January 28, 2005
CENDANT MAY NIX IPO, SELL WRIGHT UNIT FOR $1.2B
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amReal-estate and travel-services giant Cendant Corp. is exploring a possible sale of its Wright Express in a deal that may be worth more than $1.2 billion, The Post has learned....
MOUSE TROUBLE - 'DISNEY WAR' SPARKS EXEC'S RESIGNATION OFFER
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amDisney management is so distraught over damaging revelations in a book on CEO Michael Eisner that the public relations head offered to resign, The Post has learned. Sources say Disney...
COMBS' BAD BOY LABEL, UNIVERSAL IN CASH CLASH
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amSean "P.Diddy" Combs' record label Bad Boy Entertainment is fighting over money with its partner Universal Records, The Post has learned. Sources say the tense relations between Bad Boy and...
FREE FOR ALL - NEWSDAY ADMITS TO PAPER GIVEAWAY SCHEME
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amNearly a year after its huge circulation scandal came to light, Newsday admitted it paid other companies to give copies of the paper away for free. The disclosure comes as...
NYSE PACE ON IPO IRKS OWNERS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amNew York Stock Exchange seat owners leading the push to make the Big Board a for-profit organization yesterday yawned at CEO John Thain's comments that he might consider an IPO....
AT&T: ALBATROSS OR OLD PAL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amAlthough AT&T Corp. is expected to be swallowed by lesser-known SBC Communications Inc., the fate of the century-old brand that cost more than $20 billion to build is up in...
BIG PARTNERS CLOSE TO SETTLING BEEF AT POSH V
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA simmering feud between the partners in Time Warner Center's glam but under-performing V Steakhouse might not have ended with a "huge" meeting this week. Related Cos. CEO Stephen Ross,...
MOINIAN'S $120M WINS VERIZON SITE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amDeveloper Joseph Moinian's bid of $120 million has won him the rights to a 60,000 square-foot development site on West 42nd St. being sold by Verizon. The contiguous plots and...
N.Y. TIMES MAKES BIG, FAT MISTAKE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTHE New York Times is in hot water again. On Jan. 13, the paper ran a story by Larry Rohter on the spread of obesity and illustrated the story with...
CIALIS LINES UP SUPER BOWL AD
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amEli Lilly's Cialis will return as a Super Bowl advertiser despite complaints last year that the subject of erectile dysfunction is too risque for the family-friendly television event. Last year,...
OPEC, IRAQ COULD ROIL OIL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amEnergy traders are bracing for a "perfect storm" crisis this weekend that could push gasoline toward $3 a gallon for New Yorkers this spring. Two potentially tumultuous events on Sunday...
NYSE SEAT OWNERS IMPATIENT FOR IPO
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amNew York Stock Exchange seat owners leading the push to make the Big Board a for-profit organization yesterday yawned at CEO John Thain's comments that he might consider an IPO....
P&G BIDS $55B FOR GILLETTE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amProcter & Gamble Co. has apparently clinched a deal to buy Gillette Co. for roughly $55 billion in stock, in a bid to create the world's largest consumer products company,...
MARY CHENEY'S 'TRAVELS' BOOK
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amMARY Cheney, the daughter of Lynne and Vice President Dick Cheney is shopping a book - her first - about her life and times on the campaign trial, tentatively called,...
BIG PARTNERS CLOSE TO SETTLING BEEF AT POST V
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA simmering feud between the partners in Time Warner Center's glamorous but under-performing V Steakhouse might not have ended with a climactic meeting this week. Related Cos. CEO Stephen Ross,...
FINE DANCERS IN GRAVELLY MIX
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTHE popular Buglisi/Foreman Dance is back at the Joyce Theater, and they're formidable performers. The company was founded in 1994, three years after Martha Graham's death, by her distinguished principals...
STARR REPORT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amJust the cold facts The overriding message of CBS' "Joan of Arcadia" is kindness - so what better way to hype the show than to have a team of about...
OPRAH'S SIX-YEAR LONG RETIREMENT PARTY
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amOPRAH is retiring - in 2011. Or is she? The queen of daytime TV told television executives that she finally plans to hang it up when her contract expires in...
REID IT & WEEP - SHE WON'T EVEN GET BREAST ACTRESS NOD
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amFORGET creepy demons, shadowy conspiracies and ancient evils. The only real mystery about the incompetent and unscary new horror movie "Alone in the Dark" is why Tara Reid doesn't show...
'MAGICIANS' CASTS ENCHANTING SPELL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amIT'S hard to imagine the noir classic "The Postman Always Rings Twice" set in the Himalayan kingdom Bhutan, but it is, and grandly so, in "Travellers & Magicians," the first...
PALESTINIAN OPINION
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amYOUR gut feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will probably determine how you feel about "Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land," a new documentary by two decidedly pro-Palestinian professors at the...
'ALIENS' DOCUMENTARY HAS DEPTH
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amJAMES Cameron may not have made a narrative feature since "Titanic," but that doesn't mean he's left the ocean. "Aliens of the Deep" is the latest in a series of...
'FIRE ME' - BRIAN BEATS DONALD TO THE PUNCH AFTER 'INN-SANE' CHALLENGE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA renovation challenge on "The Apprentice" last night turned into a two-night stay at the Meltdown Motel. When the ordeal was over, one contestant appeared to have had a nervous...
HAWAII LOSING 'LOST'?
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTHE producers of "Lost" are close to telling the state of Hawaii to take a hike. The hit ABC drama, which is filmed entirely in the island state will likely...
ET TU, DENZEL? - 'CAESAR' STAR VS. BILLY 'SUNDAY'
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amDenzel Washington is Broadway's new million-dollar man. His upcoming revival of "Julius Cae sar," in which Washington plays Brutus, has raked in more than $1 million in single-ticket sales over...
U.S. VISIT ON U2 TOUR
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amDESPITE what you may have read in Rolling Stone, U2's tour is on. Following the band's freebie gig last year on the Brooklyn waterfront, the Irish rockers are hitting the...
BRAVE THE BRAVERY
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amDON'T listen to the Bravery sitting down. Their synth-clash rocks in a way Franz Ferdinand does now and New Order did 20 years ago - and lead singer Sam Endicott...
HIDE - DON'T SEEK; SAME OLD TRICKS DON'T TREAT THIS MOVIE WELL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amHIDE AND SEEK Ready or not, here it comes. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated R (frightening sequences and violence). At the Union Square, the Chelsea, the Empire 25, others. LET'S...
STAR WATCH
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amSTAR Jones wants a boob job. The demanding diva announced yesterday on live TV that she's willing to undergo elective surgery to have her breasts enlarged because her new husband,...
CHOKING DOWNTOWN - THE WRONG RECONSTRUCTION
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amGOV. Pataki has again lost his footing on Downtown: Rather than pushing for the progress needed at Ground Zero, he seems intent on digging up West Street to build a...
GUN THUGS ROB W. SIDE RESTAURANT PATRONS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTwo armed robbers held up an Upper West Side Japanese restaurant last night, forcing customers to the floor and stealing all the cash from them and the restaurant, police said....
ACTRESS SLAIN - DIES IN FIANCÉ'S ARMS AFTER LOWER EAST SIDE MUGGING
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA stunning 28-year-old actress died in her fiancé's arms yesterday after a Lower East Side thug answered her challenge - "What are you going to do, shoot us?" - by...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amLarry Green was pronounced dead after being hit by a car, and was zipped into a body bag in Raleigh, N.C. So imagine the shock of Medical Examiner J.B. Perdue...
MET-NORTH WOES
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amMetro-North riders faced delays yesterday after a section of rail in upper Manhattan cracked because of the frigid weather, officials said. Trains were delayed up to 15 minutes throughout the...
BLESS THIS BRAVE LADY WHOSE LETTER MOVED US ALL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amIT WAS one of the most poignant things I have ever witnessed or have ever heard when Eileen Bellew read her letter to God. Eileen, through paralyzing grief, was worried...
ARTIST BIDS TO REVIVE TRUE HERO OF WARSAW
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - The chief forensic artist of the Israeli police is looking for eyewitnesses in the United States - not to catch criminals, but to preserve the memory of a...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amMANHATTAN * Police yesterday were looking for a man who disappeared in Greenwich Village last weekend. Rand Kandoria (above), 43, was last seen at his apartment building at John and...
CITY WARNING ON TOXIC CREAMS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amCity health officials are warning New Yorkers not to use certain skin-lightening creams after one woman was poisoned with mercury. The creams, imported from the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong and...
ARIEL HAILS ABBAS' GUN BAN
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - The new Palestinian leadership yesterday banned civilians from carrying weapons, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the conditions are right for a "historic breakthrough" toward peace. Sharon...
GOOFY 'IDOL' GUY A BUST - TURKEY TRYOUT SEES SHOW FROM ALA. JAIL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amWacky "American Idol" wannabe Leroy Wells watched himself make America laugh Tuesday night - from a cold jail cell. Wells, a 22-year-old from Grand Bay, Ala., with a long rap...
LETHAL COLD CLAIMS 3 VICTIMS ON LONG ISLAND
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThe bitter cold weather likely claimed three lives on Long Island yesterday, cops said. Suffolk County police said Russell Lieblich, 53, of Coram, was found lying in the snow outside...
POL DEMANDS STADIUM PAPERS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA state lawmaker yesterday slapped the MTA with subpoenas in a bid to determine how much the Jets would pay the cash-strapped agency to build a stadium over the West...
THE REAL POWER IN NYC'S SCHOOLS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00am'I'M tired of having the teachers blamed for everything," says Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers. She'd been asked by The Post who could be held accountable...
$951 MIL SURPRISE IN BLOOMBERG'S BUDGET - PROPERTY TAXES BOOST $48.3B PLAN
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThe guy who made the biggest killing in the city's booming real-estate market stepped forward yesterday - Mayor Bloomberg. Led by explosive growth in real property transfer taxes, the mayor...
RICE READY FOR MIDEAST PEACE DASH
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday hit the ground running on her first day on the job - and aides revealed she'll race off next Thursday on a trip to...
TRENDY BAR WAS TRAGIC VICTIM'S FINAL STOP
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amBefore the Lower East Side got trendy, before the art galleries, before the handbag boutiques and before the imitators, there was a bar called Max Fish. When the bar opened...
TA PREZ IS ABLE TO 'C' THE ERROR OF HIS WAYS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTransit Authority President Larry Reuter apologized yesterday for saying it would take up to five years to restore A and C subway service and vowed to fast-track repairs on the...
$1M BURGLE VICTIM'S LAMENT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThe New Jersey retiree who lost $1 million in a robbery grew up in the Depression and always kept a big pile of cash in his home safe - until...
TWIST IN L.I. SEX ASSAULT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amPolice on Long Island say the investigation of a rape of a female ambulette driver by a stranger "is heading in a different direction," but refused to give further details....
BREATH-TAKING - DOCS CUT OUT LUNG BY MISTAKE: LAWSUIT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA Queens woman is gasping with disbelief after one of the country's most respected cancer hospitals cut out half her lung - only to tell her later that it was...
SUICIDAL TRAIN 'KILLER' MAY GET WISH
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA suicidal California man charged in the fiery deaths of 11 people in a commuter train crash could get a one-way ticket to Death Row. Deranged handyman Juan Manuel Alvarez,...
LEONA'S MAULTESE - 'FIERCE ATTACK' BY TINY DOG: SUIT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amMaybe dogs really do take after their owners. One of Leona Helmsley's employees says she was mauled by the so-called "Queen of Mean's" "fierce and vicious" little dog, Trouble. In...
LOW-GRADE MATH KIDS GET 'PASS' ON REGENTS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amHigh-school students taking the Math A Regents exam this week must correctly answer fewer than one-third of the questions to pass - the lowest benchmark in at least six years...
'MUSCLE BOY' BUSTING OUT - 12-YR.-OLD PUMPED FOR FAME
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amHe can bench-press three times his weight, he has a six pack that would make the governor of California jealous, he has muscles in places where most people don't even...
HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS WELCOMED BACK HOME
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amNew York yesterday welcomed home some of its most courageous citizens, the 369th Combat Support Battalion, which returned to its Harlem Armory base after 11 months and 17 days in...
CLINTONS MAY BLOCK DIZZY DEAN
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThe battle over whether Howard Dean will become the Democratic National Committee's new chief hits New York today for a weekend of candidate cattle shows, amid rumors about whether Bill...
LYNNE-JURY DRIVER BOOTED
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA wacky court employee was booted off the terror trial of radical lawyer Lynne Stewart after exposing anonymous jurors to her supporters waving "Free Lynne" placards outside the courthouse, officials...
ICY CORPSE ON SUBWAY TRACKS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThe frozen body of a woman was found alongside the tracks at a Queens subway station yesterday, authorities said. Erin Cuzzo, 31, was found dead on the elevated 104th Street...
GUNS STOLEN FROM DEA MUSEUM
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThree large "inoperable" handguns were stolen from the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum in Times Square, where they had been used as exhibits depicting shadowy narcotics labs, The Post has learned....
TEARS FOR HERO DAD - 10,000 MOURN WITH FDNY WIFE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTen thousand mourners turned out yesterday for the funeral of firefighter John Bellew. Two hundred of them crammed into tiny St. Margaret Catholic Church in Pearl River. Another 100 filled...
CIG CYBER-SELLERS WIN A ROUND VS. BLOOMBERG
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA Manhattan federal judge ruled yesterday that the city hasn't shown that online brokers hawking "tax- free" cigarettes are engaged in racketeering - striking a blow to Mayor Bloomberg's campaign...
CANARY ON TOP PERCH - GODFATHER TURNCOAT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThe godfather donned a wire. In a stunning blow to the mob, Bonanno don Joseph Massino volunteered to wear a bug to tape the family's acting boss in a plot...
JORDAN'S MIRACLE - DOCS GIVE INFANT A NEW HEART IN 11TH-HOUR OP
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA miraculous lifesaving transplant came in the nick of time for newborn Jordan Trimarchi, who now has a new heart beating in his tiny chest and a fighting chance at...
HOOKER HAVENS RAIDED - 'UNDERAGE' RING
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amMore than two dozen people were arrested in raids on five Manhattan apartments yesterday as cops busted a major prostitution ring, police said. As many as 25 call girls worked...
BX. 'POT FARM' UP IN SMOKE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amA Bronx apartment went up in flames yesterday after high-intensity lights used to grow marijuana ignited the crop and surrounding walls, fire officials said. The makeshift pot farm inside an...
NHL WON'T TAKE OFF CAP
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amEnd Game has reached Dead End. Optimism vanished as quickly as it arose last night. Negotiations in the NHL lockout broke off without further discussions being scheduled. Making another "last"...
JASPERS BAN TWO BRAWLERS
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThe Manhattan Jaspers suspended senior Peter Mulligan and freshman C.J. Anderson for last night's 75-46 loss at Rider for their role in an altercation earlier this week at Fenwick's Bar...
STEPHEN NAY: KNOW-IT-ALL KNOWS NOTHING
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTHE formula is patent-pending. Holler, talk down to your audience and, even if you're guessing, be a know-it-all. You, too, can become a Yankee play-by-play man, a big city radio...
PENNY: ALL'S WELL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES Penny Hardaway and his agent, LaPoe Smith, met with Knicks president Isiah Thomas yesterday morning, and according to Penny there were no voices raised and no objects being...
ROOKIE MAKING IMPACT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amLOS ANGELES - His tray table was up, his seatback was in the upright and locked position. But Billy Thomas had not turned off his cell phone before takeoff on...
NHL'S CLOCK RUNNING OUT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThis is End Game at its end. Making another last bid to save the hockey season, the NHL and its Players Association pulled into New York last night for 11th-hour...
NETS AREN'T SOUPED UP ABOUT CAMPBELL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amNET NOTES LOS ANGELES - Alonzo Mourning wanted out and got out. Jim Jackson didn't want to go. Now the Nets are waffling about claiming Elden Campbell off waivers -...
COLD, WIND KNOCK OUT CARD AFTER DOUBLE
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amWinter of discontent continues as Big A cancelled racing yesterday after second race on account of cold and wind, fourth day this month all or most of card was aborted....
'MADNESS' ON INTERNET
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amCBS Sports and College Sports Television have reached an agreement that will make it possible for Internet users to watch every single game of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. "All...
PATRIOTS PASS ON TALKING T.O. - OWENS' STATUS 'DOESN'T MATTER'
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amFOXBORO - If you're looking for T.O. Mania, you've come to the wrong place. Yesterday, as the Patriots began preparations to defend their Super Bowl crown, they effortlessly ignored swirling...
HOUSTON TOILER - REFUTING ISIAH, ALLAN WON'T LET KNEE KILL CAREER
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amAllan Houston says he isn't going anywhere. In response to comments made Wednesday by Isiah Thomas, in which the Knicks president hinted that the veteran guard may be forced into...
FISHER'S BRONX GAME STANDS OUT IN JERSEY
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amH.S. HOOPS The question still pops up whenever Corey Fisher runs into someone who wants to know where he's playing his high school basketball and he tells them St. Patrick's....
NO BRADY KILLERS - EAGLES REVERENT TOWARD PATS' QB
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amPHILADELPHIA - Already, the Eagles are gazing at Tom Brady as a larger-than-life figure. Just yesterday, Jim Johnson, their diabolical defensive coordinator, admitted studying Brady on film was a bit...
GET INSIDE SCOOP ON MONTAUK
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amHAVE you ever been mugged at Montauk or seen a midnight rider along those famed stretches of beaches that surround the Point? Those questions and more are answered on a...
T.O. GETS HIS WORK IN
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amPHILADELPHIA - So, what did you expect, a day to go by without a Terrell Owens update? The star Eagles receiver, trying to fast-forward the healing process on his surgically-repaired...
STERN ADMONITION - IMAGE-POLISHING NBA COMMISH DROPS BALL
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amDURING David Stern's New York address to the NBA Board of Governors in mid-December he said in essence: "The red states hate us. We have to develop a game plan...
JUMPIN' FOR CLIFF - WILLIE 'EXCITED' ABOUT FLOYD
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amWillie Randolph has known Cliff Floyd for "a long, long time" and describes himself as a huge Floyd fan, but he has yet to talk to him this offseason. The...
PATIENCE PAYS OFF FOR MOUNT
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amH.S. HOOPS: The Mount 37 - Iona Prep 31 Iona Prep coach Victor Quinolo tried to use the clock yesterday but time was not on his side. For 3 ½...
5 QUESTIONS FOR WARNER WOLF
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amThis week, NYP TV Sports' Andrew Marchand spoke with Warner Wolf. After being let go by WCBS-2 in May, Wolf does sports on WABC-770 AM's morning show, Curtis and Kuby,...
CALL HIM (ON THE) AIR HURLEY - BOBBY TRIES HOOP GIG FOR YES
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amFormer Duke star Bobby Hurley will give sportscasting a try. The Jersey City native will be unveiled as a YES analyst teamed with John Sterling on the Penn-Yale women's game...
KNICKS' RX? TRY DOCTOR BROWN; ANTHONY: LARRY PERFECT REMEDY FOR AILING CLUB
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amSaturday Knicks at Pistons 7:30 p.m., MSG The Knicks' problem under Lenny Wilkens - according to the gospel of ESPN's Greg Anthony - was that they didn't "compete" on a...
MARCHAND'S MEMO OF THE WEEK
January 28, 2005 | 5:00amTO: David Hill, Fox Sports chairman FROM: Andrew Marchand RE: Terry Bradshaw, Fox NFL analyst CC: James Brown, Fox sportscaster Dear David, Emceeing the Eagles' NFC championship postgame celebration, Terry...