PASSAGES: Beyonce Blasts Backbiters

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/09/2002 at 01:00 AM EDT

ADVISED: Destiny's Child singer Beyonce Knowles, 20, speaking to Britain's Radio Times, has told young people who wish to be in show biz to beware of backbiters who "can drive you crazy and mess with your head. You have to be super-strong because people say things about you." She also stated that she and fellow group members Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, both 21, would "remain together as long as we have fun onstage and make good records. But I wouldn't suggest this as a career for anyone," she emphasized. . . . PREPARED: Sharon Stone, 44, who hasn't had a box-office hit since her star-making turn in 1992's "Basic Instinct" (though she received an Oscar nomination for 1995's "Casino"), is negotiating to costar with Rupert Everett in the spy drama "A Different Loyalty" and the family picture "Liar's Club," reports Variety. Both are independent productions. . . . DIED: Pixilated pioneering Disney animator Ward Kimball, 88, who helped modernize the look of Mickey Mouse in 1938 and who created Jiminy Cricket for 1940's "Pinocchio," died of natural causes in a California hospital Monday, the Walt Disney Co. said in a statement. Kimball, one of the legendary nine old men of animation, started working for Disney in 1934 and stayed until his retirement in 1973, though he would long remain a proud spokesman of what he did for Walt and Mickey. . . . ARRESTED: Christi Lee Wilcox, 26, was taken into custody at the posh Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York on Monday for having interrupted Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, 28, on the field at Yankee Stadium on April 5 and giving him her phone number, says The New York Times. (Jeter reportedly pocketed the info and used his glove to hide his smile.) Wilcox, who works at Bergdorf, had missed her May 30 court date on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing, authorities told The Times. She was released on her own recognizance.