People talk 3/13/03

Tiegs settles lawsuit with former husband

LOS ANGELES -- Cheryl Tiegs has settled a lawsuit filed by ex- husband Rod Stryker, who accused her of not placing $20,000 the couple's twin sons earned for posing in a magazine cover photo in the boys' college fund.

The action had been scheduled for a Superior Court status conference Tuesday but was resolved, according to Larry Goldman, an associate of Tiegs' lawyer, Neal Raymond Hersh. Goldman declined to elaborate, and Hersh did not immediately return a call for comment.

Stryker, 45, has full custody of the couple's 2-year-old sons, Jaden and Theo, who posed with their supermodel mother, now 55, for a More magazine cover.

Stryker filed for divorce in October 2001 after three years of marriage.

Real-life sniper attacks delayed movie release

AUSTIN, Texas -- It was "absolutely imperative" that 20th Century Fox delay the release of "Phone Booth" in the midst of last year's sniper killings, the movie's director said.

"I would have been shocked if they'd put it out," Joel Schumacher said Tuesday at the South by Southwest film festival, where "Phone Booth" is screening.

The film stars Colin Farrell as a man being threatened by a gunman he can't see, played by Kiefer Sutherland.

Fox pulled it in October, a month before its scheduled Nov. 15 release, during the sniper shootings that ultimately left 13 people dead and others wounded. The movie now is scheduled for release April 4.

"It was absolutely imperative that we pull it. I mean, people were dying," Schumacher said.

"We wouldn't have tried to put those commercials on television and there was no network that would have taken them."

Chinese officials restrictRolling Stones playlist

BEIJING -- The Chinese government has ordered the Rolling Stones to cut four of their best-known hits from next month's mainland shows.

The band, which is scheduled to perform April 1 in Shanghai and April 4 in Beijing, will not be allowed to play "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Woman," "Beast of Burden" or "Let's Spend the Night Together," Chen Jixin, head of Beijing Time New Century Entertainment, a concert organizer behind the two China dates, said Wednesday.

The four songs, all of which include sexual references, were originally cut from the mainland release of the band's "40 Licks" compilation album by China's culture ministry, Chen said.

Chen said she didn't know why the government had banned the four songs. The Chinese Ministry of Culture said no one was immediately available for comment.

Singer agrees to pay damages, offer apology

LONDON -- Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham has agreed to pay $88,000 in damages to settle a slander case brought by owners of a sports memorabilia shop, their lawyer said.

The singer also apologized to owners Tim and Glynis McManus, and their son, Anthony, for accusing them of selling a fake autograph by her soccer star husband David Beckham, attorney Michael Skrein said Tuesday.

Skrein said Beckham -- known as Posh Spice -- had apologized for the "hurt and damage" she had caused the family, and would give them a set of merchandise signed by her husband.

-- From wire reports