PASSAGES: Shirtless Gore Won't Run

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DECLINED: "I've decided that I will not be a candidate in 2004," former Demorcratic Presidential candidate Al Gore, 54, told CBS's "60 Minutes" Sunday night. The interview followed the former Veep's very funny weekend performance as host on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." On it, he parodied embattled Sen. Trent Lott by denying but really stressing pro-segregationist stances. A shirtless Gore also posed in a Jacuzzi, "Bachelor"-style, champagne glass in hand, with a Joe Lieberman lookalike.

SET: A Los Angeles judge set Jan. 15 as the date for Robert Blake, 69, to face questions under oath from a lawyer representing the four children of his dead wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. The children have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the ex-"Baretta" star, who awaits trial for Bakley's murder. But according to Reuters, Blake's civil attorney, Barry Felsen, hinted that his client could invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if asked to testify about the May 4, 2001, murder of his wife.

OFFERED: Tommy Lee, 40, has put his Malibu home up for sale, almost a year and a half after a 4-year-old boy accidentally drowned in his pool during a children's birthday party, the Los Angeles Times reports. The asking price is $3 million. The paper says the former Motley Crue drummer wanted to sell the 7,400-sq.-ft. home to buy a new one with his fiancee, singer and dancer Mayte Garcia.

DIED: Actor Brad Dexter, 85, a star of "The Magnificent Seven" and a longtime handsome Hollywood fixture, died of emphysema Thursday in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Reuters reports. He made his film debut in "The Asphalt Jungle" in 1950 and also starred in 1958's "Run Silent, Run Deep," starring Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable, and 1965's "None but the Brave," starring his buddy Frank Sinatra. Among his wives was the late singer Peggy Lee.

SUCCEEDED: Recovering from a broken foot (sustained last month while rehearsing in London) didn't stop Justin Timberlake, 21, from dancing onstage in front of thousands of screaming fans at New York radio station Z100's annual Jingle Ball concert Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, the Associated Press reports. "The doctor said I shouldn't even be here," said the 'N Sync star. "But you know what? I don't even care. I wanted to be here."