FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, January 19, 2001

Fri., Jan. 19, 2001 1:30 PM PST by Emily Farache

HOBBIT HABIT: New Line releasing the trailer for The Lord of the Rings online today at www.lordoftherings.net. The site also offers behind-the-scenes footage and fan interviews.

THE DUMP SHOW: Shock rocker Marilyn Manson and actress Rose McGowan have decided to break off their engagement, almost two years after he first proposed. "There is great love, but our lifestyle difference is, unfortunately, even greater," McGowan says in a brief statement.

MATERIAL MATERIAL: Britney Spears, in Brazil for the giant Rock in Rio music festival, says she is planning to sing a duet with Madonna. Madonna's reps said last week that the two were in early talks to collaborate.

THAT WAS QUICK: Christy Turlington and Saving Private Ryan star Ed Burns are bound for the altar, the New York Daily News reports. A "close" friend of the model says she's sporting an engagement ring.

HIS NAME IS...TROUBLE: The Federal Communications Commission has threatened a Madison, Wisconsin, radio station with a $7,000 fine for playing an unedited version of controversial rapper Eminem's song "The Real Slim Shady," which contains explicit lyrics.

NOT FOR THE KIDDIES: The Fox television network promising to cease promotions of its sexy new reality show and ratings hit Temptation Island during such family-oriented fare as The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle.

EVER HEAR OF A RENTAL? Universal Pictures has sold basic cable TV rights for the Julia Roberts hit Erin Brockovich to TNT for about $7 million. Broadcasts begin in November 2005.

WE SMELL OSCAR: Emmy winner Allison Janney will play Meryl Streep's lesbian lover in The Hours, an ensemble drama to be directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot). The film is based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, an homage to Virgina Woolf.

SUING EVERYWHERE! Anna Nicole Smith is suing Koch Industries for more than $474 million, claiming the company conspired with her late husband's son to prevent her from receiving her inheritance.

COUNTRY GETS IN THE BOX: Country rockers Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris will have their careers surveyed in box set collections set for release from Rhino Records on April 17.

HOLA! Sting and Sheryl Crow on Thursday kicked off the Caracas Pop Festival 2001, a four-day rock music festival at Central University of Venezuela's Olympic Stadium.

FAMILY IS GOOD: NBC has picked up three additional episodes of the midseason comedy Three Sisters. In its two airings, the NBC Studios comedy has delivered a strong first-place performance among adults 18-49.

NOT COLUMBO: Peter Falk has been signed to play the Reverend Theo Kerr in a BBC production of Arthur Conan Doyle's dino-themed The Lost World.

SUPER SALE: CBS says it is one spot away from selling out its inventory for the January 28 Super Bowl. "It's by design that we have the one ad spot remaining," a CBS spokesman said. "We're extremely pleased with how sales have progressed."

AN ERA ENDS: Elsa Klensch, CNN's fashion correspondent, has asked to be released from her contract to spend more time with her family. The 20-year-old Style With Elsa Klensch will end February 17.

UN-DEPRESSED MODE: "It still has darkness, but I find it more uplifting," Martin Gore says of Exciter, Depeche Mode's first album since 1997's Ultra, due out in May.

CHECK! Two former members of the Swedish supergroup ABBA are planning a Swedish version of the musical Chess. The premiere is scheduled for February 2002 in the capital of Stockholm, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson said.

NEW JOB: Murphy Brown creator Diane English has been hired to direct The Women, New Line's remake of the 1939 George Cukor classic about the relationships among a band of high society women.