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LEGAL BRIEFS With friends like these... Prince is being sued for defamation by Charlene Friend, who says she was his girlfriend a decade ago. She says he gave her some gifts in 1991, including a jacket he wore in concert, some audio and videotapes, a Christmas card, and a comic book. She tried to sell the items last year at online auction house FineArtsBrokerage.com, but the site took the goods off the market after receiving a letter from Prince's lawyer saying that they weren't hers to sell because she had acquired them ''by fraud and/or theft.'' So on Friday, she filed a complaint in Los Angeles alleging that the letter had ''branded [her] as a thief'' and claiming emotional distress. So this is what it sounds like when doves cry.

REEL DEALS Adam Sandler is not a name you'd associate with the arty fare competing at the . But he'll show up there, at least on screen, in ''Punch-Drunk Love,'' a romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson (''Magnolia''). It's one of 22 films vying for the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, in a slate announced Wednesday. Other American films screening include ''About Schmidt,'' a Jack Nicholson comedy-drama directed by Alexander Payne (''Election''), and ''Bowling for Columbine,'' a satiric look at U.S. gun culture by liberal provocateur Michael Moore (''Roger & Me'') that will be the first documentary to compete at Cannes in decades.

American films playing outside of competition include festival opener ''Hollywood Ending,'' with suddenly ubiquitous director Woody Allen paying his first visit to Cannes. Rosanna Arquette will show her documentary about actresses over 40, ''Searching for Debra Winger.'' And Martin Scorsese will screen an excerpt of his long-awaited ''Gangs of New York,'' currently scheduled to hit theaters at Christmas.

Big-name international directors in the competition, many of them former Palme d'Or winners, include David Cronenberg (''Spider,'' a drama about a schizophrenic starring Ralph Fiennes), Roman Polanski (''The Pianist,'' a Holocaust drama starring Adrien Brody), Iran's Abbas Kiarostami (''10''), Russia's Alexander Sokurov (''Russian Ark''), France's Olivier Assayas (''Demonlover,'' an English-language cyberthriller), and England's Mike Leigh (''All or Nothing''), Michael Winterbottom (''24 Hour Party People''), and Ken Loach (''Sweet Sixteen''). In a gesture of peace, there will be a movie by a Palestinian director, Elia Suleiman (''Intervention Divine'') and one by an Israeli director, Amos Gitai (''Kedma''). The Cannes jury, headed by David Lynch, includes panelists Sharon Stone, Michelle Yeoh, and Brazilian director Walter Salles (''Central Station''). The festival, in its 55th year, runs May 15 to 26.

TUBE TALK Maybe the only TV cop with a more inconsequential personal life than the detectives on ''Law & Order'' was Jack Webb's ultra-deadpan Sgt. Joe Friday on the classic series ''Dragnet,'' whose catchphrase was ''Just the facts, ma'am.'' So it makes sense that ''L&O'' honcho Dick Wolf is developing a ''Dragnet'' update as a pilot for 2003. It should be a real creative departure for Wolf, as the series will take place in Los Angeles, not New York....

Ted Koppel's job at ABC News may be safe for the moment, but the network still isn't showing the love to its top news stars. Variety reports that ABC is asking all its news correspondents to accept 25 percent pay cuts. That may even include the network's flagship news personality, anchor Peter Jennings, who is currently renegotiating his contract, which expires in August. Or the network may freeze his pay at its current reported level of $10 million and ask him to take on additional duties, like the six-part primetime documentary special he's doing this summer. Either way, Jennings is not likely to get a raise, and there's not much he can do about it. His evening newscast, like those on CBS and NBC, is facing declining ratings and aging viewers, so the numbers aren't in his favor even if he threatens to walk; certainly no other outlet could offer to match his current salary. It's not clear how ABC's cost-cutting will affect negotiations of other news stars; ABC's Charles Gibson's contract also expires this summer, as do those of NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and his possible successor, Brian Williams.