it flew off and led to a highway accident will be charged with littering, a prosecutor said. Emily Davis, 17, of Bowling Green, told investigators she took her bra off while her friend was driving on Interstate 75.

James Campbell, who was driving behind the girls, said he swerved to avoid the bra and his car flipped several times. Campbell, 37, broke a vertebra in his neck during the Sept. 26 accident. His passenger, Jeff Long, 40, broke several ribs.

A State Highway Patrol crash report, obtained by The Blade, said that the girls told investigators that before the accident the men were motioning to them to lift up their shirts. Both men denied making the gestures.

Davis will be charged next week with misdemeanor littering, said Tim Atkins, a juvenile prosecutor in Wood County. Atkins said he'll meet with troopers before filing the charge.

The girl's friend, Tabitha Adams, 17, of Bowling Green, said she told Davis not to hang her bra outside because she knew it would fly away, according to the report.

Atkins said no other charges were expected.

METS-Delgado blasts pair, but loss is one tough blow

Different night. Different Carlos. Same baseball leaving the park.

This time, Carlos Delgado had the big game, but the Mets came up on the losing end. The Mets first baseman crushed two home runs a night after Carlos Beltran helped win the NLCS opener with a two-run shot.

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Lidle's Insurance Benefits in Question

Cory Lidle's beneficiaries could lose out on a $1.5 million benefit from baseball's benefit plan if it's determined he was piloting his plane when it crashed into a Manhattan high-rise.

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A-Rod's Private Jet Overruns Runway

A private jet, carrying New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and six others, overran a runway at Bob Hope Airport on Friday and was brought to a halt by an arresting system.

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Dell busts out 20" WIDESCREEN LCD for ONLY $289 and its beautiful (w/ pics)

Great monitor for great price. Even bests the 2007WFP with a 5ms response time, compared to the latter's 16ms, but the best news comes in the form of the spankin' $289 pricetag, which compares quite favorably to the 2007WFP's $529 MSRP, or even its $400-ish Froogle price.

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7 Predictions about Macworld 2007

There are some things we can predict based on what we know now about Apple. With that in mind, here are 7 predictions about what you can expect to see at Macworld 2007.

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New Red Logo for Apple's 5th Avenue Store

Apple's cube store has changed its traditional white Apple logo for a red one. Perhaps this is in anticipation of the oft-rumored Red iPod.

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Apple may have an early OS X Leopard Launch at Macworld Expo to beat Vista

EXCLUSIVE: New information coming to LoopRumors suggests that Apple is gearing up to launch and release Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard, at MacWorld San Francisco. Steve Jobs will keynote the event and is apparently trying to beat Microsoft to the punch by delivering Leopard to the public sooner than planned.

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iPod Red Nano Site

Looks like all the rumors were true: here's the red nano. Apple will donate $10 for every one purchased to help fight AIDS

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Yonkers Raceway Settles Bronx River Pollution Probe

Yonkers Raceway will pay $9 million in penalties and costs to settle an investigation into the dumping of raw sewage into the Bronx River, state officials said Thursday.

Under the agreement announced by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the Department of Environmental Conservation, the harness track will pay a $2 million fine, stop all discharges of human waste into the river and pay $6 million for projects to reduce pollution from storm runoff. Another $1 million will go to a local environmental education center.

An investigation found the raceway has for years flushed human waste from several buildings into a storm sewer that feeds into the river instead of the city's municipal sanitary sewer. Investigators also found that horse manure was routinely flushed into storm sewers when workers cleaned stalls.

Testing done where the storm sewers empty into the river showed E-coli levels reaching from 110,000 to 500,000 bacteria per 100 milliliters of water. The normal range is 100 to 1,000, Spitzer spokesman Marc Violette said.

The agreement is part of recent efforts by the attorney general's office to stop pollution into the Bronx River.

Previous settlements have been reached with the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Gardens. In 2004, Spitzer's office obtained a court order requiring the city of Yonkers to stop polluting the river with sewage.

The raceway reopened with much fanfare Wednesday following a 15-month, $240 million renovation that features 1,800 video lottery terminals.

Man Flying with Lidle Identified

Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle said flying relieved the stress of his pro baseball life. But for his instructor, Tyler Stanger, flying was life itself and had been since he was a boy.

Both were on an aerial tour of New York City when Lidle's plane, which took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, slammed into a Manhattan high-rise Wednesday. It was not clear who was at the controls. Lidle had been licensed for less than a year while Stanger, 26, had been flying since he was a teen.

He trained Lidle at his tiny, two-plane flight school at Brackett Field in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. He was a common and popular visitor to the airport's coffee shop, Norm's Hangar, where he often took students for debriefing.

"He was such a sweet guy, a genuinely down-to-earth person,'' owner Kathy Touche said Thursday, wiping away a tear. "He seemed kind of shy to me at first. He was more quiet until you got to know him, and then he opened up.''

Dave Conriguez, the cook and a baseball fan, showed a laminated check with Lidle's autograph that he got when Stanger brought the ballplayer to the shop.

He last spoke to Stanger on Sunday. The instructor told him he was heading to New York, Conriguez said.

"They were going to fly back together. It was right after the loss to Detroit,'' he said. "Tyler's such a great flight instructor that I never gave it a second thought. It was just, 'See you in a week.'''

He had told Stanger "as soon as Cory gets back, I'm going to have my picture taken with him in a Yankee hat,'' Conriguez said.

Stanger earned his pilot's license by 17 and earned a degree in aviation management from Southern Illinois University, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. In addition to his flight school, he worked for several years as an aircraft mechanic at Howard Aviation, also located at the airport about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.

NTSB Investigators Look for Answers

Investigators returned to a luxury Manhattan high-rise Thursday as they sought to answer questions about how a small airplane with New York Yankee Cory Lidle aboard slammed into the building, killing the pitcher and a flight instructor.

A partial sense of normalcy returned to the neighborhood as residents were allowed past checkpoints and into their scorched and battered building. The bodies had been removed, but pieces of fuselage, a plane door and crushed vehicles still littered the street in the frozen zone.

National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman said federal investigators arrived Wednesday evening and quickly found a crash scene with debris scattered everywhere. Aircraft parts and headsets were on the ground, and investigators discovered the pilot's log book in the wreckage. The propeller broke apart from the engine, which landed on the floor of an apartment. The bodies fell to the ground.

"We're continuing to review tapes,'' Hersman said Thursday. "We'll be looking to talk to other pilots who might have been in the vicinity. We have very exhaustive, comprehensive investigations. We're going to try to find anything we can to find out what happened.''

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly identified the instructor on Thursday as Tyler Stanger. He operated a flight school at Brackett field in La Verne, Calif., and lived with his wife and young child in Walnut, Calif.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary restriction requiring all general aviation aircraft flying below
1,500 feet near the city to be authorized by air traffic control.

Four Killed in NYC Plane Crash

A single-engine plane crashed into an Upper East Side high-rise Wednesday, killing two people, raining debris on the sidewalks below and rattling New Yorkers' nerves exactly one month after the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

The two deaths were confirmed by Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office. There was no word yet on injuries linked to the crash on an overcast October afternoon, which sent thick black smoke soaring above the city skyline and flames shooting out of apartments above the tony neighborhood.

Fire officials tell 1010 WINS that two bodies were found on the street after the crash.

A law enforcement official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was on the plane. And Federal Aviation Administration records showed the plane was registered to the athlete.

On Sunday, the day after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, Lidle cleaned out his locker at Yankee Stadium and talked about his interest in flying. He explained to reporters the process of getting a pilot's license, and said he intended to fly back to California in several days and planned to make a few stops.

Large crowds gathered at the crash scene, with many people in tears and others trying to reach loved ones by cell phone. Rain started pouring at the scene at around 4 p.m., and people gazed up at the smoke and fire as they covered their heads with plastic bags. Mayor Michael Bloomberg went to the site, where parts of the plane fell to the ground.

"I just saw something come across the sky and crash into that building,'' said Young May Cha, 23, a Cornell University medical student who was walking along 72nd Street. "There was fire, debris... The explosion was very small.''

Christine Monaco, a New York spokeswoman for the FBI, said there was no indication of terrorism.

Cha said it appeared the plane was "flying erractically'' before it slammed into The Belaire Condo, where apartments sell for more than $1 million. Residents of the condo and the building next door were evacuated as thick black smoke wafted above the city skyline, and flames shot from the apartments where the plane crashed.

"I was worried the building would explode, so I got out of there fast,'' said Lori Claymont, who fled the adjoining building in sweat pants.

The aircraft struck the 40th floor of the building on East 72nd Street, igniting a five-alarm fire in the building.

The small private aircraft, with four seats, took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport around 2:30 p.m. A federal aviation official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, said the plane was a Cirrus SR20 -- an aircraft equipped with a parachute designed to let it float to earth in case of a mishap.

The plane had flown around the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, then headed up the East River corridor before it slammed in the building, authorities said.

"It's a mob scene with police and helicopters circling,'' said Sandy Teller, watching from his apartment a block away. "There's a dozen ambulances and lots of firefighters waiting on 72nd, on the corner. There's lots of stretchers ready, gurneys.''

Fighter planes were scrambled over an several cities across the country in the aftermath of the crash, despite the quick assurances that it was nothing more than an accident. ``We see this as a prudent measure at this time,'' said Sgt. Claudette Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo.

AROUND THE HORN: More N.Y. players defending Torre

NEW YORK -- While owner George Steinbrenner decides whether to keep Joe Torre, Yankees players are supporting their manager.

Steinbrenner left New York and returned to Tampa on Monday, spokesman Howard Rubenstein told the Associated Press. Rubenstein said he was not able to speak with Steinbrenner to relay questions.

It was unclear whether Steinbrenner and Torre have spoken since the Yankees were eliminated Saturday by the Tigers in the American League Division Series, but the pair apparently did not meet before the Boss left town.

"I have not made up my mind yet," Steinbrenner told a reporter from Bloomberg News while leaving New York's Regency Hotel under police escort en route to Florida. He refused to answer further questions.

Since talking over after the 1995 season, Torre has managed the Yankees to nine consecutive AL East titles and 11 straight playoff appearances.

"He gave us every opportunity," left-hander Ron Villone said Monday, when a few more players came to Yankee Stadium to clean out their lockers. "He put us on the field at the right times. I mean we came through in a lot of different ways. We had some injuries.

"He put the right lineups out there for us to jell and do the right things to win enough games to make it to the playoffs. You can't point the finger at him. Point it at us."

There was no sign of Torre at Yankee Stadium on Monday, and the team's media-relations staff was unsure when he would give his annual summation.

IT'S 'PEDI'-MONIUM OUT THERE

">LAWLESS BIKE-CABS SPARKING STRIFE IN THE STREETS
But the city expects to bring some order to the industry by the new year.

As things stand now:

* Anyone can buy a pedicab for $5,000 or rent one for $200 a week and go into business.

* The operator does not need a driver's license. There isn't even an age limit.

* They can charge anything the traffic will bear.

* Pedal pushers do not need any insurance - and a luckless passenger involved in a crash could be left out in the cold.

Two bills to rein in the drivers have been submitted - one by Mayor Bloomberg and one by the council. The last of three hearings will be held in December, and officials hope a new law will be on the books by early next year.

Meanwhile, independent operators and owners of pedicab fleets continue to trash each other - while licensed cabs complain pedicabs are stealing their business.

Independent pedicab drivers accuse fleet owners of importing foreign pedalers - who flout traffic rules and give pedicabs a bad name. "It's like the Wild West out there. It's completely out of control," said Jordan Kinzler, who's been pedaling for two years.

Gregg Zukowsi, of the New York City Pedicab Owners Association, agreed that there is "sort of a summer surge of drivers from all over the world."

He agreed that some regulation is needed.ont-weight:bold;

9/11 COPS AWARDED $1M FOR EXTRA DUTY

October 10, 2006 -- The NYPD has shelled out more than $1 million in back pay to about three dozen officers who were forced to work six- and seven-day weeks for nearly two years after the Sept. 11 attacks, The Post has learned.

The city's entire police force was taken off its regular schedule, or "duty chart," following the terror attacks, then quickly restored to normal duty in October 2001.

But about 35 officers assigned to the security detail at police headquarters in lower Manhattan were kept on the backbreaking "emergency" schedule until May 2003.

The city paid those officers overtime for the extra time they worked, but the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association went to arbitration seeking more. They wanted payment for off-days they received on the emergency schedule that they normally would have worked on the pre-existing duty chart.

The PBA general counsel's office scored a victory in January when arbitrator John Sands ruled in the officers' favor, rejecting the argument that the new situation represented a "de facto" chart.

"The New York City Police Department does not work on 'de facto' orders or compliance," Sands wrote in the decision.

"It is a paramilitary organization with detailed procedures and rules for imposing, changing and suspending duty charts and schedules. In this case the Department followed none of those procedures."

PBA President Pat Lynch said the scheduling disaster was a symptom of a general manpower crisis afflicting the department.

"This arbitration award makes clear that the department violated our contract to address its staffing shortages," said Lynch. "The NYPD staffing problems are a direct result of the city's refusal to pay its police officers competitive salaries."

Because the decision was issued in January and the officers did not receive their checks - about $30,000 to $50,000 each - until late summer, the union also plans to demand interest.

The NYPD declined to comment on the ruling.

HE GOT GOOGLED

WEB-VID WHIZ'S JOURNEOctober 10, 2006 -- YouGenius.

Chad Hurley, 29, the brains behind the wildly successful video-sharing Web site YouTube, became a multimillionaire yesterday when he sold his company to Google for a cool $1.65 billion.

Incredibly, his success story began after a casual dinner party with friends in San Francisco in January 2005.

Hurley had been a guest along with former co-worker Steve Chen, a 27-year-old math whiz. They had known each other since working together for the online-payment service PayPal.

The two had been taping videos at the party and wanted to send them on to other friends.

But "when we tried to share the videos and then we tried to e-mail them back to one another, they kept bouncing back," Hurley recalled in an ABC-TV interview on Aug 9.

"And so we thought, a lot of people were gonna have the same problem. And so we started working on a solution for this problem right away."

And in classic Silicon Valley tradition, the duo found a garage - under Hurley's apartment - to set up shop.

The pair got YouTube up and running within four weeks - and it was only a matter of months before it exploded on the pop-culture scene.

For Hurley - a handsome, laid-back, blond-haired surfer dude - embarking on a new business adventure wouldn't have been out of the norm.

He'd been a promising entrepreneur since age 5, when he first peddled paintings on his parents' lawn in rural Berks County, Pa.

Hurley eventually graduated with a degree in fine arts from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an education that would later guide him in creating YouTube's now-famous logo.

Like many new college grads, Hurley found himself gravitating to the 'Net.

He wound up working for PayPal along with Chen.

In 2002, when that company was sold to eBay, Hurley began doing design-consulting work for clients, including the producers of the indie hit "Thank You for Smoking," a satire on the tobacco industry.

Meanwhile, he and Chen - himself a renegade known for sporting two gold ear hoops - had remained good friends. When they talked after the party that fateful night in 2005, it seemed only natural that they would go into business together.Y FROM GARAGE GEEK TO $1.65 BIL MAN

Mel Gibson gives 1st media interview since anti-Semitic rant

Director Mel Gibson, who made headlines around the world when he gave an anti-Semitic rant while being pulled over for drunk driving in July, has given his first media interview since the arrest.

ABC's Good Morning America announced the Australian actor sat down for an interview with Diane Sawyer in southern California. The two-part interview will appear Oct. 12 and 13th.

Actor-director Mel Gibson, seen in a police booking photo taken on July 28, 2006, will appear on Good Morning America next week for his first interview since his arrest.
Actor-director Mel Gibson, seen in a police booking photo taken on July 28, 2006, will appear on Good Morning America next week for his first interview since his arrest.
(Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department/AP)

The interview is a segment of the morning show. "It’s not going to be the entire Good Morning America," said ABC publicist Bridgette Maney.

Alan Nierob, Gibson's spokesman, would not divulge what the director said, only saying that the 50-year-old director has met with members of the Jewish community who have been "welcoming and supporting."

Gibson was stopped for speeding in the early hours of July 28. Police reports said he launched into a tirade against Jews, asking the arresting officer whether he was Jewish and making offensive comments.

The director, who starred in the Lethal Weapon movie series and won a directing Oscar for Braveheart in 1995, later apologized twice for his anti-Semitic statements.

He pleaded no contest on Aug. 17 to charges of impaired driving and agreed to serve three years' probation, pay a fine and attend alcohol rehabilitation classes.

Nierob said Gibson was on an "ongoing program of recovery."

Microsoft releases Windows Vista RC2

It expects this version to be the last before a release to manufacturingMicrosoft Corp. today released what it expects to be the final release of Windows Vista before the operating system is sent to manufacturing for distribution.
Microsoft Corp. today released what it expects to be the final release of Windows Vista before the operating system is sent to manufacturing for distribution.

Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 (RC2), which is build number 5744, is being made available to 100,000 Customer Preview Program (CPP) participants, as well as to subscribers and members of TechBeta, TechNet, TAP and MSDN.

The company said that this newest build includes bug fixes, performance improvements, better application compatibility and "fit and finish" work -- tweaks to the look and feel of the operating system.

Microsoft also said that it is on target for making Windows Vista available to volume licensing customers in November and to consumers in January 2007. However, it added that "the final delivery will be based on quality" -- in other words, if it finds serious issues with the operating system, it would delay its planned launch. The company does not expect that to happen, however.

The company will continue to support RC1 through the official Windows Vista launch, and adds that RC1 can be used as the basis for logo certification.

Piniella looms over Joe

The same night Lou Piniella was hoisting the trophy that he and his Cincinnati Reds won in the 1990 World Series, George Steinbrenner was on "Saturday Night Live" pulling his pants down for a skit.

In his office that night, Piniella was asked if he wanted to say anything to Steinbrenner, the man who had given him his first managerial job and taken it away, too.

Yes, Piniella said. "George," he said, "I can manage."

Now, with the Yankees reeling after being eliminated yesterday by the upstart Tigers in the division series, it's conceivable that Piniella will get the chance to show Steinbrenner how he'd manage The Boss' beloved, $200 million team. A second straight first-round failure has jeopardized Joe Torre's job and Piniella is a likely replacement.

Steinbrenner has privately said for years that the biggest mistake he ever made was letting Piniella go. He's waited nearly 20 years, during which time Piniella managed the Reds, Mariners and Devil Rays, for the chance to bring him back.

Piniella, a Yankee outfielder from 1974-84, said in an interview with The Associated Press in April that he and Steinbrenner are "good friends." Both live in Tampa, the Yanks' spring home. Piniella was born in Tampa, Steinbrenner's adopted hometown.

Piniella, who at 63 is three years younger than Torre, was hired as Yanks' manager for the 1986 season in place of Billy Martin. Steinbrenner said Piniella was "my kind of player. I think he'll be my kind of manager."

Piniella led the Yanks to a 90-72 record and a second-place finish the first season and was 89-73 and in fourth place in 1987. He was fired after the '87 season and made the GM, but he was back on the bench in mid-1988, replacing Martin for the final 93 games. He wasn't invited back the next year.

No more excuses for Torre

This is just as bad for the Yankees, losing these last three to the Tigers this way, not even competing in the last two, as losing four in a row to the Red Sox two years ago. These Yankees have now become the biggest postseason flops in the history of the team, maybe any team. This year George Steinbrenner went for a payroll of $213 million and gave Brian Cashman and Joe Torre the run of the place. Here is what that kind of money and that kind of restraint bought Steinbrenner: the most expensive glass jaw of all time, a team that gets knocked out cold in the first round again.

It is why the owner, 76 years old now, desperate to win at least one more World Series, has a perfect right to try it with some new people next season, starting with a new manager. They can't only be Torre's Yankees when they win.

This is now three times in five years, with a payroll three times the size of most playoff teams, that Joe Torre can't make it to the second round. Tell me another manager, no matter how well-respected, no matter how classy, who survives that? Steinbrenner can go hire Lou Piniella tomorrow if he wants to.

And George Steinbrenner ought to do everything he can to try and move Alex Rodriguez, who came here three seasons ago for easy World Series rings and hasn't even played a World Series. He was 2-for-15 against the Angels last season. He was 1-for-14 against the Tigers this time. If somebody will take him and give the Yankees young arms like the Tigers have in return, he goes. You know why Torre batted him eighth yesterday? Because he wasn't allowed to bat him 10th.

When Brian Cashman, the Yankee general manager, was asked yesterday if Torre and A-Rod will be back, outside a Yankee clubhouse as quiet as Yankee Stadium will be today and all through the baseball winter, quiet as an empty locker, he said, "Why wouldn't they?"

Cashman has a lot of power now. He won't make the call on who will manage the Yankees next season. The owner will. If the owner has seen enough since the Yankees beat the Mets to win the 2000 Series, no one can fault him. It has been a long time, more than a decade, since he fired a manager. If he isn't allowed to do it now, then when?

Oh, you bet he has the right to make a change. He has paid through the nose for that right. Torre has been the best and classiest manager the Yankees have ever had. He has four World Series rings and is going to the Hall of Fame. He has also had more money spent on him, been given more Hall of Fame players and All-Stars, than any manager ever. When he does make it out of the first round now, his team loses four straight to the Red Sox after leading 3-0. Three years ago, his Yankees couldn't beat the Marlins, a team with a payroll of $50 million - tipping money at Yankee Stadium - in the World Series.

For a long time, Torre has been given everything and produced nothing in October, where Yankee managers are measured the same as players like A-Rod are.

"I think I'm part of the solution here," Rodriguez said in the visitors' clubhouse as Randy Johnson walked past him, pulling his carry-on bag. Two years now for Johnson with the Yankees. No postseason victories. They paid $57 million to get Johnson. They picked up A-Rod's contract even if they didn't have to pick up all of it. How has that worked out for everybody so far?

A-Rod thinks he's part of the solution? He's the only one in town right now. A Met town.

It was not just A-Rod. It was all of the Steinbrenner's All-Stars, the Greatest (Regular Season) Show on Earth. Mike Mussina, who thinks he merits another huge contract, could not hold the 3-1 lead in Game 2 the way he could not hold a big lead against the Angels four years ago, in another first-round collapse. From there, the Yankees were outscored 17-1 by the Detroit Tigers before Jorge Posada, who is a truly great Yankee still, hit a meaningless 2-run homer with two out in the 9th yesterday.

Joe, Yanks over & out

Loss in Motown leaves playoffJoe Torre chewed his gum. It was all he could do, really, as he sat in the Yankee dugout here last night. Chew his gum while watching the season - and perhaps his tenure as Yankee manager - come crashing down around him.

Suddenly, the future of the Bombers is gloomy, and a virtual demolition of the franchise may not be far off. Torre's 11-year run as Yankee manager could end within days. Alex Rodriguez figures to be shopped on the trade market. An overhaul of the pitching staff is needed, and if the last few days are any indication, so is an infusion of energy.

The end came at 7:24 p.m., 187 days after it began with so much promise in Oakland. Robinson Cano grounded out to complete an 8-3 loss to the Tigers, knocking the Bombers out in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year and sending them into a winter during which the wrath of George Steinbrenner almost certainly will be felt.

As Detroit reliever Jamie Walker was enveloped on the mound by his teammates, A-Rod stood in the on-deck circle, bat held limply at his side while the histrionics unfolded around him.

"Plain and simple they dominated us," he said. "They absolutely kicked our ass."

That point couldn't be argued. The Yankees won the first game of this division series and were seen by many to be rolling toward a World Series. However, it all unraveled in the next three days, as if their dominance had been washed away by Wednesday's rainout. They did not score from the fourth inning Thursday until the seventh last night, a span of 20 innings that led to three straight losses and torpedoed the season.

Afterward, Torre choked up on the interview room podium before composing himself. Like others, he seemed stunned. Critics wondered why he did not play Melky Cabrera earlier in the series or how he could use a neophyte first baseman such as Gary Sheffield in the playoffs, but the overriding fact was that the $200 million Yankees were overflowing with talent and it still wasn't even close to enough.

"I'm stunned," GM Brian Cashman said. "This team fooled me, to some degree."

That could be taken as a sign that changes are imminent, but Cashman gave no sign that Torre's situation was tenuous and the Yankee skipper did not offer any indication that he was concerned about his fate.

"What can the manager do? It is not his job to play the game for us," Mariano Rivera said. "It is the players who play."

In the Yankees' case, however, they played horribly at the worst time. Most of the hitters were abysmal (Cano was 2-for-15, Johnny Damon was 4-for-17, among others) but Rodriguez took the brunt of the criticism.

It has been that way all season, of course, and calls for Rodriguez to be traded are already swirling with ferocity. But A-Rod, who has a no-trade clause in his monstrous $252 million contract, reiterated yesterday that he has no plans to waive it.

"No, never," he said. "I don't want out. If they would want to get rid of me, I hope that's not the case . . . because I don't want to go anywhere."

However, whether A-Rod stays with the Bombers remains to be seen, considering the fact that there are many within the Yankee organization who believe Rodriguez's erratic play showed that he'd be better off somewhere else.

Torre dropped him to eighth in the lineup yesterday - the first time he hit that low since 1996 - and he was 0-for-3 to finish the four games batting .071 (1-for-14). For the second straight postseason he did not have a single RBI.

He also concluded a difficult season defensively with a critical error, muffing Magglio Ordoñez's grounder and then throwing wildly in the third inning. That led to an unearned run and put the Yanks in a 4-0 hole, the rest of which they owed to Jaret Wright's woeful outing. Wright, who lasted just 22/3 innings, surrendered homers to Ordoñez and Craig Monroe.

Then again, it would have taken virtual perfection for him to match Tigers righthander Jeremy Bonderman, who retired 15 in a row to start the game and allowed just two runs in 81/3 magical innings.

"They outplayed us in every facet of the game," Derek Jeter said.

Torre watched the final outs from the bench, still working the gum over in his mouth. It may have been his last game with the Yankees, just like it may have been Mike Mussina's or Bernie Williams' or Sheffield's.

A-Rod watched, too. Then, once the Tigers' celebration had begun in full, he turned away and trudged down the dugout steps. He was heading toward the clubhouse, headed toward a winter that is clouded by the unknown. skid marks

In 'Departed,' Scorsese's best is back

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
In The Departed, director Martin Scorsese returns with breathtaking assurance to the arena in which he is at his best: the gritty and complex crime drama.
Loosely based on the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, Scorsese's latest is his best since 1990's Goodfellas. Two and a half hours race by as this twisting, turning tale blazes its exciting, funny, brutal path.


The film's score and editing brilliantly heighten the film's energy, keeping the audience somewhat off-kilter and unsure where things are headed.

Set in the mean streets of South Boston, the film hinges on the duplicitous actions of two young cops, played winningly by Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio — in his best performance in a Scorsese movie — plays rookie Billy Costigan, who has a foot in tough South Boston, where he lived with his father, and another in the wealthier existence of his mother and stepfather. Smart and educated, he disappoints the moneyed relatives by becoming a cop.

Once on the force, he is goaded into going undercover by a good cop/bad cop pair played by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg (in a wildly compelling performance).

The police department is hellbent on taking down crime boss Frank Costello, played with just the right blend of menace, sleaze and dissipation by Jack Nicholson. Costigan's infiltration of Costello's ring grows more terrifying the deeper it gets.

Meanwhile, rising police department star Colin Sullivan, superbly played by Damon, leads an increasingly fraught double life. Named as head of a team that investigates Costello, he also secretly works for the crime lord, helping him elude the police. When the department realizes it has a mole in its ranks and Costello begins to grow suspicious of his men, Damon and DiCaprio's characters face a host of dangers. It's a riveting dance in which they must keep a step ahead of their cohorts and each other, to avoid exposure.

To further complicate matters, both men fall for the same woman, a department psychologist played by an oddly lackluster Vera Farmiga.

Unlike many by-the-book crime dramas, the characters are nuanced, dialogue is crackling and the action crescendoes to a startling ending. This group from Boston is far more fascinating than Scorsese's Gangs of New York or reclusive Aviator Howard Hughes. Kudos to him for coming back from those flawed, but ambitious, efforts with one of the best f

DON'T DISCOUNT IT

ATTENTION, comedy shoppers: The marked-down movie "Employee of the Month" has more laughs than most of the name-brand products.
Channeling some of the wrinkled charisma of Bill Murray in "Stripes," comedian Dane Cook shows leading-man potential in his first star turn, as a superstore boxboy named Zack who has to suffer the taunts of Vince (Dax Shepard), the obnoxious head cashier and 17-time employee of the month.
Cook exudes so much cool, though, that it's a little hard to believe he could be such a failure. "I'm having dinner with the old lady tonight," he tells his pals, then goes home, where he lives with his grandma. His only ride is a clown-size motorcycle.
Shepard, who is like the conniving little brother of Owen and Luke Wilson, is even funnier as the head cashier with bleachy Eminem hair and the "fastest hands in the Southwest." The girls swoon as he whisks their items past the scanner: "Oooh, Lean Pockets!" he exclaims. "Somebody takes care of themselves!" He basks in the stardom that only comes to those who have been issued a pass to the cashiers' lounge.
The two guys are fighting over the new cashier, played by Jessica Simpson. If only every movie character's motivation was so easy to believe. Simpson doesn't do much except look good, but she does that mighty well.
Zack proves that he can show her a romantic evening without leaving the store: "Another box of Merlot?" he says over dinner, before arranging a private screening of "The Princess Bride."
For short stretches, the movie has a touch of surreal "Office Space" brilliance, but it's broadly acted, its characters are thin, and the production values are ragged. Still, it's hard to resist its goofy hostility: "You're like the drummer from REO Speedwagon. Nobody knows who you are."

Do big breasts lead to paradise? Colombia asks

(Reuters Life!) - Every weeknight millions of Colombians tune in to watch a smash television series about the indignities suffered by a teen-age girl willing to do anything to get her breasts enlarged.


Tired of being poor and going to school with no good jobs in sight after graduation, Catalina decides to do what her friends have done and get breast implants in order to snag a gangster boyfriend who can take care of her.

She tries to prostitute herself to get money for the operation but, in a kind of Colombian Catch 22, has trouble winning clients due to her small cup size.

The show, based on a true story, is both loved and hated for displaying the culture of easy money here in the world's biggest cocaine-exporting country.

Convinced that an overflowing bosom will be her "passport to heaven," Catalina continues her quest, which instead leads to episode after episode of treachery and violence.

Some call the series an insult to Colombia, which is trying to end four decades of guerrilla war driven by the drug trade. Others, who enjoy the show's black humor, say it is helping the country confront its demons.

Gangsters, called "traquetos" after the "traqua traqua traqua"-like sound made by their automatic weapons, are known to send their girlfriends for all kinds of aesthetic surgery.

Younger and younger women are getting operated on in the hope of landing a traqueto of their own.

"Vanity is pushing the girls of Colombia to do crazy things. We are addressing this in the show, not celebrating it," said actress Margarita Rosa Arias, who plays Vanessa, one of the big-breasted characters Catalina tries to emulate.

'TELE-TRASH'

In real life, Arias points to herself as an example of responsible augmentation, having had her breasts done by a well-qualified doctor when she was 28, at the behest of her husband.

The show's main character is based on last year's novel by Gustavo Bolivar about a 14-year-old girl played by Maria Adelaida Puerta, a long-necked, flat-chested beauty from Medellin.

When the book was released, people in the city of Pereira where the story is set were offended. The television show it inspired is like salt in the wounds to local business leaders who were already struggling to improve Pereira's image.

"We will not be defined by this tele-trash!" city spokesman Luis Garcia told Reuters. "All the guys in the story are assassins and the girls sell themselves in order to augment their breasts. It is the stereotype we object to."

For years Pereira, in the heart of Colombia's coffee-growing region, was known as one of the country's top party towns, where drug smugglers, coffee workers and truck drivers could blow money on famously beautiful prostitutes.

Defenders of the show say it reflects the conflicts that girls face in places like Pereira, a short drive from the home base of the still-powerful Norte del Valle cocaine cartel.

While Colombia has become safer thanks to a U.S.-backed crackdown on the drug trade, Pereira's murder rate remains above the national average and many young people still turn to the drug-trafficking world as a way of escaping poverty.

"People are angry about "Sin Tetas" ("Without Tits") but I think it's OK because it shows the reality of a lot of girls," said a woman in Pereira's town square, declining to give her name.

HEALTH'S THE MAINE ISSUE

INJURED EL DUQUE COMPLICATES PITCHING PLANS
The Mets then said early last night that an MRI exam on El Duque revealed a right calf injury and said the pitcher would be evaluated again last night and that today the team will determine if he's going to take the mound.

"We hope that he's OK, that test or whatever they're going to do comes back OK and he's in good health," Carlos Delgado said before the MRI returned. "But if it doesn't happen, somebody's going to have to take the ball and give us a good effort. We're going to be all right."t-weight:bold;">

I HEARD................

THAT News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch and Fox News head Roger Ailes are hosting a huge bash to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Fox News Channel tonight. Tiki Barber, Mike Wallace, Donald Trump, Mel Karmazin and Gov. George Pataki are all expected at the celebration, to be held under a tent on West 48th Street and Sixth Avenue . . . THAT Uma Thurman will help Donna Karan celebrate the launch of Gold, her new fragrance, next Thursday at the Madison Avenue flagship Donna Karan store.

IN NEW JERSEY............

BRUCE Willis at the B Bar at the Borgata in Atlantic City watching the Jets game with his bouncer standing behind him and guarding him from everyone . . . A THOUSAND fans screaming and crying during Barbra Streisand's dress rehearsal at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

Forget airbags, silicone breasts will do

A woman in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse has survived a car crash thanks to her silicone breasts which acted as an airbag, a newspaper has reported.

The 24-year-old ran through a red light and crashed her car into another vehicle at a busy crossroad in the middle of town Saturday, the daily Standart said Monday.

"The two cars were crumpled past recognition in the crash but the woman's silicone breasts acted as airbags and saved her life," Standart wrote, citing eyewitness reports.

But survival as well as beauty comes at a price as the woman burst her silicon implants in the crash.

Police hunt breast enlargement cheats

A German plastic surgeon who was cheated out of payment by several women has given pictures of their enlarged breasts to police, in the hope the photos will help trace them.


"The women registered under fake names," Michael Koenig, a surgeon in Cologne, told Bild newspaper. "After the operations, which lasted about an hour, they just ran away."

"Tanja" went out for "fresh air" after 8,000-euro ($10,000) surgery to enlarge her breasts. "She never came back and never paid," Koenig said. He now plans to demand payment in advance.

Bild published a five-column picture of Tanja's naked breasts. "It's probably the most unusual wanted poster police ever had," the newspaper wrote

Ark. woman shows up drunk at DWI hearing

A Little Rock woman facing her fifth drunken-driving charge in the span of a year — and third in less than a month — showed up to a court appearance drunk Tuesday morning, a court official said.
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Susan Marshall, 55, was arrested for contempt of court after a brief appearance in Little Rock District Court, said chief probation officer Sheila Farley. Marshall later had a blood-alcohol level of 0.147 percent, Farley said. The legal limit for adult drivers in Arkansas is 0.08 percent.

Marshall said she did not drive to her court appearance and had no keys when arrested, Farley said.

Marshall, who had three drunken-driving arrests in September, was taken to Pulaski County Jail. She was scheduled for another court appearance Wednesday, Farley said.

Robin Williams Says A Bunch of Funnyish Rehab Stuff

Robin Williams has been away from the limelight for a few weeks now - we know this since we've watched at least three recent awards show not punctuated by weird, semi-comprehensible Robin Williams gibbering.At least Robin Williams disappeared for a good enough reason, though; he'd decided to hole himself up in rehab again for fear that he was about to turn into a full-scale alcoholic again. For most people, rehab is a deathly serious place to be; a place to go and be surrounded by those who have ruined their lives with alcohol and substance abuse. Not Robin Williams, though - Robin Williams seems to have spent all his time in rehab thinking up a bunch of rehab jokes, which he told one after another at a recent press junket to promote his new film, to the delight of both people in the world who aren't getting a bit tired of Mel Gibson jokes already.


You've got to hand it to Robin Williams; when it comes to turning up at the Oscars and performing confusing internal conversations about how Minnie Mouse would react to the possibility of Pixar setting itself up as an independent movie studio if she inexplicably became French, there's nobody quite as tiringly prolific as Robin Williams. However, Robin Williams is just as prone to human frailties as those people who don't compulsively need to crack jokes all the time like they're trying to overcompensate for something, and in August Robin Williams admitted himself to rehab.

There was no big public breakdown to kickstart Robin Williams' admission to rehab - no lambasting all the fucking Jews and no pissing himself in an airport - Robin Williams merely took the sensible step of going to rehab after he broke his self-imposed 20-year alcohol ban. And, now he's back out of rehab and dry again, Robin Williams decided to speak about his experiences. Did we say 'speak'? We meant 'garble some fairly poor jokes', as People reports:

Anna Nicole Smith has not married her lawyer Howard Stern

Anna Nicole Smith has not married her lawyer Howard K. Stern.

The former Playboy playmate did declare her love for Stern in a special private ceremony onboard a catamaran off Nassau in the Bahamas, but there was no official marriage certificate, it has been claimed.

Smith's close friend, TrimSpa CEO Alex Goen, told US magazine In Touch Weekly: "They had a quiet ceremony and declared how much they love each other in front of God. They vowed they would be there for each other.

"They do plan to have a proper ceremony in the future."

The morning ceremony came just 36 hours after Howard revealed that he is the father of Anna Nicole's three-week-old daughter, Danni Lynn Hope, and 18 days after the sudden death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel.

Howard recently told US talk show host Larry King: "She is the one thing that is really keeping her going. And through it all, even with all the pain, Anna Nicole has been a great mom, a very attentive mom."

However, Anna's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead has demanded a DNA test to determine whether he is the biological father of her daughter.

Larry Birkhead's protests come a day after Howard claimed he was Dannie Lynn's dad.

Delonas for Tuesday, October 3, 2006

IT'S ALL'BOUT

ALEX DROPS TO SIXTH IN OPENING NIGHT ORDER
October 3, 2006 -- If Joe Torre dropping Alex Rodriguez into the sixth spot of the supposed "Greatest Lineup Ever" didn't get the Yankees' attention, the manager grabbed it with a direct message to his players.
Standing in the middle of the Yankees' clubhouse yesterday, Torre reminded his players not to look past the reeling wild-card Tigers, who stagger into tonight's Game 1 of the ALDS on a five-game bender, having dropped three straight to the morbid Royals to flush the AL Central title. They lost 31 of the final 50 games.
Torre knows his club is better than the Tigers. His players know they are superior. Las Vegas installed the AL East champs as a prohibitive favorite. Many are convinced the three wins in the best-of-five ALDS will leave the Yankees eight victories shy of their 27th World Series title.
Still, Torre is concerned enough by the Tigers to offer a reminder.
"Don't look past this series," Torre implored his troops before an afternoon workout at Yankee Stadium.
Until Torre announced A-Rod would hit sixth for the first time since June 22, 1995, when with Seattle, the hot topic was could the Yankees take the Tigers seriously.
Then the buzz turned to A-Rod, who batted .290 with 37 homers and a team-leading 121 RBIs.

Zune Update: Price, Date, and Distribution News

Zune to be sold at GameStop and EB. Also, accessory pics and prices.
IGN Gear has received word from our rather well-placed sources at GameStop and EB that Microsoft has successfully brokered for quality in-store placement for the Zune, Microsoft's new iPod-killer mp3 player. The move signals an obvious desire on Microsoft's part to reach directly to gamers, an audience not yet directly tapped by Apple. It will be the first time these videogame store chains have carried an mp3 product.



The Zune project is Microsoft Corporate Vice President J. Allard's newest endeavor following his oversight of the Xbox 360's development and launch. As Microsoft's public face on the company's hopes for the new device, he has indicated that the MS intends the Zune platform to become an integrated part of Microsoft's hardware endeavors, interconnecting between Media Center PCs and the Xbox 360. While the first generation of Zune players are only taking the first step by incorporating WiFi for Zune-to-Zune communications, Microsoft is speaking very strongly of their plans to expand the platform with new hardware (rumors currently abound that a Zune-phone will be the follow up hardware release in Q1-Q2 2007) that will likely also launch with the E3-discussed Xbox Live Anywhere initiative.

Last week, Amazon.com inadvertently broke Zune pricing and launch date information. Launch day is set for November 14, and the 3-inch screened 30-GB mp3 player will cost $249.99. This price competes directly with the 30-GB iPod Video, but Microsoft aims to sweeten the Zune deal with a fair amount of pre-loaded content. Songs from Sub Pop, Quango, V2, and Astralwerks and music-videos from BT, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Paul Oakenfold will ship pre-loaded on every Zune. A number of other included video clips will allow users to sample the Zune's movie-playback capabilities.

Anna Nicole denies marriage report

Anna Nicole Smith has claimed she hadn't married her attorney lover — they had simply taken part in an officiated "commitment ceremony" aboard a luxury yacht in the Bahamas.

The former model, clutching her newborn baby daughter, wore a pink bikini for the bizarre event, aboard a 50-foot catamaran as they sailed around the islands' capital Nassau.

It took place while the body of Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, lies in a funeral home, awaiting burial nearly three weeks after he died.

Compulsive Spending: Both Sexes Do It

Forget the gender stereotypes about compulsive buying. Men do it, too.

That's what researchers including Lorrin Koran, MD, report in The American Journal of Psychiatry. Koran works in the psychiatry department at Stanford University's medical school in California.

Compulsive buying has mainly been studied in women, Koran's team notes. But if their findings are correct, compulsive buying is just as common among men.

Compulsive buying isn't in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), the handbook of psychiatric disorders. But Koran and others have suggested that it should be.

"Compulsive buying leads to serious psychological, financial, and family problems including depression, overwhelming debt, and the breakup of relationships," Koran says in a Stanford news release. "People don't realize the extent of the damage it does to the sufferer."

54 MEMORIES

designer Geoffrey Bradfield's black-tie birthday bash was held at the famous Bob Guccione townhouse on East 67th in an attempt to help increase buyer interest in the $5 million, 25-room manse. The surrealistic setting last week for the Australian designer, featured a cast of guests ranging from octogenarian dowagers dripping with jewels to naked muscle studs painted jet black and sprinkled with silver glitter. Writer Gregory Speck, a press agent for the original Studio 54, told the birthday boy that the towering nude turbaned models, who carried huge spears and stood at attention, reminded him of those decadent days, when the greatest nightclub of them all ruled Gotham.

CAFFEINE TERROR in PALM Beach!!!!! OMG

THE snobbish millionaires of Palm Beach are up in arms over plans to put a Starbucks on Worth Avenue. The town council recently voted to let the coffee chain open at 150 Worth, next to Saks Fifth Avenue. But it later revoked the approval, saying it wanted to reconsider after being flooded with complaints. Maybe locals fear a caffeine jolt might wake up the often-lifeless shopping district. "A common airport franchise on our beautiful, expensive, exclusive Worth Avenue?" wrote resident Lotsie Hermann Holton.

A BIT MORE MIAMI VICE

DETHRONED Miami club king Chris Paciello has been quietly released from jail and is living in a witness protection program as he prepares to take the stand to rat out several Mafia cohorts, sources told Page Six. The slimy ex-business partner of Ingrid Casares made headlines a few weeks ago when he refused to squeal on Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico at the mob big's trial. Meanwhile, two unauthorized movies are being made about Paciello's unsavory past. One of them, "Mobs Over Miami," is set to shoot in Miami, Brooklyn and Staten Island. And it's not sitting well with Casares, who wants no association with him. Through her law firm, Grubman Indusky & Shire, Casares told us, " 'Mobs' is based on pure speculation and gross exaggeration. My involvement with Chris Paciello pertained exclusively to a very positive business relationship - nothing further. As proven by the authorities, I have no knowledge, or ever have, of Chris's criminal past. His decision to testify has absolutely nothing to do with me."

ODD COUPLE?

IVANKA Trump is gorgeous, successful, and . . . dating Lance Armstrong? Though hard to believe, that's the rumor on the West Coast. And Trump, who will be the new spokeswoman for Tiffany as well as working at her father The Donald's firm, has been spending a lot of time in L.A. recently shooting "The Apprentice." Armstrong is also known for having an eye for hot women and was most recently linked with Paris Hilton. A rep for Trump didn't return calls.

JEANINE AND AL'S 'PAY-&-STAY PACT'

SHOCKER CLAIM OF 15G-A-MO. DEAL
October 2, 2006 -- ALBANY - It's the money, honey.

Jeanine Pirro stays with her philandering husband, Al Pirro, because he has agreed to give her a $15,000-a-month lifestyle, a source close to the couple has told The Post.

Jeanine Pirro, the Republican candidate for state attorney general, has made it clear to many that she stayed in the marriage after Al's tax-evasion conviction - and his admission that he had fathered an out-of-wedlock child - with the understanding that he would underwrite her luxurious lifestyle, the source said.

"One time, she's on the phone with Al and she's saying, 'Uh huh, uh huh, well, Al, it's 15 grand a month, that is the number,' " recalled the source, who said he often visited the Pirros' luxurious Harrison home. "Jeanine then continues, 'I don't want to hear that you're short this month. Fifteen grand is the number.'

"And I heard Mike [Santangelo] say the same thing, that Jeanine told him that Al has got to come up with $15,000 a month for household expenses whether from his lobbying or real-estate deals or whatever, that that was the deal after Al got out of prison."

Michael Santangelo, a Westchester lawyer, unsuccessfully defended Al Pirro at his federal tax-evasion trial in 2000.

Santangelo's wife, Lisa, is the woman whom Jeanine Pirro suspected of having an affair with Al.

Michael Santangelo has denied that his wife was involved with Al Pirro. His wife has been unavailable for comment.