WEEK IN REVIEW: Tom Sends Off Rosie

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday May 24, 2002 10:00 AM EDT

FAREWELL CRUISE: Tom Cruise showed up to cap Rosie O'Donnell's six years as host of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" in a segment that aired Wednesday. As the hour-long finale was coming to a close, O'Donnell, 40, quipped, "I didn't know how to end the show and I was thinking, 'Who would be the right guy?' Funny, this is who came to mind." And on came a tape showing Cruise, 39, cruising along some grass with a lawn mower before turning to the camera and proffering a drink. "Rosie, I cut your lawn," Cruise said. "Here's your lemonade." All this was in reference to Rosie's admission, in light of her being gay, that as far as her crush on Cruise was concerned, "I never once said I want him naked in a bed doing the nasty. I want him to mow my lawn and get me a lemonade."

CASE, INTERRUPTED: On Wednesday, a judge again delayed the preliminary hearing of Winona Ryder, charged with shoplifting some $5,000 worth of merchandise from the Beverly Hills branch of Saks Fifth Avenue last December, reported the Associated Press. Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox set a new date of June 3, at which time he will determine whether or not Ryder will stand trial. The purpose of the postponement, said AP, is that Ryder's lawyer, Mark Geragos, has a scheduling conflict (he's also representing Rep. Gary Condit). Ryder, 30, remains free on $20,000 bail and faces up to nearly four years in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, burglary, vandalism and possession of a controlled substance.

EARLY EMINEM: Interscope Records will release Eminem's highly anticipated new album, "The Eminem Show," next Monday, a week ahead of schedule, reported Reuters. The company is blaming the jump on the initial June 4 release date on illegal copies already are available to the public. "We're disappointed that inferior pirated copies of 'The Eminem Show' are in circulation," Max Hole, a marketing director for Interscope's parent company, France's Vivendi Universal, told the news service, "which is why we've decided to make the legitimate version available sooner than originally planned." This is the third album for the Detroit-based Grammy winner.

'BARETTA' REDUX: Variety reported that "To Live and Die in Los Angeles" -- an upcoming biography about Bonny Lee Bakley, slain wife of actor Robert Blake -- written by reporter Dennis McDougal, is being developed into a movie by producers Mark Sennet, Alan Jacobs and Mark Hayman. McDougal's book, to be published this summer, tracks detective Robert Ito's investigation of Bakley's killing, as well as her rocky relationship with Blake, said the trade paper.

BADDA BING: Hollywood producer and real-estate scion Steve Bing, 37, who is fighting a paternity claim by ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley, is back in court again -- over another child, reported the Associated Press. Bing has filed a $1 billion-plus lawsuit against MGM studio mogul Kirk Kerkorian, 84, who is questioning the paternity of his ex-wife's 4-year-old daughter. Bing says Kerkorian's lawyers waded through Bing's garbage in search of dental floss for DNA testing to prove that Bing fathered Lisa Bonder Kerkorian's child, which Bing claims constitutes trespassing and an invasion of his privacy. Attorneys for Kirk Kerkorian have said in court that their client is sterile.