REEL DEALS Get ready for a rematch. Last summer's ''Cats & Dogs'' has spawned a sequel. Kevin Lima, who has some canine-wrangling experience from ''102 Dalmatians,'' will direct.
Explosion-master Michael Bay (''Pearl Harbor,'' ''Armageddon'') formed a low-budget production company called Platinum Dunes in November, but that didn't mean he was going to make little, artsy, independent films. The company's first feature is a remake of ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,'' with original writers Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel updating their 1974 screenplay. Shooting (and slicing) begins this spring.
LEGAL BRIEFS Meg Ryan has obtained a temporary restraining order against a man who broke into a Malibu mansion and claimed to be her fiancé. John Michael Hughes was arrested for unlawful entry after he broke into the Ryan home on Jan. 6. Turns out it was the wrong house, one belonging to an unrelated Ryan family. The actress is currently seeking a three-year restraining order against Hughes, who has another stalking conviction in his past. In December 2000, Secret Service agents caught him trying to enter the Texas ranch of then-President-elect George W. Bush, and he ended up spending six months behind bars and four months in a psychiatric hospital....
Michael Jackson is being sued by concert promoter Marcel Avram, who says Jackson is trying to back out of a contract and find another promoter to handle a possible world tour for ''Invincible.'' Avram, who managed Jackson's last two world tours (for ''Dangerous'' in 1992-93 and ''History'' in 1996-97), says he and the singer have a deal, stemming from Avram's payment of several hundred thousand dollars to German doctors on Jackson's behalf. Avram's lawyer didn't say why Jackson owed the doctors money or why he didn't pay them himself, but said that Jackson agreed in writing to have Avram promote his next tour in exchange for payment of the medical bills. However, Avram now alleges that Jackson is seeking another promoter for the as-yet-unannounced tour, so he wants $20 million in breach-of-contract damages. Avram has another two-year-old suit pending against Jackson over Jackson's backing out of two millennium concerts in Sydney and Honolulu. In that complaint, he's seeking $25 million, plus expenses for charity concerts he booked for Jackson in Seoul and Munich.
Jackson has also faced plenty of legal trouble in the past over his affinity for children, but that hasn't stopped him from calling for a national holiday for kids. ''There's a Mother's Day and there's a Father's Day, but there's no Children's Day,'' Jackson tells Vibe magazine. (What about Halloween and Christmas?) ''It would mean a lot. It really would. World peace. I hope that our next generation will get to see a peaceful world, not the way things are going now.'' Jackson's enjoying being a single dad to his own kids by ex-wife Debbie Rowe -- son Prince, 4, and daughter Paris, 3. ''I've never had so much fun in all my life. That's the truth,'' the 43-year-old singer tells Vibe. ''Because I am this big kid, and now I get to see the world through the eyes of the really young ones. I learn more from them than they learn from me.''
HITCHING POST There'll be no more drama of the single-gal variety for Mary J. Blige. The 31-year-old singer confirmed Wednesday that she became engaged over the holidays. She declined to name her fiancé, though the New York Daily News says he's Martin (Kendu) Isaacs, former musical director for Queen Latifah, and that the couple have dated for more than a year. It'll be the first marriage for Blige, who says she plans a small wedding whose date and location she intends to keep private.
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