June 9, 2003

BIDDING HEATS UP FOR HOLLYWOOD'S $230M+ 'BLAIR WITCH' HOUSE

A handful of deep-pocketed buyers are trying to conjure a deal for the "Blair Witch" studio. So far, two investment groups seem to have an edge in the heated auction...

APPLE PEELING OFF - DOWNLOADS DROP 50% AT NEW ONLINE MUSIC STORE

The number of tracks sold by Apple's new online music store each week has fallen by about half since the service was launched in late April, The Post has learned....

THEORY TAKING A MANHATTAN SEAT

Theory fans can finally find those perfect pants - the styles that are so often sold out of department stores - when the company opens its first Manhattan store tomorrow....

BROADWAY'S BOMBSHELLS

The biggest Broadway hit of the year may have featured two chunky women in kitschy Pucci gowns, but the outrageous styles of "Hairspray" stars Edna and Tracey Turnblad were nowhere...

TRYING TO PULL OFF LITTLE THEATER

TODD Robbins is looking for a few good midgets. Or even a single shrimp. At this point, he'll take whomever he can get. Robbins stars in "Carnival Knowledge," a new...

RISKY BUSINESS - TAURUS AWARDS HONOR FLICKS' BEST STUNTS

A motorcycle crashed through a wall and exploded into flames. A stunt man fell 65 feet into an air bag. The show's host, Dennis Hopper, let himself be set on...

UPDATED 'TROJAN' A REAL TRAGEDY

TROJAN WOMEN: A LOVE STORY At the Phil Bosakowski Theatre, 354 W. 45th St.; (212) 352-3101. Through June 21. ---- THERE are various ways of modernizing Greek tragedy. The best...

STARR REPORT

Goodbye London . . . Hello U.S.A.? Will London-born Trisha Goddard be the next big thing here? Granada Entertainment certainly thinks so. Granada is aggressively shopping Goddard to (unnamed) U.S....

A VERY PROPER CHOPPER

"American Chopper" [* * * *] Tonight at 10 on Discovery Channel ----- IF tonight's episode of "American Chopper" does not put this show on the map, I don't know...

'SURVIVOR' JENNA TO BARE IT ALL - HOT SCENES LIKE THIS LED TO OFFER FROM PLAYBOY FOR WINNER, PAL

JENNA Morasca, the swimsuit model who won $1 million last month on "Survivor: Amazon," won't need the swimsuit in her next photo spread. Jenna, 21, is taking it all off...

MARTHA OF THE MOMENT FOR FLEET-FOOTED A&E

FIRST Hillary. Now Martha. A&E, the cable channel best known for its "Biography" series, is showing that it can be quick off the starting line these days. The network is...

WILTED ROSE: WHY PETERS LOST TONY TO 'HAIRSPRAY' NEWCOMER

Last night, Broadway put a finishing touch on a theater season that has been unusually rich in off-stage drama. And the biggest drama of all - Bernadette Peters' troubled tenure...

WILTED ROSE: WHY PETERS' TONY LOSS MAKES 'GYPSY' A TOUGH SELL

Nothing came up Tony - or roses, for that matter - for "Gypsy" last night, and that could spell trouble at the box office for this $8.5 million revival. Though...

SUI'S SWEET SMELLS OF SUCCESS: FAMED WOMAN DESIGNER FASHIONS HER OWN FRAGRANCES

ANNA Sui loves roses. And peonies. And lilies of the valley, jasmine and violets, for that matter. Images of these gorgeous buds not only show up frequently on the famed...

RISKY BUSINESS: TAURUS AWARDS HONOR FLICKS' BEST STUNTS

A motorcycle crashed through a wall and exploded into flames. A stunt man fell 65 feet into an air bag. The show's host, Dennis Hopper, let himself be set on...

RODHAM ALL THE RAGE AS HER LIFE BECOMES AN OPEN BOOK

"Hill-apalooza" is on! From a lovefest at the Puerto Rican Day Parade yesterday to a crowded Upper West Side Barnes & Noble last night, to an even-more-crowded Midtown book-signing today,...

CLERK FIRES BACK - BODEGA THUG-KILLER IN FEAR OF REPRISALS

A bodega clerk charged in the shooting of an armed robber said he was forced to make the fatal split-second decision "to preserve my life." Speaking publicly for the first...

STRAIGHT SHOOTER WANTS PERMIT FOR DAD

IT WAS a robbers' sil- ver-barreled handgun aimed at his face that forever changed Adam Al-Ghaithi's life. "This is the end," the 17-year-old high-school junior said to himself during a...

'BRUNO' KNOCKED ON HIS RUMP AT ROAST

GOV. Pataki was mocked for his habit of ducking questions - including such toughies as his favorite color - while a mock Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was knocked to...

CAB-VISION CAN'T BEAT WHAT'S OUTSIDE THE WINDOW

TV in a taxi? What's the point? To start with, taxi TV faces the toughest competition on earth - the city of New York as seen through a cab window....

PROBLEM TEACHERS GOING ON $ABBATICAL

The city Department of Education has granted paid sabbaticals to teachers who have been accused of wrongdoing and removed from their schools, The Post has learned. In some of these...

HER STORY IS IN NO SENSE REAL HISTORY

LUCIANNE GOLDBERG deadpanned: "Hillary is comparing her marriage to serving 30 years in jail?" She was commenting on Hill writing in her new book, "Living History," that she forgave Bill...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

A group of petrified German preschool teachers called cops in a panic because, they said, a giant spider was lurking in a sandbox. Along came two cops, who rushed to...

NO KIN DO, TIMES BOSS INSISTS

Despite newsroom whispers to the contrary, New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. says he was not pressured by his family to dump his two top editors in the wake...

1ST VW 'BUG' REACHES END OF THE ROAD

At one time, the original Volkswagen "Bugs" were the wheels of the hippie generation - and as plentiful as, uh, cockroaches. But by later this summer, new original Beetles will...

U.S. RIPS WMD SKEPTICS

The Bush administration yesterday launched a counterattack against criticism that it overhyped intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before going to war, calling the sniping "outrageous" and "revisionist history."...

EURO UH-OH FOR N.Y. OLYMPICS

Mon dieu! We're No. 4. The Big Apple is running behind Paris, London and Madrid in the race for the 2012 Olympics, a new report says. Experts tell Crain's New...

'2 FAST' IS 2 GOOD AS IT LEAVES RIVALS IN DUST

A street-racing movie gunned past the competition this weekend to take the driver's seat at the box office. The PG-13 sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious" raked in an estimated $52.1...

HILLARY BOOSTS MARTHA

Hillary Rodham Clinton sympathizes with her "friend" Martha Stewart - and believes that there may be something more to the government's case against the diva of domesticity. "Martha is a...

JAZZMAN HORROR CRASH - WRONG-WAY DRIVER MOWS DOWN GRANDMA ON QNS. BLVD.

An elderly jazz musician, driving the wrong way down Queens Boulevard yesterday morning, critically injured a retired city schoolteacher crossing the thoroughfare, police said. Ella Ohana, 68, was crossing the...

GUNMEN LAUNCH TRIPLE ASSAULTS

JERUSALEM - Palestinian terrorists launched a bloody trio of deadly assaults against Israel yesterday, killing five and wounding at least four more. Four Israeli soldiers were slain and four more...

N.Y. GOLDEN OLDIE REACHES SPRY 110

She lived through every second of the 20th century, from the Wright Brothers to the space shuttle, from barber-shop quartets to hip hop. And now, Esperanza Marrero of the Lower...

FIESTA ON 5TH AVENUE - 'BEAUTIFUL DAY' FOR PUERTO RICANS

The skies were gray and depressing yesterday, but the streets were bursting with color and pride as hundreds of thousands turned out for the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. "It's...

PILOT'S LANDING SHORE WAS CLOSE

A Brooklyn man piloting a private plane made an emergency landing on a Long Island beach yesterday just 25 feet from the ocean, officials said. Roland Booher, 46, the only...

IT'S A VERY GOOD 'HAIR' DAY - 'SPRAY' TAKES HOLD OF TOP HONORS

"Hairspray" was the big wig at last night's Tonys, brushing off stiff competition to cop seven of the coveted awards, including best musical. The bawdy Broadway hit also landed top...

STAR VS. STAR IN HOLLYWOOD UNION CLASH

LOS ANGELES - A Hollywood civil war begins today in a contentious labor feud that's enveloped Tinseltown. Ballots will go out in the mail asking members of the prestigious Screen...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

MANHATTAN * An elderly Harlem woman who was found dead in her apartment early Saturday was stabbed to death, the Medical Examiner's Office said yesterday. Odessa Pullins, 77, who lived...

WOULD-BE FIREMAN SAVED 6 FROM BLAZE

THOMAS DOWDLE JR. - Nominated for the Courage Medal When Thomas Dowdle Jr. saw smoke pouring from a window across the street from his Brooklyn home in January, he ran...

HAILING TAXI TVS - SET TO TOP 1,000 THIS SUMMER

Taxi TV is faring well. Those small video screens in the back seat of yellow cabs have become so popular with passengers that by the end of the summer, there...

3 WITH HEARTS OF GOLD - HELPING THE CITY'S DISABLED TO BE CHAMPS

Nominations for The Post's second annual Liberty Medal Awards are pouring in, with New Yorkers looking to honor the unsung heroes of the city.Today, we introduce a few of the...

GUN GRABS PUT FREEZE ON CRIME

The NYPD's double-barrel "Cash for Guns" and "Operation Gun-Stop," which were devised to get illegal weapons off the street, are getting what they aimed for - a critical drop in...

THE POISON 'PEN' - BEAU-KILLER LOVES HER LIFE IN PRISON

Ann Perry is serving hard time for killing her domineering boyfriend by spiking his drink with poison - but she says she's never felt so free and alive in her...

KILLINGS WILL NOT WRECK PEACE

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell defiantly vowed that yesterday's slew of terror attacks against Israel would not destroy America's "road map" to peace. Rushing to hit the airwaves just...

VW SET TO SQUASH OLD BEETLES FOR GOOD

At one time, the original Volkswagen "Bugs" were the wheels of the hippie generation - and as plentiful as cockroaches. But by later this summer, new Beetles will be skittering...

HOLLYWOOD ON THE HUDSON: FILM STARS COME OUT FOR B'WAY

The Tony Awards last night drew as many stars from Hollywood as from New York. Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Billy Joel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick and Marisa Tomei were...

IN THE ARENA OF CHAMPIONS

OUTSIDE, it resembled one of those late-summer mornings when the Giants have an early kickoff, when the people arrive just after 8 o'clock in the morning and fire up the...

POINT IS, HE'S A HERO - ARMY STAR LOSES FEET BUT STAYS POSITIVE

Two years ago, John Fernandez was a star, the team captain of Army's nationally ranked lacrosse team. The burly Rocky Point, L.I., native - nicknamed Spanish Thunder for his booming...

SHOWDOWN WILL COME AT THE SPA - TOP THREE POINTED TO TRAVERS

BOOK your rooms now for the Aug. 23 weekend in Saratoga because this year's Travers is going to be the mid-summer shootout between Funny Cide, Empire Maker and Ten Most...

WE'VE GOT A RIVALRY - 'CIDE'-'EMPIRE' BATTLE WON'T GO AWAY SOON

Racing was denied a Triple Crown winner Saturday when Empire Maker whipped Funny Cide in the Belmont Stakes, but it got something better: an intense, even bitter rivalry, between two...

KARIYA'S RETURN STUFF OF LEGENDS

Paul Kariya was nearly split into North and South. The kind of hit that Scott Stevens blighted Kariya with in the second period of Saturday night's Game 6 in Anaheim...

THEY CAN'T HIDE FROM 2001 GHOSTS

THERE will be no place to run, no place to hide. Not in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Not at the Meadowlands tonight. Not for the Devils...

DEVILS GET BAD NIEUS: JOE'S OUT

His mere words were inspirational enough the last time the Devils needed to reverse steamrolling momentum. This time, Joe Nieuwendyk certaintly can't be the Devils' Willis Reed in person, in...

GUTTY GATTI EYES TITLE FIGHT

ATLANTIC CITY - The winner could easily have been mistaken for the loser, and in the long run Arturo "Thunder" Gatti might have lost more than he won with his...

AMAZIN' DOUBLE DISASTER - MARINERS ROUT WOEFUL METS - TWICE

GAME 1: Mariners 13 - Mets 1 GAME 2: Mariners 7 - Mets 0 The most ridiculous aspect of the Mets' latest doubleheader disaster is how easily this team accepts...

GLAVINE WILL MISS START

MET NOTES In 16 years with the Braves, Tom Glavine is believed to have missed only two starts. In his first season as a Met, he will miss a start...

RICH WITH TALENT: JEFFERSON DOESN'THAVE TO SCORE BIGTO HELP NETS WIN

If you look at Richard Jefferson's stat lines, you could argue that the Nets' young forward hasn't had many really solid games lately. Jefferson would emphatically disagree. In fact, he...

GIAMBI: ALL-STAR IDEA IS STUPID

YANKEE NOTES CHICAGO - If Major League Baseball goes through with its plan to eliminate individual team uniforms for the All-Star Game next month and go with NL and AL...

BOREK'S DREAM ROUND LIVES ON

Thirty years ago this week, Gene Borek lit up the U.S. Open and became the Roger Maris of Oakmont. On June 15, 1973, Borek shot a 5-under-par 65, the best...

CALL'S WELL FOR YANKS - JOE, MEL STAND BY DECISION TO PULL ROCKET

"Leaving [Clemens] in would have been the easy call." - JOE TORRE CHICAGO - When Roger Clemens makes his fourth stab at entering the 300 Win Club is entirely up...

MATSUI WON'T GET DOWN ON HIMSELF

CHICAGO - Hideki Matsui has heard the criticism of his play - the most vociferous coming from the eternally-impatient George Steinbrenner - and he shrugs it off as if to...

NIEU-LESS DEVILS FACE ULTIMATE TEST

The Ultimate Game, the 12th-ever Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, is excitement. It's tension. It's drama. It's . . . "It's hate," Devils coach Pat Burns said last...

TOTTENVILLE & MONROE ROLL

Bad weather and postponements wreaked havoc with the PSAL baseball schedule all season. Everyone probably could have saved themselves the trouble. Top-seeded Tottenville and No. 2 Monroe advanced to Friday's...

IT'S THE ROCKET'S CALL

YANKEE NOTES CHICAGO - When Roger Clemens makes his fourth stab at entering the 300 Win Club is entirely up to the future Hall of Famer. "Unless he tells me...

NETS GIVE ONE AWAY - POOR SHOOTING, TURNOVERS SPELL DOOM VS. SPURS

The bottom line: if you can't score, don't give the ball away. The Nets were guilty on both counts. And then they committed the most unforgivable sin of all: they...

THIS LOSS REALLY STINGS

GAME 3: Spurs 84 - Nets 79THIS one will sting so much worse, and so much longer, than any other loss the Nets have suffered across two years of playoff...

NO KIDDING: SPEEDY MAY HAVE TO GO

There would be no Speedy Claxton in the second half. Tony Parker was just too good, dancing with Jason Kidd, beating him off the dribble, pouring in 3-pointers and ultimately...

POUNDING ADDS TO ANDY'S WOES

CHICAGO - As memorable as this scintillating inter-league series was for the Cubs and Yankees, it was utterly forgettable for Andy Pettitte, who was shelled by Chicago last night, leaving...

PARKER TAKING KIDD TO SCHOOL

NOTHING they'd ever seen, nothing they'd ever experienced, could prepare the Nets for this, could harden their system for the jarring jolt of seeing their best player outplayed so completely,...

SPURS' ZONE ZAPS NETS

The second and fourth quarters proved the Nets undoing last night. They couldn't hold onto the ball, couldn't get their running game going, and Dikembe Mutombo admits it was all...

DUNCAN WENT FOR BLOOD - TIM FOUND TRUE SELF TO LEAD MATES AGAIN

SEVEN missed free throws out of 10 attempts, two turnovers down the stretch, 42 per cent shooting in Game 2 opened up the Spurs' Vein, and that medieval master of...

AARON DOES HIS PART FOR NETS

NETS NOTES Aaron Williams was again out of the Nets' rotation last night as Dikembe Mutombo started the second quarter and played 18 minutes to Williams' four. Williams was called...

MON DIEU! LIL' TONY TOYS WITH THE KIDD

Advantage, France. Again, Tony Parker zig-zagged around Jason Kidd, beating him off the dribble and sending home daggers from the 3-point line. Despite his late free-throw jitters, the 21-year-old French...

JEFFERSON VANISHES ONCE MORE

Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin have become the constants for the Nets, rocks that they can depend on. But Richard Jefferson is still very much the inconsistent, enigmatic question mark...

MALIK ROSE ABOVE DEKE

Malik Rose barreled to the basket, then blasted off, slamming home a right-handed dunk barely over the fingertips of Dikembe Mutombo's extended right arm. The score was tied at 60...

DEKE CAN'T STOP SPURS

When the Nets dealt for Dikembe Mutombo last August, it was supposed to be about this June. About moments like last night's NBA Finals tilt with the Spurs, surviving nasty,...

IT'S FINAL-LY MUTOMBO TIME

When the Nets dealt for Dikembe Mutombo last August, it was all about this June. It was about moments like last night's NBA Finals tilt with the Spurs, surviving halfcourt...

CLAXTON: I'M SET TO BE STARTER

If Jason Kidd signs with San Antonio, Speedy Claxton knows he's a goner. And that might not be such a bad thing for the former Hofstra star who will be...

LUCIOUS REVISITS FINALS WOES

NET NOTES Before the Finals began Lucious Harris made himself remember a time he wanted to forget. And then he was reminded of it again last night in Nets' 84-79...

DUNCAN WENT FOR BLOOD: TIM FOUND TRUE SELF TO LEAD MATES AGAIN

SEVEN MISSED foul shots out of ten, two turnovers down the stretch, 42 percent shooting in Game 2, opened up Tim Duncan's vein, and that medieval master of medicine, Gregg...

TIM'S BEEN JEKYLL AND HIDE : DUNCAN'S AN MIA SINCE SHARP GAME 1

WHOEVER Kidd- napped the Nets' best player before Game 1 returned him by Game 2. New Jersey's point guard stepped up with 30 points when his team needed him the...

HARRIS MAKING MOST OF SECOND SHOT

NET NOTES Lucious Harris made himself remember a time he wanted to forget. Before the Nets took on the Spurs in the NBA Finals, Harris had to reflect back on...

YANKS RUN INTO TROUBLE: PICKOFF OF GIPSON PROVES FINAL STRAW

Cubs 8 Yankees 7 CHICAGO - Yes, they battled back and Joe Torre liked it until Charles Gipson committed a pinch-runner's mortal sin and was picked off first for the...

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE : CUBBIES END YANK RALLY WITH PICKOFF

Cubs 8 Yankees 7 CHICAGO - Panic may be a bit strong. But it's certainly time for the Yankees to stare in the mirror and figure out why they look...

EURO 'BABY SHAQ' HITS THE STATES

There is nothing baby about him. Maybe that's why Sofoklis Schortsianides does not enjoy his nickname - "Baby Shaq." "I don't know about the nickname," the 17-year-old, 6-9, 295-pound Greek...