Turn On:
You could get into the Halloween spirit and watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (8 p.m. ET, ABC) or "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments" (9 p.m. ET, Bravo). Or you could really scare yourself and watch the "Frontline" special "Rumsfeld's War" on PBS (check local listings).
Morning Briefing:
She'll see them in court: Catherine Zeta-Jones is continuing to prove that she's not just another pretty face -- she's also of the most litigious people in Hollywood. The actress has just filed against a small strip club in Reno, Nev., called the Spice House, which calls itself "Reno's Friendliest Topless Cabaret," alleging that the club used her image without permission on its Web site. According to Zeta-Jones' suit, photos of her face were shown alongside images of "partially nude women engaged in various sexually explicit poses." A spokesman for the club claims that its webmaster used the photos by mistake, thinking they were free images and not realizing that they were Zeta-Jones, and that once the actress's lawyers informed the club of their error, the site designer promptly removed the images, thinking the matter was resolved. The club says it is "shocked" by Zeta-Jones' move to recover damages for the unauthorized use of her image on the site, which it says gets very little traffic. (AFP)
Boys' night out: Star Jones' fiancé, Al Reynolds, went with a group of male friends to a "gay-friendly Halloween bash" in New York over the weekend, sans Jones, and what did he wear? "Al was there as a male stripper," a witness tells Page Six. "He had on a tiny, tiny speedo with a white bathrobe over it -- he has great abs! He was there with some friends who were dressed as King Tut, a leatherman, a cop, a cowboy and a pirate -- they were all clearly gay. Some of them he knew from before Star, but he was getting to know the others." Jones and Reynolds insist that the wedding plans are proceeding as planned. (Page Six)
Tiger for prez? If Tiger Woods ever decided to run for president, he can count on the backing of Jack Kemp. "Tiger would make a wonderful candidate. Howard Dean's campaign manager Joe Trippi said, 'He could do it. He'd be it. He'd be the revolution,' " Kemp told Travel + Leisure Golf. Campaign strategist Frank Luntz agreed that a Woods run for office would "capture the country." Woods himself, however, has said he'd "rather go out there and play golf" than play around in politics. (Page Six)
Another shot: Thanks to a last-minute vocal-cord injection from Wayne Newton's doctor, Ashlee Simpson's live performance at the Radio Music Awards in Las Vegas apparently went off without a hitch -- unless you count her stupid joke about her band playing the wrong song: "Just kidding, you guys!" she cracked. But all that talk about "severe acid reflux" being to blame for the 19-year-old singer's "SNL" vocal-track snafu the other night has brought many a memorable tabloid headline. One favorite, in this morning's New York Post: "ASHLEE'S HALF-ACID LIP-SYNC EXCUSE." (ABC News, N.Y. Post, N.Y. Daily News) Also this morning, Simpson told Katie Couric she didn't know what the big deal was, "because I am not anorexic. My boob didn't pop out. I am not on drugs. I had a bad performance and I got sick." (NBC)
Also: Brad Pitt is joining the fight in support of stem cell research; John Kerry says he is "so grateful to him" for getting involved (E!) ... If you're still interested in Ben Affleck's romantic life, you'll want to know that he and Jennifer Garner were apparently playing kissy-face all through Game 1 of the World Series on Saturday (Rush and Molloy) ... Lindsay Lohan is in an L.A. hospital, undergoing tests and "resting comfortably" after running a 103-degree fever for a few days. It's not clear what illness has felled her, but there's talk it may be meningitis. (Rush and Molloy, Page Six, USA Today)
Money Quotes:
John McCain on why he wouldn't want to be vice president: "As a POW in Vietnam, I was kept in the dark and fed scraps. Why would I want to do that again?" (Page Six)
Jann Wenner on Bonnie Fuller, who ran his magazine Us Weekly before skipping out for the Star: "Bonnie's nuts. Bonnie is not a good boss. And her instincts and editorial policies were beyond what I consider to be tasteful or acceptable. There is a nasty edge." (Ad Age via Keith Kelly)
-- Amy Reiter
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