A Powerball Win, A Backstreet Loss

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday August 31, 2001 10:00 AM EDT

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WON: Delaware first-grade teacher Kathleen Kearney and her brother, Michael, a lawyer, both in their 50s, came forward Thursday to claim their share of the $298.4 million Powerball jackpot, $73.7 million. It took them so long, she said, because they couldn't get their state lottery office on the phone. So they drove there . . . LOST: After failing to prove it had any rights to the Backstreet Boys trademark, the California-based Backstreet Boys Productions Inc. (which makes the band's merchandise) lost its cybersquatting case against Web sites with similar but misspelled versions of the group's name, international arbitrators ruled in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday . . . SPLIT: British actress Joely Richardson, 36, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and late director Tony Richardson, and TV producer Jamie Theakston, 30, "split up a few weeks ago, but they remain very close friends," her spokeswoman told Reuters. Richardson recently starred Off Broadway with Macaulay Culkin in "Madame Melville" . . . BUSTED: Actor Greg Vaughan, 28, of the WB show "Charmed," was arrested for investigation of drunken driving after he was pulled over for apparently weaving in traffic and speeding Thursday morning in Hollywood, said police. He was released pending a court appearance . . . REINSTATED: Variety editor Peter Bart, 69, who'd been suspended from his job without pay for 21 days after Los Angeles magazine quoted him making offensive comments and accused him of selling a script while running the trade paper, will return to work Sept. 10. He's also been ordered to sit through diversity training, said his publisher, which is donating Bart's blocked pay to "appropriate organizations dedicated to . . . diversity" . . . SUBPOENED: Rappers Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule and Grammy-winning reggae performer Beenie Man were all charged Thursday with using indecent language during performances in the recent Sumfest music festival in the Jamaican resort town of Montego Bay. They have a court date scheduled for Sept. 27 . . . INDICTED: During a $1 million identity-fraud scheme aimed at credit-card companies and casinos that lasted for several years, Texan Patrick Michael Penker, 54, used variations of the name of a law firm inspired by a Three Stooges episode ("Dewey, Cheatem & Howe") to obtain cashier's checks from banks, reports the Associated Press. This week, Parker pleaded guilty in federal court and could get up 40 years in prison and $1 million in fines. No sentencing date has been set.

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