Pitt's Two Ring Circus
Claiming breach of contract, Brad Pitt sues his jeweler

Focus

Brad Pitt was happy to appear in foreign ads for his friend Silvia Damiani's jewelry firm last year. And when he wed Jennifer Aniston, the couple exchanged white gold and diamond Damiani rings. So what's with the $50 million suit the two slapped on the Italian company July 18? Damiani had begun selling copies of the wedding rings and using the couple's photos in ads. This, the suit claims, was unfairly trading "on the tremendous star power of the renowned couple." Not to mention appearing a little tacky. Pitt's side says the only deal the actor had with Damiani was to advertise their products—not including the rings—for a limited time in Europe, without the use of his wife's name or image. Damiani says that "there never existed any type of agreement, contract or pact limiting the production or the commercialization of the rings." Still, an L.A. court temporarily ordered the firm to stop selling the rings. Did Pitt receive the wedding bands or other jewelry as payment for the foreign commercials? Neither side would say.

For Sale: Madonna's Less-Than-Scandalous Days

The latest pop oddity auction (at Sotheby's online): Madonna's 1988 datebook, complete with old phone numbers for Cher and Matt Dillon. The co-owner, collectibles maven Bob Schagrin, bought the book from a guy who, he suspects, pinched it from Madonna's garbage. "Celebrities," he says, "don't realize how valuable their trash is."

2/11: Court date
2/13: Tijuana
2/14: [Valentines Day]: [doodled two hearts]
2/21: Leave for N.Y.
2/23: 1st day of rehearsal
3/21: Andrew Lloyd Webber's B'day party
4/6: 1st dress rehearsal
4/9: Opening of play
4/15: Dad comes in for weekend
4/20: Dawn Steel drinks
5/3: Official opening of play
5/8: [Mother's Day]: Sean comes
5/14: Sean leaves
6/2: Dad's B'day
6/5: Tony Awards
6/26: Sean returns
6/27: Tyson fight
6/28: Sean leaves
7/3: Sean returns
7/11: Photo shoot, Sean leaves
7/14: Photo shoot
7/16: Sean returns
7/18: Sean leaves
7/27: P.S.A. announcement
8/16: My B'day, Anniversary
8/17: Sean's B'day [doodled three hearts underneath]
8/19: Meeting architect
8/28: [doodled two hearts]
9/26: Start recording L.P.
10/16: Democratic fund-raiser
11/1: [doodled two hearts]
11/24: [Thanksgiving Day]: OFF

The Talk of the Town?
Voice-overs

Talk is cheap—except, of course, when it comes to celebrity voice-overs. For about $3 million, Michael Jackson recently signed to read lines in the full-length cartoon The Way of the Unicorn: The Endangered One. That's the same paycheck Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers took home for the summer blockbuster Shrek. "As long as the audience doesn't insist that the actors get dressed before they fork over their money, it seems to be fair to me," says Harry Shearer, who lends The Simpsons his vocal talents. As the voice-over films continue to do well at the box office—Cats & Dogs earned $73 million this year—the performers' salaries, says Shearer, should be based on "how many people the company thinks the actor can put in the seats." Besides, he adds, "is an armada of major league ballplayers going to come over and say, 'Only we can be overpaid'?"

Oscar's Special Friend
With three Oscars of his own, Steven Spielberg doesn't need to buy one. Nonetheless, at a Christie's auction on July 19, he paid $578,000 for Bette Davis's 1938 Best Actress trophy for Jezebel. Spielberg will donate it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, just as he did with Clark Gable's 1934 It Happened One Night Best Actor award, which he bought for $607,500 in 1996. "It was an extremely generous act," says Academy president Robert Rehme. The statue will be kept in a vault—away from promoters, but also hidden from the public.

An Anthem for Maria
For a while, says CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, director Francis Ford Coppola wanted to base a film character on her. After a few meetings, though, he reconsidered. Her problem? Insufficient jerkiness. " 'I had you down as this powerful woman who steps on everyone,' " she recalls he said. " 'Now I realize you're a sweetheart.' " Turns out she had another famous fan: the late punk pioneer Joey Ramone, whose ode "Maria Bartiromo" is on his upcoming album. Sample lyric: "I watch her every night, she's really outta sight."

Is Jurassic Park III a Hit? You Betcha
Think you can predict which movies will be hits? Wanna bet? In Britain, you can. Cantor Index, a London wagering house, has begun taking bets on how much money a film will earn in its opening weekend and overall. "People are absolutely wild for it," says Ian Jenkins, Cantor's head of finance. "Also, gambling profits are tax free in this country, so that helps." After looking at the number of screens booked, the ad budget, popularity polls and other factors, the firm comes up with an amount they believe a film will make; in one of the available wagers, punters simply bet above or below that number. For Jurassic Park III, they predicted a $47-49 million opening weekend; by their system, anyone who wagered $10 that the film would gross more than that would win $10 for each million dollars over Cantor's estimate. (The film's first weekend take was $50 million.) Another big bet: whether Planet of the Apes can trample Jurassic Park III. "Time will tell whether dinosaurs can outpace primates," says Jenkins.

In the Driver's Seat
According to Minnie Driver, there's about zilch to rumors her future stepmother-in-law, Barbra Streisand, is trying to influence the planning of the actress's upcoming wedding to her stepson Josh Brolin. "I haven't even had a conversation with her in three months," Driver said on The Priory, a British chat show. Chances for a Live! from My Stepdaughter-in-Law's Wedding CD from Streisand seem equally slim. Asked whether the singer would perhaps perform a tune, Driver—who noted the singer has "been really nice to me"—replied with a hasty "I don't think so."

Spade Makes Waves
Jet Skiing a little too close to his brothers while vacationing at Arizona's Lake Pleasant in May, Just Shoot Me's David Spade was cited for "reckless operation of a watercraft." A warrant was issued for Spade's arrest when he failed to appear in court about the matter. After a phone call from his concerned mother, who had seen a news account of the arrest warrant, Spade finally fessed up. Pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge on July 18, he paid a $177 fine for what he called "the crime of the century." This may not be the last of his troubles, though. "I'm starting small," he says, poking fun at the positive effect arrests sometimes have on stars' careers. "I want to cram in as much jail time this year as I can so I can get an Emmy."

POP QUIZ

with Tom Selleck

Tom Selleck arrived on Broadway this month as Murray Burns, a television writer struggling to gain custody of his 12-year-old nephew, in the play A Thousand Clowns. Selleck, 56, best known for his 8-year stint on television's Magnum, P.I. and, more recently, as Monica's older boyfriend on the NBC series Friends, is making his stage debut.

The show in a nutshell?

It's about fathers, surrogate fathers and father figures and their importance—that classic American dilemma of balancing free spirit with responsibility.

You dedicate the performance to your father, Robert, who died in March at 79.

My dad was a pretty robust fellow and he got ill suddenly. We had the memorial service about 10 days before I had to start rehearsals. I'm not complaining. That's the nature of this business.

It's still tough.

I think about my dad every day, especially because of the context of this play.

Describe your character.

He's this wonderful free spirit. He's very flawed and irascible. He shouts out of windows. He's very funny—much funnier than I am and much smarter than I am.

What's the most difficult part of taking this show on the road?
The amount of work and rehearsals and the lack of any time with my family.

Will you have more downtime in New York?

Yes. I'll have my days to cruise around. There are a lot of museums I'd like to spend some time in, and maybe I'll go to some baseball games.

Yankees or Mets?

Um, both. I'm going to be real diplomatic about it. I like baseball. I'm probably a Detroit Tigers fan. They need much more help.

Finally, why did you shave that glorious mustache?

I don't spend a whole lot of time dwelling on it. It hasn't made me less strong. It hasn't sapped my strength.

ON THE BLOCK

SPICE RACK

Back in 1998, Geri Halliwell used Girl Power—and about $3.9 million—to purchase and renovate an old convent in the English county of Buckinghamshire and turn it into a country mansion. Now the former Spice Girl is putting the seven-bedroom house on the market for $6.4 million. It features sweeping marble floors and pillars, installed because Halliwell reportedly wanted the 18-acre estate to resemble Tara, the southern plantation in Gone with the Wind. And why will Halliwell soon be gone from the premises? She prefers living in central London, says her rep.

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