AP - NEW YORK (AP) — A-Rod and the Material Girl? That's a lot of hits. Reports that Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez and Madonna have become close just as their marriages are disintegrating have both the celebrity gossip industry and the sporting world — each a chatty bunch — buzzing with questions about the two "friends."

AP - Larry Harmon wasn't the original Bozo the Clown, but he was the real one.

AP - A former accountant for Rachael Ray's TV cooking show has filed a $1 million lawsuit saying he was forced out of his job because he has an eating disorder.

AP - A tearful Christie Brinkley testified at her divorce trial Thursday that she was devastated by her husband's affair with a teenager and his attempts to find other paramours through pornographic Web sites.

AP - Partially eclipsed by the glitterati of Cannes and the royal glare of Monaco, Nice is a place where even the brightest stars — like Brangelina — are greeted by little more than indifference.

AP - NEW YORK (AP) — A-Rod and the Material Girl? That's a lot of hits. Reports that Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez and Madonna have become close just as their marriages are disintegrating have both the celebrity gossip industry and the sporting world — each a chatty bunch — buzzing with questions about the two "friends."

AP - NEW YORK (AP) — A-Rod and the Material Girl? That's a lot of hits. Reports that Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez and Madonna have become close just as their marriages are disintegrating have both the celebrity gossip industry and the sporting world — each a chatty bunch — buzzing with questions about the two "friends."

AP - Larry Harmon wasn't the orginal Bozo the Clown, but he was the real one.

AP - NEW YORK (AP) — A-Rod and the Material Girl? That's a lot of hits. Reports that Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez and Madonna have become close just as their marriages are disintegrating have both the celebrity gossip industry and the sporting world — each a chatty bunch — buzzing with questions about the two "friends."

AP - Lost scenes from the sci-fi classic "Metropolis," recently discovered in the archives of a Buenos Aires museum, were shown to journalists for the first time in decades on Thursday.

Reuters - Actor Josh Peck has spent much of his teenage and young adult life in front of television cameras portraying the chubby, goofy character Josh in the Nickelodeon cable TV series "Drake & Josh."

Reuters - Film historians had doubted they would ever find the missing portions of "Metropolis" -- until three reels of the science fiction film made in Germany a long time ago, were discovered in a country far, far away.

AP - A foundation created by Steven Spielberg is giving $1 million to the National Museum of American Jewish History.

AP - Will Smith usually plays the hero in his summer blockbusters. But in "Hancock," he drinks, swears, mouths off — and goes to prison.

AP - Partially eclipsed by the glitterati of Cannes and the royal glare of Monaco, Nice is a place where even the brightest stars — like Brangelina — are greeted by little more than indifference.

AP - Christie Brinkley testified at her divorce trial Thursday that the day she learned her husband was having an affair with a teenager was the day "my life as I knew it had vanished."

AP - Larry Harmon wasn't the orginal Bozo the Clown, but he was the real one.

AP - A former accountant for Rachael Ray's TV cooking show has filed a $1 million lawsuit saying he was forced out of his job because he has an eating disorder.

AP - A tearful Christie Brinkley testified at her divorce trial Thursday that she was devastated by her husband's affair with a teenager and his attempts to find other paramours through pornographic Web sites.

AP - Brad Paisley says he got to mark a biggie off his wish list when Andy Griffith agreed to be in the video for his new single, "Waitin' On a Woman."

AP - Jason Priestley says he got a crash course on the Nashville music industry while directing a reality series about the Canadian band the Road Hammers.

AP - Tears flowed freely when two of TV's "Army Wives" met the real-life women they portray on the Lifetime series.

AP - Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez says the Discovery Channel has changed plans and will not do a documentary about the jail after a judge blocked filming.

AP - Selected home-video releases:

AP - Arlan Ettinger will never forget the response he got when he took one of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' hats to a meeting at the Apollo Theater in New York.

Reuters - For years Hollywood's paparazzi have hounded celebrities, but now -- with help from local politicians, a lawyer in the Monica Lewinsky case, and even Malibu surfers -- they are the ones feeling the heat.

Reuters - The call girl linked to the sex scandal that prompted the resignation of then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in March has dropped a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis.

Reuters - Want to buy newspaper stocks? You should see an analyst. Trouble is there aren't many around anymore.

Reuters - New EU competition rules on the collection of royalties have hit a wrong note with top songwriters such as Bee Gee Robin Gibb, who have threatened to pull their songs off the airwaves if they go ahead.

Reuters - The deteriorating U.S. economy and slumping stock prices will frame discussions among top media and technology executives at the 26th annual Allen & Co confab in Sun Valley, Idaho, next week.

Reuters - The Los Angeles Times will slash 250 jobs, including 150 in the newsroom, and trim its published pages by 15 percent in an effort to save money in the face of declining revenues, the newspaper said on Wednesday.

Reuters - A grubby man in the pub named Nigel who buys counterfeit DVDs is being replaced by a sheepish young office worker named Nigel who downloads movies and music illegally at his desk in a new British ad campaign against piracy.

Playbill - A dawning troupe called Big Sky Theatre Company will present Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke, a sensuous tale of the Gothic South, Aug. 20-31 at the Clurman Theatre in Theatre Row in Manhattan. It is the company's inaugural Off-Broadway production.

Playbill - PCPA Theaterfest's world-premiere production of The Heart's Desire by JosÈ Cruz Gonz·lez begins its second leg July 3, under the stars in the Solvang Theaterfest in Solvang, CA.

Playbill - Veteran Chicago-based theatre consultant and former Goodman Theatre executive Deborah L. Clapp has been named interim executive director of the League of Chicago Theatres, the advocacy organization of 200 Chicago-area theatre companies, the League announced July 1.

Playbill - A planned outdoor theatre production of Ragtime that was shut down by park officials in Wilmette, IL, will sing in that Chicago suburb after all ó at two new venues.

Playbill - The year 2008 will see theatre artist Hunter Foster in all his various modes.

Playbill - Tom Patrick's Middle East-set Misamerica, billed as "an unapologetic look at our country's policies and priorities," will get its world premiere at Raven Theatre in Chicago in 2008-09.

Playbill - Patti McKenny, a Chicago playwright, librettist and lyricist who was a vocal advocate of the development of homegrown musicals, died June 28 of a heart ailment in her northside Chicago apartment, friends and colleagues reported.

Playbill - A Broadway milestone no one would have imagined a century ago happens July 3 when The Phantom of the Opera plays its 8,500th performance at the Majestic Theatre.

Fashion Wire Daily - Givenchy couture took a tour of the Andes this week in Paris, as the house's creative director Riccardo Tisci sent out a phalanx of models in alpaca en route on a motorbike tour of Peru.

Fashion Wire Daily - Valentino's creative director Alessandra Facchinetti faced trial by jury Wednesday at 6.30 PM in Paris.

AP - Designer Alessandra Facchinetti on Wednesday dispelled any doubts about her ability to fill legendary designer Valentino's shoes, drawing warm applause for her first-ever haute couture collection for the Italian label.

Fashion Wire Daily - Giorgio Armani calls his haute couture collection Armani Prive, but maybe he might consider renaming it Armani Red Carpet.

Fashion Wire Daily - The giant, faux aluminum grain silos practically touched the glass roof of the Grand Palais Tuesday, as the haute collection created by Karl Lagerfeld similarly soared to new heights of chic and levels of aesthetic fancy.

Reuters - Italian fashion house Romeo Gigli is taking on aspiring African designers to create a menswear collection as part of a project aimed at adding an international influence to its clothes.

AP - The history of Russian fashion label Irfe reads like a rollicking bestseller, but for designer Olga Sorokina, it's a fairytale come true.

Fashion Wire Daily - Christian Dior: Lisa Fonssagrives Lives Godfrey Deeny June 30th, 2008 @ 3:56 PM - Paris Beauty as an ethereal phenomena that makes the viewer feel, even be, better from seeing it was the real message at the thoroughly excellent Christian Dior haute couture collection staged Monday in Paris, a requiem for arguably the most iconic model of them all, Lisa Fonssagrives.

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: "Sad Dad in Arizona" (May 2) wrote that he was concerned because his teenage son didn't want to attend his mother's funeral and preferred to remember her "the way she was."

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: I have been in a relationship with "Wade" for six years. The situation is this: He has gotten into trouble and can't be around children because he's a registered sex offender. I have an 11-month-old daughter by him. I want to be with Wade and work our relationship out, but if I do, I'll have to give custody of my daughter to my parents and live in my own place with him.

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: My husband of three years, "Mike," is never home. He goes to work and then hangs out with his buddies, leaving me at home with our baby and my two other children until late at night. On weekends, Mike jumps out of bed, showers and leaves -- sometimes not returning until the wee hours of the morning. He says he's "with friends."

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: I am a small-business owner who does the hiring for my company. I hope you will share some suggestions for young people who are now applying for postgraduate jobs.

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: My children are 10 and 12. When my wife and I suggest that we all do something together, they whine and moan. We have to force them to go, or end up getting upset with them and staying home.

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: I am a 38-year-old woman enrolled in night school. A favorite professor of mine is a 46-year-old woman for whom I had a great deal of respect. We had some mutual interests and became casual friends. We'd grab a cup of coffee now and then, and she'd call me at work occasionally to say "hi."

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: I am a woman in my late 40s. My father and siblings all live in the same town. We have always been close and spend holidays, birthdays, etc. together, even as our families have grown.

Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: I was divorced twice before I met my present husband, "Lou." We have been married seven years. When we're with his extended family or new acquaintances, Lou makes a point in his loud, animated way of letting everyone know that he is my third husband. It's embarrassing. And because I am at a loss for words, I usually stay silent.

AP - "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" is a remarkably balanced look at a man whose creativity sprang from his perpetual state of imbalance.

AP - Various Artists, "Go Ride The Music & West Pole" (Eagle Rock Entertainment)

AP - It's a clever approach to a complicated man.

Reuters - "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," a new ABC Family effort from Brenda Hampton ("7th Heaven"), works feverishly to make an educational institution look like the equivalent of a Nevada brothel, but succeeds mostly in transforming high school to high camp.

Reuters - A provocative production of Leonard Bernstein's musical "Candide" has come to London and sharply divided the critics.

Reuters - The tents are packed up and most of the 140,000 music lovers have made their weary way home, but memories of this year's Glastonbury festival, and its headline act Jay-Z, are likely to linger.

AP - G-Unit, "T.O.S.: Terminate On Sight" (G-Unit/Interscope)

AP - Vanessa Hudgens, "Identified" (Hollywood)

Peter McKay - In the news this past week, scientists have discovered the secret of looking young: volume of facial fat.

Andy Borowitz - State-of-the-Art Head Stores 2,000 Recipes

Peter McKay - Most people in our neighborhood have proper dogs, animals produced by reputable breeders, canines that show hundreds of years of careful breeding designed to enhance particular traits. We have Harry.

Andy Borowitz - Republican presidential nominee John McCain officially kicked off his general election campaign today, promising to bring his race for the White House to “all 13 colonies.”

Peter McKay - My wife and I are terrible parents, uncaring and insensitive creeps. At least that's what you'd believe if you asked our three youngest children, our 14-year-old son and twin 12-year-old daughters.

Andy Borowitz - A self-styled heterosexual man from Akron, Ohio, said today that he was "traumatized" over the weekend after attending a showing of the new Sarah Jessica Parker film "Sex and the City."

Peter McKay - Like all my brothers and sisters, I started drinking coffee at the age of 12.

Andy Borowitz - On a day when Washington was abuzz with the news that former White House spokesperson Scott McClellan had published a tell-all memoir, President George W.

AP - Leonard Pennario, a Grammy-winning pianist and best-selling classical recording artist, has died. He was 83.

AP - Even for Amy Winehouse, it was a dramatic chain of events: After fainting and being rushed to a hospital, Winehouse's father said her crack and cigarette smoking had so damaged her lungs, she was risking emphysema and death if she didn't clean up.

AP - Shawn Colvin, the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, is working on a memoir, "A Few Small Repairs," named for her best-known album and tentatively scheduled to come out in the fall 2009.

AP - India.Arie on Broadway — produced by Whoopi Goldberg. The Grammy-winning singer will make her Broadway debut in a revival of Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf."

Playbill - The Broadway revival of the poetry-kissed for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, starring Grammy Award winner India.Arie, will begin previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre beginning Aug. 19.

AP - A discrepancy regarding the health of Amy Winehouse arose after the Grammy-winning singer's father said she had early stage emphysema brought on by smoking crack cocaine and cigarettes.

Reuters - Grammy-winning pop star Stevie Wonder is on the road again, embarking on what he called a concert tour in the "magical" summer and spreading a message of unity among all religions and races.

AP - Pianist Herbie Hancock was honored as musician of the year at the Jazz Awards, just months after he took home the best album Grammy for "River: The Joni Letters," but the big winner was Maria Schneider, who won four trophies.