REEL DEALS At last, Martin Scorsese's long-delayed ''Gangs of New York,'' starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, has a release date: Christmas week of 2002. The news came yesterday, as the New York Times was running a front-page story saying that Scorsese and Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein were still locked in battle over the length of the film, with no end in sight. But Variety reports that the two have settled on a 160-minute cut, an hour shorter than the rough cut Scorsese showed Weinstein last October. That was when the movie had already been pushed back in the wake of 9/11, with Miramax fearing that audiences wouldn't yet want to see a tale of violence and destruction set in Manhattan (albeit in the 19th century), with corrupt firemen and murdered cops. The movie was then set for a July 2002 release, but Scorsese and Weinstein apparently couldn't agree to a final cut of the movie until last Friday....
Director Mike Figgis, known for dark and moody indie fare like ''Leaving Las Vegas'' and ''Timecode,'' isn't the first guy you'd think of signing up to direct a Disney movie. Then again, the movie is a thriller, called ''Cold Creek Manor,'' about a city family that takes over a rural bed-and-breakfast, only to be terrorized by the property's previous owner. Shooting begins in the fall.
SOUND BITES He's a drug-burnout-turned-family-values-spokesman, with a sensible and smart wife and a couple of hell-raising kids. So it makes sense that Ozzy Osbourne would have a lot to talk about with President George W. Bush. He may get to do so next month, though earlier reports that have Bush inviting TV's most foul-mouthed dad to the White House have been exaggerated. (The president doesn't know who Leonardo DiCaprio is, so it's doubtful that he's hip to the former Black Sabbath frontman and his new hit show on MTV.) Actually, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are set to attend the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, at the Washington Hilton on May 4. The president customarily attends the dinner, at which news organizations often invite celebrity guests to accompany their reporters. The Osbournes are coming as the guest of Greta Van Susteren and Fox News Channel. So it's very possible that America's two favorite father figures could meet; no doubt you'll be watching C-SPAN in hopes of glimpsing that handshake, a summit that could rival the time Elvis Presley met Richard Nixon. For Ozzy's sake, though, let's just hope the Hilton has some sturdy chairs.
Ozzy's other current foray into the political arena has been affixing his signature to a petition drafted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and directed toward South Korean prime minister Kim Dae-Jung. The PETA petition, also signed by Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Joe Pesci, and Steve Buscemi, urges the prime minister to prevent South Koreans from eating cats and dogs and prevent their torture by ''beating, hanging, electrocution, burning and boiling alive.'' Nothing in the letter about bats or doves, though.
TUBE TALK When ''60 Minutes'' launches its 35th season next fall, Mike Wallace says he plans to slow down and cut his workload in half. ''The time has come,'' the 83-year-old tells The New York Times. Wallace has made similar prounouncements before, only to redouble his efforts; he remains the show's most visible correspondent. But he says he means it this time, telling the Times, ''The traveling has become a pain in the back, it really has.'' Already this year, stories have taken him to Ramallah and Kuwait.
His announcement throws into relief the age of many of the show's key figures, including Andy Rooney (83), Morley Safer (70), and producer Don Hewitt (79). The show's relative teenyboppers are Steve Kroft (56) and Lesley Stahl and Ed Bradley (both 60). While the whippersnappers at ''60 Minutes II'' might be considered a farm team, there's no real succession plan in place if any of the Sunday night correspondents retire. Which is not happening anytime soon, they say. ''Let's not kill Mike,'' Wallace says. ''I'm not dying.'' And Hewitt says, ''I'm going to be 80, and I don't think I've missed a step. My aim is to die at my desk -- I don't want to die anywhere else.''
In a textbook life-imitates-art move, ABC has pulled the plug on '''' after just two low-rated episodes. For those of you who weren't watching it (i.e., everybody), it was about a struggling network whose execs were frantically reprogramming its schedule. But even naming the show after its timeslot couldn't get viewers to pay attention and tune in. Don't cry, though, for series creator Peter Tolan. ABC will fill the timeslot with unaired episodes of Tolan's other series, the Denis Leary cop comedy ''The Job.''
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