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In the news
Compiled from Times wires Company considers gay-oriented channelViacom said Thursday it may introduce a TV channel for what it calls an underserved audience niche. MTV and Showtime, two units of the media conglomerate, are exploring the venture, which has no name and no launch date. "We want to develop something that, when it hits the marketplace, will be right," Showtime executive Mark Greenberg said. Both networks have addressed gay issues in series, MTV in The Real World and Undressed, and Showtime in the 1980s sitcom Brothers and its current drama Queer as Folk. YSL: I'm disgustedDesigner Yves Saint Laurent, who announced his retirement this week, said he is quitting in disgust at an industry ruled by commerce before art. "I have nothing in common with this new world of fashion, which has been reduced to mere window-dressing. Elegance and beauty have been banished," Saint Laurent, 65, was quoted by the weekly Paris Match magazine as saying in an exclusive interview. Saint Laurent said he also was worn out by a career spanning almost 50 years that saw him turn YSL into one of the world's biggest fashion empires. Trial for Di's ex-butlerPrincess Diana's former butler was ordered Thursday to stand trial Oct. 14 on charges of stealing hundreds of items belonging to the late princess and other members of the royal family. Paul Burrell, 43, who did not enter a plea, is accused of taking 328 items, including letters, a bullwhip, records and CDs, from Diana, Prince Charles and Prince William on or before June 30, 1998. Burrell denies all the charges and is free on bond. CouplingsGwen Stefani of No Doubt and longtime boyfriend Gavin Rossdale of Bush are getting married. Rossdale proposed on New Year's morning, Interscope Records said. A wedding date will be set this year. . . . Publicists for actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards confirmed the two are engaged but did not reveal a date. It will be the second marriage for Sheen, 36, and the first for Richards, 29. . . . Joan Collins has confirmed the date of her wedding to husband No. 6, BBC News Online says. Collins, 68, will marry Percy Gibson, 32 years her junior, Feb. 17 in London. Area roundupFriends of Classical Music will hold a remembrance for composer Robert Helps, who died in November, at 10 a.m. Saturday at Borders South, 909 N Dale Mabry, Tampa. . . . Amusement Business magazine rated the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Morsani Hall last year's No. 5-grossing venue with a capacity of 5,000 or less. The 2,600-seat hall grossed $11,343,380 from Dec. 11, 2000, to Dec. 3, 2001, with 135 shows and 28 sellouts. No. 1 was Atlanta's Fox Theatre.
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From the wire |
