CASTING Ben Affleck will star as an ex-con who finds himself forced to join a group of thieves planning to rob a casino in "Reindeer Games." John Frankenheimer ("Ronin") will direct.... Universal has bought the script for "Love II Love You" for Will Smith to star in and produce. He would play a stockbroker who gets back the girlfriend who recently dumped him after his scientist clones her.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT Jewel has hired yet another manager, Julie Agrati, in the midst of being sued for $10 million by the longtime manager she dropped last year to give her mother career control. But mom Nedra Carroll isn't being dumped: She'll concentrate on planning Jewel's non- music projects, like acting and poetry.

TV DEALS NBC has asked the makers of its successful new drama "Providence" for four more episodes, so the winter-replacement series will run until the end of the season. The feel-good medical show has won its 8 p.m. Friday-night time period each of its last three weeks, and even with last week's numbers dropping a bit, it still outperformed the slot's previous tenants by 51 percent.... Comedy Central is getting some more hair on its chest by scheduling "The Man's Show," a testosterone-packed comedy series hosted by Adam Carolla ("Loveline") and Jimmy Kimmel ("Win Ben Stein's Money"). This sketch show centers around all things manly, like "explosions and supermodels"; it was originally commissioned by ABC, which decided not to add the show to its schedule.

DIVORCING Natalie Maines, one of the Grammy-nominated Dixie Chicks, has filed for divorce from her husband of one-and-a-half years, Michael Victor Tarabay.

HOT LAWSUIT Spin magazine announced that even though on Tuesday it fired Craig Marks, the editor who previously filed a lawsuit against Marilyn Manson for allegedly ordering his bodyguards to beat the journalist up, it would still be supporting him in his court case. A rep from the publication had originally told MTV News that Marks was now on his own.

OBITUARIES Blues pianist Charles Brown, who pioneered the "cool blues" sound of the 1940s and was a major influence on Ray Charles, died Thursday night of congestive heart failure at age 76. He was to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15.

TODAY IN HISTORY In 1994, Michael Jackson gave a multimillion-dollar settlement to the young boy who accused him of sexual molestation.