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Charles to Wed on Friday Despite Pope's Funeral LONDON (Reuters) - The wedding of Britain's Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles, already hit by several glitches, will go ahead Friday even if it clashes with the funeral of Pope John Paul, a spokeswoman said Sunday. Clarence House said the date of April 8 had been set for some time and they had not considered postponing the wedding. "If the funeral falls Friday, the wedding will still go ahead," a spokeswoman said of the heir-to-the-throne's plans. The Pope's funeral was expected to be held between Wednesday and Friday. Buckingham Palace said they had not decided yet which royals would attend the Pope's funeral, if any, but royal biographer Robert Lacey said Queen Elizabeth would be unlikely to attend. "She goes to very few funerals," he told Reuters. "She tends to be represented by Prince Phillip or Prince Charles." The Queen had already said she would not attend Charles' second marriage but would instead go to a blessing given afterwards by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, west of London. Charles divorced his first wife, Princess Diana, in 1996. She died in a car crash in Paris a year later. Charles' sister and brothers, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward, are expected to attend the wedding. Lacey felt Charles would be very disappointed to miss the funeral. "I don't think they'll be thinking in terms of their wedding or the PR (public relations). I think it is exactly the type of thing he would like to go to and represent his mother."

Network coverage Expect wall-to-wall coverage today of Pope John Paul II's death. Here's a network by network rundown: CBS: Coverage begins at 7 a.m., with a special report. At 9, a special edition of "Sunday Morning" starts, followed by a 10:30 edition of "Face the Nation." A program on how the next pope will be chosen airs 7 p.m. on "60 Minutes." CNN: "American Morning" will air from 7 to noon. "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" picks up the coverage from noon to 3 p.m., followed by more live coverage from 4 to 7 p.m. A "People in the News" special report airs from 7 to 8 p.m., then "CNN Sunday." A "Larry King Live" special will air from 9 to 10. ABC: From 7 to 9 a.m., a special edition of "Good Morning America" with Diane Sawyer and Bill Weir in New York, and Charlie Gibson and Kate Snow in Rome. That's followed by "This Week," anchored by George Will from Rome, and George Stephanopoulos. The show features an interview with former archbishop of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law. Fox News Channel: "Fox & Friends" begins at 6 a.m., followed by "Fox News Live" from 10 to noon. "Weekend Live" picks up then, and is followed from 2 to 7 p.m., with an extended edition of "Fox News Live," with Shepard Smith in Rome. NBC: A special extended edition of "Today" begins at 7, with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric in Rome, followed by a live edition of "Meet the Press" at 10:30. MSNBC coverage details were not available at deadline.

Pope's Body Lies in State at Vatican By DANIELA PETROFF Associated Press Writer VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope John Paul II's body lay in state at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on Sunday, and Vatican television showed the pope's remains clad in crimson vestments, his head covered with a white bishop's miter. The powerful images gave the world its first glimpse of the late pontiff since his last public appearance Wednesday. John Paul died Saturday evening at 84 after suffering heart and kidney failure following two hospitalizations in as many months. The Vatican released the pontiff's official death certificate Sunday, saying he died of septic shock and an irreversible cardio-circulatory collapse and listing the ailments he suffered from, including acknowledging officially that the pope had Parkinson's disease. In the Apostolic Palace's Clementine Hall, two Swiss guards stood at attention on either side of the pope's body, which was placed in front of a fireplace adorned with the Vatican coat of arms, a crucifix standing to one side and an ornate candle burning on the other. John Paul's head rested on several golden pillows, and a rosary was placed in his folded hands. His pastoral staff was tucked under his left arm. His feet were clad in soft brown leather shoes - the same kind of shoes he almost always wore even in major ceremonies. The Clementine Hall is a large, 17th-century salon covered by frescoes and located near the papal apartment where John Paul died. He often used the hall for audiences with world leaders. A colossal chandelier with a green patina hangs from the center of the rounded ceiling, which includes images of angels reaching for the Holy Spirit represented as a white dove. Prelates and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi were among those who stood in line to pay their respects. John Paul's longtime personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, sat in prayer in a pew and then greeted prelates and dignitaries. At times he was seen wiping tears from his eyes. The top Vatican officials in attendance included the close papal aide Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, American Cardinal Edmund Szoka, Polish nuns and the pontiff's personal doctor. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the late pope's vicar for Rome, prayed on his knees by the pope's body. The Vatican Swiss Guards also lined up to pay their respects, removing their plumed helmets before kneeling and praying before the pope's body. A message and prayers were read in Latin by the Vatican camerlengo, or chamberlain, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo of Spain. "With the reverent pilgrimage in front of his remains, we thank God for the good that through him was given to his church, and we implore his mercy for the faults that our pastor has committed due to human weakness. We beg the Lord to welcome him into his kingdom and to grant him the prize for the trials that he endured for the Gospel," he said. The viewing was carried live on Italy's other television stations. "Our Holy Father looks very much at peace. It was very satisfying for all of us to see him so serene," Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles said after visiting the room where the pope's body lay in state. "He was such a brilliant light for the world," he said, comparing Pope John Paul's life to the candle burning on his bedside. The pope died very serenely Saturday evening, "like Jesus," he said. The pontiff's body was put on display at 12:30 p.m. for officials of the Roman Curia, authorities and the diplomatic corps. The body will be transferred from the Apostolic Palace on Monday afternoon for public viewing in St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican said the ancient ritual of the confirmation of the death and the certification of death was carried out at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. In the past, the ritual had involved tapping the pope's head three times with a silver hammer, but the last version of the official Vatican document outlining the procedures does not mention the silver hammer, saying only that the camerlengo "must officially ascertain the pope's death."

Neil Young Treated for Brain Aneurysm NEW YORK - Neil Young was treated for a brain aneurysm this week and remains hospitalized, although doctors expect a full recovery, his publicist said Friday. The 59-year-old rocker underwent a procedure to treat it Tuesday night at a New York hospital, where he was expected to remain for a few more days, publicist Bob Merlis told The Associated Press. Dr. Pierre Gobin, who performed the procedure with another doctor, said: "Mr. Young had a dangerous brain aneurysm and was treated successfully by the minimally invasive neuroradiology team here. He is now resting comfortably ... but we strongly recommend that he not travel for several days." Young had been expected to perform Sunday at the Juno Awards

Pope John Paul II Legacy For all his erudition and mysticism, Pope John Paul II was a gloriously human pope, not pale and other-worldly from years in a Vatican bureaucracy, but fully rounded and robust from toiling in the harsh light of the real world. This pope felt the sting of his parents' deaths at an early age, worked with his hands, heard the rock-hard cacophony of a quarry and the boom of Nazi bombs, enjoyed belting out a good song. He lived an outsized, epic life -- so full of novelistic, even cinematic, twists of plot that it might well have been written by Charles Dickens and filmed by Steven Spielberg. A major element of his uniqueness was his stunning versatility. In many fields of endeavor, Karol Wojtyla (pronounced voy-TEE-wah) was outrageously adept: as a poet, an athlete, a linguist, a playwright, an actor, a philosopher,an economic critic, a deft political strategist. His writing output was breathtaking in its volume and variety: from a tender, heartbreaking poem for his dead mother, to encyclicals that thundered against the relativism of the modern world by restating moral certainties and proclaiming "The Splendor of Truth," as he named one encyclical. Only one pope ever wrote a play about married life, "The Jeweler's Shop," that became a movie starring Burt Lancaster in 1988. No other pope can claim to have both lionized a man on the stage and then canonized him at the altar. As a seminarian and a young priest, Wojtyla wrote a play, "The Brother of Our God," about one of his Polish heroes, Adam Chmielowski, a 19th-Century artist, Polish patriot and founder of the Albertine Brothers and the Albertine Sisters. "This was my way of repaying a debt of gratitude to him," John Paul wrote in "Gift and Mystery," a 1996 book on the 50th anniversary of his ordination. As pope, John Paul canonized him and called that "one of my greatest joys." No other bishop of Rome has ever combined the monastic level of mysticism that attracted John Paul so strongly to the Carmelite order as a young man, with such a powerful, stage-trained ability to connect with large crowds, including adolescents and children six or seven decades his junior. Nor is any pope, past or future, likely to surpass John Paul's deep and existential connection to the Holocaust. Wojtyla's participation in a secret seminary and an underground theater exposed him daily to the threat of arrest and consignment to a concentration camp, and he saw his Jewish friends disappear into the jaws of the Nazi killing machine. Later, as pope, he translated this profound empathy into the greatest advances ever in Catholic-Jewish relations. In addition to his bountiful talents, John Paul always enjoyed the patronage of powerful church leaders -- from Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, the archbishop of Krakow, who first noticed Wojtyla as an 18-year-old student, recruited him, ordained him a priest and played a major role in launching his career, to Pope Paul VI, who admired him and prized his advice. Wojtyla became an auxiliary bishop at age 38, archbishop of Krakow at 43 and a cardinal at 47. He was only 58 -- much younger than the norm for a pope -- when he was elected to the papacy in 1978, becoming the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in 1522-1523. In choosing Wojtyla, the College of Cardinals opted for a vigorously healthy young man to succeed Pope John Paul I, whose papacy lasted only a month before he died. Wojtyla loved to hike, ski and kayak, and he displayed boundless energy and prodigious capacity for working long hours. No one who knew him as a young man would have been shocked to learn that his life would unfold well. Though his mother died just before his ninth birthday and his brother and father had both died before he was 21, his loneliness and tragedy were surrounded by accomplishment. He was always at the top of his class, but he did not fit the stereotype of the delicate, introverted genius. He loved sports and his abundant charm made him a student leader. His emerging theatrical skill brought him positions as an actor and director in Wadowice, the town where he was born on May 18, 1920. In 1938, Archbishop Sapieha visited his high school, and Wojtyla's welcoming speech impressed him. Sapieha asked a local priest whether Wojtyla was interested in the seminary. But Wojtyla told Sapieha that he planned to attend the Jagiellonian University and study Polish philology -- a natural choice for someone interested in poetry and drama. In his 1995 book, "Pope John Paul: The Biography," Tad Szulc reports that the priest later told Sapieha over dinner that young Wojtyla was smitten with the theater. "Too bad, too bad," Sapieha said. "We could use him." That summer, after his high school graduation, Wojtyla and his friends had to serve in a paramilitary labor battalion, where he peeled potatoes and built roads. Then he and his father moved into a basement apartment in Krakow, near the Jagiellonian. There, as in high school, he became a student leader. For all Wojtyla's charm, however, his friends found him to have a strong sense of privacy, a tightly held inner space where his thoughts were his own. It was at the Jagiellonian that he began to express those thoughts in a torrent of poetry and plays. And it was the Nazi invasion in 1939 that made theater for him not just a pleasant avocation but a necessary, almost religious assertion of national pride. "It was essential to keep these theatrical get-togethers secret; otherwise we risked serious punishment from the occupying forces, even deportation to the concentration camps," John Paul wrote in "Gift and Mystery," his book about his priesthood. "I must admit that the whole experience of the theater left a deep impression on me, even though at a certain point I came to realize that this was not my real vocation." On Sept. 1, 1939, as the Nazis bombed Krakow, Wojtyla and a friend were in the streets, surrounded by the mayhem. The occupation that followed sorely tested not only the national spirit, but Wojtyla's own. Cracking down on intellectuals, the Nazis deported his professors. To avoid deportation he had to take a job at a quarry. That later inspired a long poem, "The Quarry." It was here that Wojtyla developed his sense of what it was like to be a working man, an unusual trait in a modern pope. But his co-workers saw his intelligence and made it possible for him to study even on the job. "It did not bother them that I brought books to work," he wrote in 1996. "They would say: 'We'll keep watch. You go ahead and read.'" When Wojtyla decided in 1942 to study for the priesthood, he entered an underground seminary. His life revolved around the seminary, his daytime job, and an enterprise that could have earned him deportation: the development of the underground theater. In 1944, as he walked home from work, a German army truck hit and nearly killed him. Later that year, after the Warsaw Uprising, the Nazis rounded up young men in Krakow; Wojtyla barely avoided arrest. After the war, Cardinal Sapieha ordained him in 1946. Soon after that, Wojtyla headed off to Rome -- his first venture outside Poland -- to study theology and the ancient city itself. During this period, he traveled in both France and Belgium, visiting the country church in Ars where St. John Mary Vianney, a 19th-century priest who was the best- known confessor of his time, had spent as many as 18 hours a day hearing confessions and offering spiritual advice. In 1948, he completed his first of two doctorates, this one in theology. His dissertation focused on the Spanish Carmelite mystic, St. John of the Cross. Then he returned to Poland to begin serving in a parish outside Krakow. "When I finally reached the territory of Niegowic parish, I knelt down and kissed the ground," he wrote in "Gift and Mystery." "It was a gesture I had learned from St. John Mary Vianney." And it was a gesture that he was to repeat many times as pope, on his first visit to a country. Less than a year later, he was transferred to a parish in Krakow, where he worked extensively with secondary school and college students. In that parish and in his university chaplaincy, he built what he came to call his Srodowisko, his milieu or environment. Young people in that setting found him charmingly open, willing to listen, charismatic and athletic -- on hikes, in kayaks and on skis. They called him Wujek, "Uncle," to avoid trouble, because the Polish communist regime forbade priests from working with groups of young people. In 1951, Sapieha's successor as archbishop of Krakow, Eugeniusz Baziak, sent Wojtyla off on a two-year academic sabbatical to work on a second doctorate, this time in philosophy. His study focused on phenomenology, a school of philosophy that tried to take account of the everyday things of life in its examination of the great questions. In 1953, he began lecturing on social ethics at the Jagiellonian University. Later, he taught ethics at the Catholic University of Lublin. His lectures on sexual ethics became his book "Love and Responsibility." During the 1950s, he had to do his teaching, writing and pastoral work in the setting of a regime intent on controlling the church. In 1953, the regime shut down Tygodnik Powszechny, an independent Catholic weekly that had carried Wojtyla's poetry and essays. Wojtyla went to the newspaper, heard sad tales about the financial straits that its journalists now faced, and promptly handed a key editor half of his own monthly salary to give to the editors. The young priest continued turning over a third to a half of his own salary, and other priests began to do the same. That same year, Wojtyla's teaching appeared in an underground book called "Catholic Social Ethics," which first came to general knowledge in the West in Jonathan Kwitny's 1997 book, "Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II." In an interview in 1997, a year before his death, Kwitny said: "This book is a very specific economic program which I think would shock many Catholics." The book cautioned against overzealous nationalism, criticized unregulated capitalism and outlined rules for social struggle similar to those later proclaimed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It also condemned war in stark terms: "War is evil. It should be avoided even as a last resort to restore justice between countries, because it may result in even greater evil and injustice than it combats." This book, like his financial support for the unemployed journalists, may have eluded the attention of the state. But he had also demonstrated his grit publicly by forcing local officials to back down from taking over a seminary, and by preaching sermons that carried what can only be called thinly veiled references to repression by the government. "There was ample evidence that Wojtyla was going to be a troublemaker," said George Weigel, author of "Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II," the authorized biography published in 1999. If the government had been paying sufficient attention, it should have marked him as a man to be watched carefully and suppressed at all costs. Inexplicably, however, Zenon Kliszko, the Communist Party's chief ideologue, failed to appreciate how much of a threat Bishop Wojtyla represented to the state. When Archbishop Baziak of Krakow died in 1962, the selection of his successor had to go through a process that the state and the church had agreed upon in 1956. The primate of the Polish church, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, would consult with the Vatican about potential successors, and then Wyszynski would submit the names to the government, which had three months to veto the appointment. Kliszko kept vetoing name after name. In private, he made it clear that he was waiting for the Vatican to nominate Wojtyla. "Why? Because I think he thought Wojtyla was a kind of light-headed intellectual who could be manipulated into a position of opposition to Wyszynski," Weigel said. "One must always always remember that the communist strategy with the church was to try to divide and conquer." If that was the strategy, it was based on a total misreading of Wojtyla and breathtaking obtuseness on Kliszko's part. Finally, 18 months after Baziak's death, Kliszko got his way: The church announced that Wojtyla would be the next archbishop of Krakow. Only three years later, Pope Paul VI, who had a strong relationship with Wojtyla, named him a cardinal. And when Paul VI died in 1978 and his successor died only a month after his election, Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II. To the surprise of some Vatican insiders, instead of knuckling down immediately to work on internal questions, his earliest work as pope focused heavily on his native land. His triumphal return to Poland in 1979, less than eight months after his election as pope, rattled the nation's communist leaders, emboldened the workers and started a long, inexorable chain of map-changing events. By 1979, the Polish government had experienced Wojtyla as archbishop and cardinal, and officials knew him to be a formidable opponent. Now, he was expressing a desire to come back to Poland as pope, and the government resolved to do everything possible to contain the damage. The first issue was timing. John Paul wanted to visit on May 8, 1979, the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Stanislaw, his most illustrious predecessor as the shepherd of Krakow's Catholics. The saint's death at the hands of King Boleslaw had made him a great hero for most Poles, including John Paul, who had once played the role of Boleslaw on stage. Just before his election as pope, Wojtyla had written a poem titled "Stanislaw," and in his speeches, he often cited Stanislaw's heroic example. For Poles, Stanislaw embodied the church's resistance to the state, and the government wanted no part of a papal visit on the anniversary of his martyrdom. Ultimately, John Paul visited Poland in June, and he did not shrink from mentioning Stanislaw. The regime did everything it could to minimize his impact, such as making sure that TV cameras focused tightly on John Paul and didn't show the huge crowds -- an estimated 12 million Poles saw him in person during that visit. At one event in Warsaw, as many as 1 million people heard him say: "Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe." The huge crowd roared back, over and over: "We want God," an unnerving sound for the regime. The ostensible reason for his visit was to promote his first encyclical, "Redemptor Hominis" (Redeemer of Man), emphasizing the dignity of the human person, which became a theme of his papacy. On his visit to the concentration camp Auschwitz, John Paul asked a group of bishops: "Can anyone on this Earth be surprised that a pope who came from the archdiocese which contains this camp started his first encyclical with the words 'Redemptor Hominis,' and that he devoted it in full to the cause of man, the dignity of man, the threats facing man, the rights of man?" In one section of the document, he used the word "solidarity" prominently. It may never be entirely certain that the Solidarity movement took its name from that word in the encyclical, but Weigel feels confident of the relationship. "I think the parallelism between his constant use of that word and the adoption of that by the movement is just so self-evident," Weigel said. Once the Solidarity movement began, John Paul played a significant role in nurturing it through its confrontations with the Polish government. In the difficult spring of 1981, as the movement grew, the press in the Soviet Union verbally attacked John Paul. A few weeks later, a Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca physically attacked the pope. Agca had previously assassinated the editor of an Istanbul newspaper and had threatened to assassinate the pope during his 1979 visit to Turkey. During a regular Wednesday afternoon papal audience in St. Peter's Square, Agca fired two shots at John Paul as he rode through the crowd. When doctors later opened the pope's abdomen, they found about six pints of blood and injuries to the colon and the small intestine. They had to remove about 22 inches of intestine. The bullet had narrowly missed a main artery. The failed assassination had occurred on the anniversary of the first Marian apparition at Fatima, and the pope attributed his survival to Mary's intervention. On the first anniversary of the assassination attempt, he visited the shrine at Fatima and said that his survival was no accident, that "in the designs of Providence there are no mere coincidences." At Agca's trial, the formal verdict held that he had not acted alone, but named no co-conspirators. No one has tied the shooting definitively to communist anger over John Paul's role in Poland, but that suspicion lingered. In 1983, the pope visited Agca in prison and forgave him. A few months after the assassination attempt, the new Polish leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, declared a "state of war," imposed martial law and ordered mass arrests to crack down on Solidarity. The general had all of the state's military power on his side, and the pope had only the power of moral force, but when John Paul returned to Poland in 1983, in a meeting between the two men, Jaruzelski visibly trembled, and later acknowledged that he had been nervous. Weeks after John Paul's visit, Jaruzelski formally ended the "state of war" in Poland. The events in Poland were an overture to the collapse of communism in Europe at the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s, but in John Paul's behind-the-scenes maneuvering in Europe, some details remain in dispute. One version comes from Carl Bernstein, who covered the Watergate scandal for the Washington Post. In a 1992 Time magazine article, Bernstein wrote about "The Holy Alliance" between President Ronald Reagan and John Paul, primarily run by the White House, that kept Solidarity alive. He described meetings between White House and Vatican aides to further this cooperation. Later, he expanded this account in a 1996 book that he wrote with Italian reporter Marco Politi, "His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time." For Kwitny, reports of a Reagan-John Paul alliance were totally unsubstantiated. Kwitny wrote that the Time article was "a work of fiction from beginning to end." Perhaps the definitive verdict comes from one of the primary players on the opposing side. "Everything that happened in Eastern Europe in these last few years would have been impossible without the presence of this Pope and without the important role -- including the political role -- that he played on the world stage," wrote former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, in the newspaper La Stampa of Turin, Italy, in 1992. John Paul stood up to totalitarianism, and at times, he made its knees shake. Describing his time under totalitarianism, John Paul told Weigel: "I participated in the great experience of my contemporaries -- humiliation at the hands of evil." But he overcame the humiliation, because his life reflected the simple words of Jesus that he used so often in his papacy: "Be not afraid." From his election to his death, John Paul remained true to that. He simply did not fear.

And yet one more article......... CBS begins accepting applications for 'Big Brother 6', announces casting calls By Steve Rogers, 03/27/2005 CBS announced Thursday that it has begun accepting applications for Big Brother 6, the latest installment of its long-running reality franchise. Once again produced by Arnold Shapiro and Allison Grodner, Big Brother 6 will air in Summer 2005. As in previous seasons, Big Brother 6 will follow a group of strangers living in a specially constructed house outfitted with dozens of cameras that record their moves 24 hours a day. "Big Brother 6 has some big surprises that will soon be revealed," said Shapiro. "Our goal this summer is to assemble the most colorful, competitive, and charismatic houseguests we've ever had. Right now, we're seeking the most memorable and exciting competitors we can find." "Coming up with the best houseguests and the most surprising twists are the most challenging-yet-rewarding parts of producing Big Brother. This summer we look forward to delivering a terrific cast and surprising new twists," added Grodner. While CBS isn't yet revealing any of the new season's surprises, it least one of them has been known since last fall -- the construction of a new two-story Big Brother house. Demolished following the September 2004 of Big Brother 5, the show's previous house had served (albeit with annual redecorating) as the set for all of the show's first five seasons. Mail-in applications and instructions can be downloaded from CBS.com. A two-minute videotape and two color photographs must accompany all completed applications. The deadline for mail-in applications is April 8. In addition to accepting mail-in applications, CBS has also announced upcoming nationwide casting calls on the following dates and locations: - March 28, Green Bay, WI - March 30. Boston, MA - March 31. Springfield, MO - March 31. Grand Junction, CO - April 1. Philadelphia, PA - April 2. Bakersfield, CA - April 2. Miami, FL - April 2. Columbus, MS - April 2. Bedford, VA - April 3. New York, NY - April 3. Los Angeles, CA - April 5. Raytown, MO - April 5. Bay City, MI - April 6. Waterford, MI - April 7. Quincy, IL - April 7. Cleveland, OH - April 8. Austin, TX Additional casting call information is available from CBS.com.

Man Pleads Not Guilty in Letterman Case The man accused of plotting to kidnap US chat show host David Letterman's 16-month-old son Harry and his nanny plead not guilty to the charges yesterday morning. Kelly Frank, 43, faces felony charges of solicitation and theft and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction. The judge ordered him to remain jailed on bail pending his next court appearance on April 5. Frank, a painter who had been hired to do work on Letterman's ranch in north-central Montana, was arrested last week after an acquaintance told investigators he had planned to kidnap the comedian's son and the child's nanny. The acquaintance said Frank talked about holding the two for 48 hours in the belief that he could extort $5 million from Letterman. According to court records, Frank said he had a key to Letterman's house and even knew where the child slept. Frank's attorney, Jim Hunt, referred to the exchange as a "lighthearted conversation", before adding, "(Frank) has agreed there were discussions about it, but with no purpose of carrying it out."

Sheen's Parents Lash Out at Press Reports Charlie Sheen's parents have gone public with their distaste about press reports suggesting the actor's wild ways were responsible for his recent split from wife Denise Richards. The former Bond girl shocked Hollywood last month when she filed for divorce from the former bad boy, leading to speculation the actor had returned to his womanizing ways. Neither Sheen nor Richards have spoken about the reasons for their split, but now his father Martin Sheen has issued a statement to the US media, urging them to lay off his son - because the split is not his fault. Sheen states, "While we profoundly care, we have never interfered with our adult children's romantic relationships or marriages. What happens between two people in a relationship or marriage is so private and deeply personal that it is not possible for anyone outside to truly understand or judge responsibly. The marriage between Charlie and Denise is no exception. Having clarified that, we cannot remain silent during what appears to be a ruthless and savage attack by the media on Charlie's character. To imply that he is in any way regressing to the behavior (sic) that cost him so dearly and almost ended his life just seven years ago is not only the lowest form of journalism, but sinks to the level of defamation. With the graves of some of our brightest young talent still fresh, it would behoove us all to pause and give thanks for Charlie's remarkable success and heroic recovery."

One reputation is in tatters, another could be Jason Stark,Senior writer ESPN Once, he was compared to Babe Ruth. Thursday, he was compared to Enron. That's not what you call a great day on Capitol Hill. But that's the kind of day it was for a fallen living legend named Mark McGwire. People are never going to look at him the same now. Not after a day of dodging questions the way he once dodged fastballs steaming toward his eyebrows. Legally, of course, McGwire didn't have to answer those questions. Remember that. The men who wrote the Constitution handed him that right. So in a way, all he did was exercise his fundamental right to avoid ensconcing himself in a whole mess of trouble. But a lot of good that will do Not So Big Mac with millions of people who once loved him, cheered him, froze their existences those four times a night when he walked toward home plate. It was way too clear what he didn't want to talk about and why he didn't want to talk about it. Now he has to know, just as we know, what that means. It means he drove his reputation off a cliff Thursday, and left his legacy irreparably splattered. Very possibly beyond repair. He didn't want to talk about the past. That's what he said. But now, that part he didn't want to talk about is all anyone else will ever want to talk about. And that ain't good. Once, we could reminisce for hours about that 70-homer magic-carpet ride seven years deep in his past. Witnessing that was the thrill of a lifetime -- at the time. Now, that's the portion of his past we won't want to talk about anymore. That was one fairy tale that won't be ending happily ever after now. "There's a simple way to solve this," Rep. Mark Souder lectured him Thursday, "(by saying), 'I am clean.'

Soap Star Sweeney, Husband Welcome Son Congratulations to Alison Sweeney (Sami Brady) and husband David Sanov on the birth of their first child. Their son, Benjamin Edward, was born February 25th at 10:30am. The bouncing baby boy weighed in at 7lbs. Sweeney recently took a three-month maternity leave from Days of our Lives. The actress was able to pre-tape some scenes, so her on-screen presence will not be too long. In her absence, DAYS has hired a male actor - yes, a male -- to portray the character of Sami. There's no real gender-bender, though; Sami will go undercover as a man. Sweeney's husband recently broke into daytime television when he portrayed a state trooper on DAYS. In real life, Sanov is a police officer.

DAYS Star Hall, Husband Announce Divorce After 13 years of marriage, Days of our Lives star Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans) and husband Steve Sohmer are divorcing. "As you can imagine, this is a truly difficult time," Hall said in a statement. "My primary concern is for my children and their well-being. I am deeply grateful for the sensitivity I have seen in many of your comments. Thank you for your caring and for continuing to respect our privacy." Sohmer and Hall married in a spectacular December 31st, 1991 ceremony at Sohmer's 17th-century home in England. The couple has two sons by a surrogate mother, 12-year-old David and 10-year-old Tully. Hall joined the cast of Days of our Lives in 1976 and remained with the show through 1987, when she took a brief hiatus to pursue primetime projects. She returned in 1991 and has been with the show ever since. Last year the actress signed a two-year contract extension through August 2006.

Wagners Headed Back to Divorce Court Attempts to avert divorce have apparently failed and veteran soap actors Jack Wagner (Nick Marone, The Bold and the Beautiful) and Kristina Wagner (Felicia Jones, General Hospital) are once again headed to divorce court. The couple met in the early 1980s when they co-starred on ABC's General Hospital. Together, the couple had a child, son Peter, in 1990. Shortly thereafter, the pair split. They later reunited and were married in December 1993. A year later, the couple had a second son, Harrison. In February 2001, the couple revealed that they had separated and that they planned to divorce. However, by 2004, the couple was apparently working to reconcile their differences. They attended the 44th Annual Monte Carlo Television Festival in Monaco that year, revealing that their divorce papers had never been signed. Reps for the Wagners had no comment on the couple's separation.

Fiancee: Letterman Suspect Falsely Accused The fiancee of a Montana man charged with plotting to kidnap David Letterman's son said her husband-to-be is being falsely accused by a childhood friend he had a falling out with. Kelly A. Frank was arrested Monday after the estranged friend told authorities that Frank had confided a plan to kidnap 16-month-old Harry Joseph Letterman and his nanny for $5 million in ransom. Frank, 43, and the informant not only had been friends since they were 10 but also had worked together at the talk-show host's ranch, west of Choteau, Mont., said the fiancee, Laurie Johnson. In interviews published Saturday, Johnson told the New York Daily News and New York Post that the estranged friend has a "personal vendetta" against Frank because of a fight they had at work, and has been trying to incriminate him ever since. Johnson said the informant twisted an offhand remark Frank had made about Letterman increasing security at the ranch into a threat against the child. "He has always had great respect for Letterman," Johnson, 40, told the Daily News. "He felt privileged to be able to go up there and work for him." Frank is charged with felony solicitation, felony theft for allegedly overcharging Letterman for painting work and misdemeanor obstruction for allegedly lying to an FBI agent who first questioned him about the plot. He is being held on $600,000 bail and is scheduled to make his next court appearance Tuesday. Authorities in Teton County, Mont., said it was not clear whether Frank had an attorney yet. He had not been assigned a public defender as of Friday afternoon. Frank previously pleaded guilty to stalking and intimidating a woman who alleges he also kidnapped and raped her. He is on probation in the stalking case, with a 10-year suspended prison sentence, but Lewis and Clark County petitioned a judge Thursday to revoke his probation after learning of the alleged plot targeting the talk-show host's only child. The woman Frank admitted stalking obtained protective orders against him, but he was charged at least twice with violating them, according to court records. Court documents were not clear about the relationship. Frank has been divorced more than once. The woman told Helena, Mont., police that beginning in the spring of 1997, Frank stalked and harassed her for months. She said that one occasion he raped her, and in another, he kidnapped and drove her from Helena to Seeley Lake, more than 100 miles away. Frank received a six-month county jail sentence for stalking and a suspended, 10-year prison sentence for intimidation.

Hey ranster..are you my brother?? We do seem to think alot alike!

Welcome Home everyone. The house is filling up again. Theres no place like home :wink:

IMHO, I think that Mark admitted guilt by not denying steroid use when he had ample opportunity to do so.

Welcolm Home Art!

Letterman Kidnap Plot Foiled David Letterman holds a photo of his new son, Harry Joseph Letterman born in November, 2003. (CBS/AP) David Letterman and his girlfriend thanked law enforcement officials for uncovering a plot to kidnap their 16-month-old son from their Montana ranch, saying they were "forever grateful." The man charged Thursday with hatching the scheme, Kelly A. Frank, worked as a painter at the talk-show host's 2,700-acre spread near the rugged Rocky Mountain Front. The 43-year-old Frank, according to police, had planned to hold the boy and his nanny for $5 million ransom. "The thought was to kidnap the nanny and the child so the nanny could take care of the child during this period of the kidnapping," said Mike Ferriter of the Montana Dept of Corrections. In a statement issued by the publicist for Letterman's production company, World Wide Pants, Letterman and his girlfriend, Regina Lasko, praised the FBI and local authorities. "We will be forever grateful for their tireless efforts and determination to vigorously pursue this situation," the couple said. Steven Rubenstein, a spokesman for World Wide Pants, said he could not comment on whether Letterman's family was in Montana at the time of Frank's arrest. The host of CBS's "Late Show" taped three programs earlier this week, but the network's coverage of the men's college basketball tournament pre-empted his Thursday and Friday shows. Ferriter said Frank had been working as a painter at Letterman's ranch west of Choteau in north-central Montana and apparently confided in an acquaintance earlier this month of his plan to kidnap Letterman's son and nanny for ransom. According to the affidavit filed by Teton County Attorney Joe Coble, Frank had told the acquaintance that he knew Letterman and his family would be visiting their Montana home soon, and that Frank had a key to the house, knew where the baby slept and intended to kidnap the nanny "so that she could take care of the child." The acquaintance contacted authorities Sunday, according to the affidavit. Sheriff George Anderson told the weekly Choteau Acantha newspaper that Frank was arrested the following morning at another area ranch where he was working. Besides the felony solicitation charge, Frank is charged with felony theft for allegedly overcharging Letterman for painting, and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction for lying to an investigator about the alleged plot. He was convicted back in 1999 for holding his then girlfriend against her will, reports CBS News Correspondent Trish Regan. Frank is jailed in neighboring Pondera County on $600,000 bail. It was not immediately clear whether Frank had an attorney. The Acantha said he did not have a lawyer present when he appeared in court Thursday. Suspect Kelly A. Frank (Photo: Montana Department of Corrections) His father, Robert Frank, told the New York Daily News for its Friday editions that he hoped the authorities had made a mistake. "I didn't see this coming," the newspaper quoted Frank, 75, as saying. "I just can't imagine him even thinking like that. I don't think he'd ever seen Letterman in his life." Letterman bought the ranch in 1999. In 2003, a black bear broke into Letterman's home twice, then was captured and relocated after returning a third time. On Nov. 3, 2003, Lasko gave birth to the couple's son. The boy, Letterman's first child, was named after the comedian's late father, Harry Joseph Letterman. For years, Letterman was targeted by a stalker who called herself "Mrs. David Letterman" and broke into his Connecticut house at least seven times. Margaret Ray eventually pleaded guilty to breaking and entering. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, she served 10 months in prison and 14 months in a mental institution. In 1998, she committed suicide at age 46 by kneeling in front of a train.

Welcome Home TwinkleToes and Blue

Husband of 'Monk' Co-Star Seeks Divorce Traylor Howard The husband of "Monk" co-star Traylor Howard is seeking to end their nearly two-year marriage. Christian Navarro filed for divorce Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Navarro, a wine merchant, and Howard married in April 2003, but have been separated since May 1, court documents said. The couple have no children. Howard plays the assistant to Tony Shalhoub's character, detective Adrian Monk, on the USA Network show. C---Ya!

Man in Letterman Kidnap Plot Arrested in Montana Authorities have arrested a man on allegations he was plotting to kidnap David Letterman's young son and nanny from the talk-show host's Montana home. Sally Hilander, a spokeswoman for the Montana Department of Corrections, identified the suspect who was under state supervision for a previous crime as Kelly A. Frank. The plot was uncovered when someone whom Frank had approached about the plan informed local police, Hilander said. Frank was in custody on a felony charge of solicitation. Steven Rubenstein, a spokesman for Letterman's production company World Wide Pants, said he could not immediately comment or say whether Letterman or his family was in Montana at the time of Frank's arrest. Mike Ferriter of the state Department of Corrections said Frank, 43, was arrested Sunday and arraigned Thursday. He had been working as a painter at Letterman's ranch west of Choteau in northcentral Montana, Ferriter said. "An individual was approached by Mr. Frank, an acquaintance of some kind, about his thought on the kidnapping, and (Frank) shared his idea with this individual," Ferriter said. "I'm not sure if he asked him to assist or be a part of it. " Letterman's girlfriend, Regina Lasko, gave birth to their son on Nov. 3, 2003. Letterman said that the boy, his first child, was named after his late father, Harry Joseph Letterman. The comedian who hosts CBS' "Late Show" bought the 2,700-acre spread in 1999. Letterman's ranch is along the edge of the rugged Rocky Mountain Front, an area known for its pristine wildlife habitats and home to wolves, eagles and grizzly bears. In September 2003, a black bear broke into Letterman's home twice before being captured and relocated after returning a third time. For years, Letterman was famously targeted by a stalker, who called herself "Mrs. David Letterman" and broke into his Connecticut house at least seven times. Margaret Ray eventually pleaded guilty to breaking and entering. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, she served 10 months in prison and 14 months in a mental institution. In 1998, she committed suicide at age 46 by kneeling in front of a train.

Welcome to Morty's Blackcat3!. I go by the nic Salter Path because it is my private place to go where I can meditate, feel the ocean breeze, and escape into my own world. I have 2 Maltese dogs named Baxter and Molly that are the masters of my universe. Now that you are officially no longer a lurker, flex those fingers, stretch your arms, pull your chair close to your monitor and join in the fun!

Zellweger Desperate for a Break Cold Mountain star Renee Zellweger is escaping the limelight for a year in a desperate bid to avoid burning out. The hardworking beauty, 35, has found that constant film-making is taking its toll, and she's determined to discover more about herself while she's on hiatus. She says, "I'd like to take a year off from filming. I would like to not go into a make-up trailer for a year." The star, currently dating Irish singer Damien Rice, fears that fatigue will prevent her from being at her best on set. She adds, "I don't think I'd have so much to give to a project that I was participating in right now because I'm in such need of a break." Texas-born Zellweger is also keen to use her hard-earned break to reflect on her life so far. She explains, "I want some time to consider my options. I want to figure out who I am as a grown-up woman. I need to refuel. I need to live a bit as just a girl and not as somebody else."

Robert Blake Acquitted of Murder LOS ANGELES - A jury acquitted tough-guy actor Robert Blake (news) of murder Wednesday in the shooting death of his wife four years ago, bringing a stunning end to a case that played out like pulp fiction. The jury also acquitted Blake of one charge of trying to get someone to kill his wife, but deadlocked on a second solicitation charge. The jury voted 11-1 in favor of acquittal and the judge dismissed the count. The 71-year-old star of the 1970s detective drama "Baretta" dropped his head, trembled with emotion and sobbed heavily as the verdict was read. He hugged his lawyer and later almost fell while reaching for a water bottle. The adult daughter of Blake's wife sobbed quietly in the back of the courtroom. The jury of seven men and five women delivered the verdicts on its ninth day of deliberations, following a trial with a cast a characters that included two Hollywood stuntmen who said Blake tried to get them to bump off his wife. Blake had faced life in prison; prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. Blake was charged with shooting 44-year-old Bonny Lee Bakley in their car outside the actor's favorite Italian restaurant on May 4, 2001, less than six months after their marriage. The defense called it a weak case built largely on the testimony of the two stuntment

Robert Blake Not Guilty of 1st Degee Murder. Not Guilty of Solitation of Murder