Deep Trouble

BITTER PILL A 4-year-old boy drowned in the pool at the Malibu home of Tommy Lee during a party on Saturday. Daniel Karven Veres was a guest, one of several kids playing in the pool during a birthday party for Lee's son Brandon, 5. When the boy was found floating face down in the shallow end, two adults pulled him from the water and applied CPR, and Lee called 911, but the child was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Police ruled the death an accident. The boy's father, TV producer James Veres, complained to a local radio station Sunday that there should have been more adult supervision at the party, and that his son's death was ''inexcusable.'' Lee has two sons by Pamela Anderson, Brandon and Dylan Jagger, 3.

STALKER STATS A Los Angeles judge ordered Gwyneth Paltrow's stalker to remain in a mental hospital on Thursday. Dante Michael Soiu, 51, was convicted in December of charges stemming from his sending hundreds of letters to the star over two years and showing up at the home of her parents, Blythe Danner and producer/director Bruce Paltrow. Soiu will now remain at Patten State Hospital in San Bernardino, Calif., at least until his next progress hearing in December.

Meanwhile, Gwyneth's ex, Ben Affleck, has been accused of stalking. So says Matthew Hooker, who has himself been accused of stalking Nicole Kidman and Claudia Schiffer. Hooker, 40, claims Affleck followed him while disguised as a French man, disguised with a fake mustache and a ''French shirt.'' (Affleck has not responded to the allegations.) Hooker says that Affleck's pursuit of him was somehow an attempt to win back Paltrow by smearing Hooker, a tactic he says is doomed to fail. Guess he should know....

The attorney who successfully prosecuted the stalker of Martina Hingis has apparently become romantically involved with the tennis star. Miami assistant state attorney Chris Calkin, 31, didn't even meet Hingis, 20, until one day before the trial in April, but the Miami Herald reports that he plans to visit her shortly in Switzerland and will accompany her to the Wimbledon tournament in England later this month. ''She's a fabulous lady. I'm happier than I've ever been,'' he told the Herald. Hingis has not commented on the relationship. Calkin prosecuted Dubravko Rajcevic, who had pursued Hingis for a year and was sentenced to two years in prison....

In an eerie parallel to ''The King of Comedy,'' a trial is set to begin today for a convicted stalker again accused of threatening Jerry Lewis. Gary Randolph Benson, a 57-year-old who served six years for stalking Lewis, was released in 1999 and given a court order to stay away from the entertainer. Eight months later, he sent a letter to Lewis' Las Vegas home that read, ''Dear Jerry, Your Dead. Your friend, Gary Benson.'' Prosecutors will argue that Benson violated the protection order and should be declared a habitual criminal and face an additional one to five years behind bars....

Sandra Bernhard, who played one of the stalkers of Lewis' talk-show host character in ''King of Comedy,'' is getting her own late-night talk show on A&E. Five episodes of ''The Sandra Bernhard Experience'' will air in August. If those shows -- which will feature no sketches, monologue, or studio audience, just Bernhard and her guests dishing about celebrity and fashion -- deliver younger viewers to A&E, the show could become a regular series.

KISS OF DEATH Here's a coffin your loved ones will actually be eager to bury. The ''KISS Forever'' coffin, unveiled by Gene Simmons at a licensing trade show in New York City this weekend, is airbrushed like a '70s van with panoramas of the crowd at a KISS concert and the four band members in full makeup. But you can use the $4,000 casket not just to rock and roll all night (metaphorically speaking), but also to party ev-e-ry day; as Simmons demonstrated, it also makes a fine beer cooler. Maybe the band should make a deluxe version; a true KISS coffin ought to set itself on fire, making cremation a snap.

ROCK-RIBBED CONSERVATIVE Sen. Jesse Helms, 79, attended his first rock concert on Thursday, catching U2 in Washington from skybox seats, compliments of Bono. The North Carolina Republican and the liberal Irish singer have become friends since Bono started lobbying the Senate last year for international debt relief. Helms and his grandchildren also got to go backstage and meet The Edge. The senator didn't explain his outspoken, longstanding opposition to government support of the arts to Bono. In fact, Helms turned down his hearing aids and covered his ears: The concert, he said, ''was the noisiest thing I ever heard. It was so loud I couldn't really understand what he was saying.''

LEGAL BRIEFS Sony Pictures continues to generate unwanted publicity for ''The Animal.'' In the wake of the revelation that the movie's print ads quoted imaginary reviews by a Sony-invented critic, the studio has faced a fraud investigation by the Connecticut attorney general's office, a lawsuit by two California moviegoers over deceptive business practices, and now, a lawsuit from a Florida couple who allege that Sony inappropriately marketed the film to children. James and Ana Morris filed suit Thurdsay in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, claiming that Sony failed to warn audiences adequately that the movie, in which Rob Schneider is surgically implanted with tissue from animals, features scenes of human and animal sexual activity unfit for kids. The Morrises took their 13-year-old twin sons and 10-year-old daughter to see the PG-13 rated movie, which they now believe should have been rated R. They're seeking up to $75,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

Sandra Bullock is suing the builder of her house in Lake Austin, Texas, for breach of contract. She says she invested $331,225 in 1997 with Benny Daneshjou's company with the understanding that he would buy 19 acres of land, build a subdivision, and return Bullock's investment and the profits from sales of the lots. She alleges that Daneshjou significantly changed the plans for the land without informing her. Daneshjou has refused to comment on the suit....

The judge presiding over the copyright infringement suit waged by CBS' ''Survivor'' against Fox's ''Boot Camp'' rejected Fox lawyers' argument that the shows were not alike because ''Boot Camp'' isn't rigged. Of course, ''Survivor'' claims not to be rigged either, notwithstanding contestant Stacey Stillman's lawsuit to the contrary, but even if it is, U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird ruled Thursday that the issue is an irrelevant distraction from the question of infringement. CBS alleges that ''Boot Camp'' stole ''Survivor's'' premise of putting contestants through grueling challenges and harsh conditions before voting losers out. Maybe they should sue NBC over ''Weakest Link,'' too.

REEL DEALS Big as AOL Time Warner is, it isn't big enough for Ted Turner. He's going outside the corporation that owns his Turner Broadcasting cable empire (and also EW.com) to found an independent film company, Ted Turner Pictures. (About three blocks outside -- that's how far TTP's new office is from CNN's Atlanta headquarters.) TTP will make documentaries and dramas focusing on the environment, history, and other subjects close to Turner's heart. It will also produce films for Turner's non-profit organizations, including the U.N. Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative....

And in reel estate news, in one of the most expensive residential property deals in California history, Oprah Winfrey is spending $50 million for a mansion on a 42-acre property near Santa Barbara. In addition to the 23,000-square-foot Georgian-style house overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the estate has a pool, a tennis court, a barn, an orchard, two ponds, and a lake. The previous owners bought it for a song, just $14 million, in 1998, but made some improvements.

ISN'T HE LOVELY Mumtaz Morris had a surprise for his graduating classmates at Highland High School near Los Angeles. Apparently, few at the school knew that Morris's father is Stevie Wonder. Wonder attended the Thursday graduation and stunned the audience with an a capella performance and some words of advice to the graduates. Hey, seniors, good luck, and don't you worry 'bout a thi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ng...

I'M SO GLAD Eric Clapton has a new daughter, Julia Rose, by girlfriend Melissa McEnery. Clapton, 56, flew to Columbus, Ohio, hometown of 25-year-old McEnery to attend the birth on Wednesday of the 7-pound, 1-ounce girl. Clapton has a daughter, Ruth, 16. He lost his 4-year-old son Conor, 10 years ago in a fall from a high-rise window in New York City.

PASSING NOTES Russell Saunders, a legendary Hollywood stuntman who doubled for Alan Ladd, Gene Kelly, and Jesus Christ (he was the model for Salvador Dali's painting ''The Christ of St. John''), died on May 29 in a California nursing home. The 82-year-old, best known for leaping across rooftops and swinging into an open window from the shreds of a ripped banner in 1948's ''The Three Musketeers,'' taught his acrobatic skills to countless other stuntmen and civilians who attended his sessions at Santa Monica's Muscle Beach -- which became so associated with him that some called it Russell Beach.