“SPIDER-MAN” DVD SETS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR RECORD
 According to Sony, the box office bulldozer,“Spider-Man,” starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, sold more than 11-million copies in its first three days. Not only does that make it the quickest-selling DVD ever, but “Spider-Man” also netted around $190-million -- more than it made in its opening theatrical weekend.
TOMMY LEE GETS COURT DATE IN WRONGFUL DEATH SUIT
 Tommy Lee will go to court to defend himself against a wrongful-death suit filed by the parents of a boy who drowned in the drummer’s swimming pool in June, 2001. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Neidorf has ruled that the suit, filed in February, should go to trial on April 2.
Four-year-old Daniel Karven-Veres was attending a birthday party for Lee and Pamela Anderson’s son, Brandon, when he drowned in the ex-Motley Crue drummer’s pool. The suit, filed by parents Ursula Karven and James Veres, seeks unspecified damages and accuses Lee of general negligence, negligent supervision, and wrongful death, claiming that no adults were supervising the pool when Daniel drowned.
Moreover, the suit says, the boy might have been saved if anyone at the house had been trained in CPR or first aid. Lee has not commented on the suit, though he issued a statement at the time of the drowning, calling it a “tragic accident” and saying he was '”devastated.”
 According to TV's “Celebrity Justice,'” Lee’s attorney, Philip Weiss, has responded to the suit by saying that the parents “failed to exercise ordinary” care of their child, and that they knew the conditions that existed at Lee’s home. Weiss notes that Karven and Veres did not sue the nanny or the babysitter who oversaw the child that day, only Lee. Apparently, Weiss says, the plaintiffs targeted Lee because he has a “deep pocket.”
“SUNDANCE KIDS” ARE ANNOUNCED FOR FILM FESTIVAL
  In addition to a gala list of stars, the 2003 Sundance Film Festival lineup will include the directorial debuts of Salma Hayek and Matt Dillon.
Hayek’s “The Maldonado Miracle” tells the story of a small town that claims to have a bleeding statue of Jesus. Ruben Blades and Peter Fonda star. Dillon directs and stars in “City of Ghosts,” about a con man in Cambodia. Both films will show out of competition in the “American Showcase” portion of the festival.
As usual, the lineup for January's Sundance Film Festival is star-heavy, reflecting both the eagerness of Hollywood players to stretch in indie films and the difficulty of getting indie films financed and shot without big-name stars aboard.
The names appearing on the marquee at the Park City, Utah-based festival will be Mel Gibson, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey, Kirsten Dunst, Morgan Freeman, Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, Jessica Lange, Holly Hunter and Penélope Cruz.
 Among those films competing for dramatic awards will be some of the most talked-about indie productions of the past year. They include “Party Monster,” Macaulay Culkin’s comeback film about club-kid/murderer Michael Alig; “Pieces of April,” with Katie Holmes nervously preparing for Thanksgiving; “The Cooler,” about a luckless gambler played by William H. Macy; “All the Real Girls,” director David Gordon Green’s (“George Washington”) sophomore effort; “American Splendor,” which stars Paul Giamatti as cartoonist Harvey Pekar and “The United States of Leland,” starring Ryan Gosling as a teen killer, with Spacey and Don Cheadle costarring.
More films are also scheduled to be announced. The annual festival runs Jan. 16-26.
McCARTNEY AND RINGO PAY GALA TRIBUTE TO HARRISON
  The two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, came together recently to pay tribute to fallen bandmate George Harrison. The tribute concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall also included performances from Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Ravi Shankar and former members of Monty Python (Harrison produced several of the comedy troupe’s films).
McCartney performed several of Harrison’s popular songs, including “Something,” “All Things Must Pass,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” (with help from Clapton), according to a press release from concert promoters. Starr introduce d McCartney, but the pair played together only in a closing jam session that included all of the night’s musicians.
“What a night,” Starr said, according to the Associated Press. “I loved George and George loved me.”
Funds raised by the concert went to a charity founded by Harrison, who died of cancer last November. His posthumous album, “Brainwashed,” was released last month.
ROSIE O’DONNELL’S LONGTIME PARTNER HAS HER BABY
 Rosie O'Donnell’s eventful post talk-show life now includes yet another change: The star’s girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter, has given birth to a healthy baby girl, according to the Associated Press. Vivienne Rose O’Donnell was born recently in New York, an O’Donnell publicist reported. The child was named after the main character in “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” as well as O’Donell's mother, Roseanne.
O’Donnell already has three adopted children. Her publicist didn’t comment about whether she has plans to formally adopt Carpenter’s baby. The child was conceived by artificial insemination, according to the Washington Post, which did not name the father.
OSBOURNE KIDS SAY SCENES WERE FAKED ON MTV SHOW
 According to Osbourne kids Jack and Kelly, some of the scenes on their MTV show, “The Osbournes,” were faked last year. On “Good Morning America,” recently, they cited two specific moments that they said MTV had orchestrated -- the appearance of a dog therapist, and a dramatic family meeting that ended with Jack storming out.
 “The most fake thing about that show was the family meeting, because that was an MTV idea,” Kelly said, according to the New York Post. '”I put that in my contract (for the new season) - I would not do anything like that f---ing dog therapist.”
Both MTV and a spokesperson for Ozzy and Sharon denied that scenes had been staged. “Nothing is ever scripted or planned on the Osbournes,” an MTV spokesperson told ABC. And, an Osbourne family spokesperson told the Post: “Ozzy and Sharon would not have done it unless it were all real.”
ACTOR JAMES COBURN DIES OF HEART ATTACK AT THE AGE OF 74
 James Coburn, whose 40-year career playing movie tough guys was capped with a 1998 Oscar for his role as Nick Nolte’s abusive dad in “Affliction,” died recently of a heart attack. The 74-year-old actor had been relaxing at his Beverly Hills home, listening to music with his wife, when he suffered his fatal coronary, his business manager, Hillard Elkins, said.
The Nebraska-born actor’s lanky frame and deep, barking voice made him a natural in action-oriented westerns, war movies, and spy thrillers. His big break came with a nearly silent role as a knife-throwing mercenary in 1960’s “The Magnificent Seven.”
“I had 11 lines. That was it,” he recalled in a 2001 Entertainment Weekly interview. “But it was all action. It doesn't matter how many lines you've got: It’s how you perform, what performance you put forward.” In the mid-1960’s, he would tweak both his own image and the newly popular James Bond movies as Derek Flint in the spy spoofs “In Like Flint” and “Our Man Flint.”
 Many film buffs and Coburn fans proudly cite his satirical role as a dramatic surgeon in the camp film “Candy,” (also starring Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau and Ringo Starr), in which he strutted around the operating room before a viewing audience, accompanied by trumpets and cheers, much like a bullfighter in a bravado performance in the bull ring.
Coburn sat out much of the '80’s and '90’s due to crippling rheumatoid arthritis. After his Best Supporting Actor win, he enjoyed something of a comeback, surprisingly, in Disney films. He did voice work in last year’s “Monsters, Inc.” and appeared opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in this year’s hit “Snow Dogs,” and was, reportedly, gearing up for a sequel. Instead, his last role may be in “The Man From Elysian Fields,” which is currently playing in theaters, in which he plays a terminally ill novelist.
COMEDIAN PAULA POUNDSTONE WILL GET HER KIDS BACK
 According to the Reuters news service, comic Paula Poundstone will regain custody of her three adopted children for the first time since her arrest on child endangerment charges some 17 months ago.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins, citing Poundstone’s successful 14-month probationary period, ordered that the children be returned to Poundstone. However, it may not be immediately, due to jurisdictional wrangling set in motion by her own lawyer.
The attorney, Richard Pfeiffer, told Reuters it was his own court challenge back in August, arguing that Kamins had overstepped his jurisdiction when he decided on child visitation and custody rights in Poundstone’s case, that was responsible for the delay now, since that challenge was still under review by an appeals court.
With Los Angeles social workers awaiting the resolution of that matter, Pfeiffer said it could be “a day or two or it could be a week or two” before Poundstone regains custody. “I’m sick of this. I’m angry on behalf of my children. I’m angry because it’s unfair,” the comic told TV’s “Celebrity Justice.” She said: “I am not a public menace. I didn’t molest anyone. That is not what I was charged with and they proceed as if that is... so that everybody can sort of let their imagination go wild.”
Poundstone’s adopted children and two foster children were taken away in June 2001, when she was charged with three felony counts of lewd conduct with a child. Those charges were reduced to a felony count of endangering a child and a misdemeanor count of injuring a child in a Sept. 2001 plea deal. Poundstone, who acknowledged driving drunk with her children in the car, pleaded no contest, and was sentenced to six months in rehab and five years of probation.
While her foster children were sent to other homes, Poundstone has enjoyed limited supervised visits with her adopted kids. Kamins has also allowed the 42-year-old comic to travel and resume her stand-up career without a court-appointed monitor.
PEE-WEE HERMAN FACES CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
 A day after Los Angeles police arrested actor Jeffrey Jones on child-porn charges, his pal Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman, turned himself in on a related charge of possessing child pornography, the Los Angeles Times reports. Reubens, 50, surrendered at the West Hollywood Division station on a misdemeanor charge of possessing materials depicting children under the age of 18 engaged in sexual conduct, and was subsequently released on $20,000 bail.
The charges against the actors stem from an investigation that police have said began a year ago with accusations from a 17-year-old boy. On Nov. 16, 2001, police searched Reubens’ Hollywood Hills home and seized personal computers and boxes of material a Reubens spokesperson described at the time as “vintage erotica.”
Acting on evidence taken from Reubens’ house, police then searched the home of Jones, the actor best known for playing the principal in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and carted off what police told CNN were “numerous items of evidence.” Police told CNN that the probe had since continued for months, but the arrests finally took place recently in order to stay within the one-year statute of limitations, which would have expired.
 Jones, 56, was charged with enticing the same boy to pose for sexually explicit photos (a felony) and possessing child pornography (a misdemeanor), the district attorney's office told the Associated Press. Earlier reports had said Jones shot a video of the boy engaged in sex, but district attorney's office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told AP, “The charges do not involve any sex act being performed or any video or film being taken.”
Reubens’ attorney, Blair Berk, issued a statement, saying, “Mr. Reubens has never at any time knowingly possessed any artwork from his extensive vintage and antique art collection even remotely related to anything improper.” Reubens will be arraigned Dec. 19. He faces a possible fine of $2,500 and a year behind bars, while Jones, if convicted, could be sentenced to three years in prison and would have to register as a sex offender for life.
 Reubens’ career was derailed in 1991 when he was arrested for exposing himself during a screening of a porn movie at a Sarasota, Fla., theater. He pleaded no contest and was fined and sentenced to community service, but his days as Pee-Wee and his children’s TV show were ended. In recent years, he’s found work as a character actor, most notably opposite Johnny Depp in last year's “Blow.”
ZSA ZSA GABOR RECOVERING FROM AUTOMOBILE CRASH
 Zsa Zsa Gabor is said to be recovering from a Sunset Boulevard car crash, according to the Associated Press. The 85-year-old actress had been a front-seat passenger in a car that hit a light pole recently; she suffered broken bones and needed stitches, AP reported. The car’s driver, Gabor's hairdresser, also suffered minor injuries. Gabor, reportedly, wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
 Gabor was expected to remain in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for at least a week. A former Miss Hungary, Gabor long ago abandoned a serious acting career in favor of B-movies, an opulent lifestyle, and numerous romantic entanglements. Her relatively recent work includes appearances as herself in 1991’s “Naked Gun 2: The Smell of Fear” and 1993’s “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
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