CELEBRITY WATCH
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February 17, 2000
Web posted at: 5:19 p.m. EST (2219 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

Today's buzz stories:

• Judge throws out slander suit against Michael
• Dredging up Cold War memories at Berlin Film Fest
• 'Court' in session with Anita Hill
• Three Tenors to sing at Met benefit

Judge throws out slander suit against Michael

Michael

LOS ANGELES -- An attorney for the police officer who slapped the cuffs on George Michael in a park bathroom says his client is down but hardly out, and will refile a $10 million lawsuit against the singer.

A federal judge on Monday dismissed Officer Marcelo Rodriguez' suit against Michael, ruling there wasn't enough evidence to support his claims that the performer slandered him. Rodriguez went to court last September over the pop video "Outside," which Michael released shortly after the officer arrested him on April 7, 1998, for lewd behavior. Shot partly in a bathroom, the video mocked the gay singer's arrest and featured scenes of two policemen kissing.

Rodriguez' suit sought damages for humiliation, mental anguish, emotional and physical distress and medical treatment. He also wanted punitive damages and legal costs.

When a federal judge dismissed the case, Jeff Tillotson, Michael's lawyer, applauded the decision.

"We view it as over," he says. "He (Michael) is obviously extremely pleased and feels he has been vindicated."

Not so fast, counselor. The judge has given Rodriguez' lawyer until February 22 to refile the lawsuit, if he can provide additional support for his claims. His lawyer, Richard G. Thomas, says he'll "most definitely" do that.

Rodriguez was working undercover when he arrested Michael in a men's restroom at Will Rogers Memorial Park. Michael pleaded no contest to a charge of committing a lewd act. He was fined $810 and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service.

Dredging up Cold War memories at Berlin Film Fest

BERLIN -- A new release and a return engagement has brought the Cold War divide center stage at the Berlin Film Festival.

Director Volker Schloendorff, best known for his 1979 film "The Tin Drum," premiered the movie "Rita's Legends" on Wednesday. It's based on the true story of Rita Voigt, a leftist guerrilla who seeks refuge in Communist East Germany.

Many of the East Germans Rita meets want to leave. "You come here and I want to get out," her best friend says at one point. But Rita stays, and eventually finds love and happiness despite the constraints of socialist society.

The Berlin Film Festival also held a tribute screening Wednesday of the Vietnam War movie "The Deer Hunter," which evoked memories of earlier, frostier relations between East and West.

The film, starring Robert De Niro, shows Viet Cong guerrillas forcing American prisoners of war to play Russian roulette. Its 1979 showing at the festival prompted outraged representatives of Soviet bloc countries to pull out of the event. China and Vietnam were fighting, and the Soviets saw its screening as a political ploy against Vietnam, which the socialist nation supported.

'Court' in session with Anita Hill

Hill's book, "Speaking Truth to Power," was published in 1997 and details her role in the Thomas Clarence confirmation hearings

NEW YORK -- Anita Hill, who briefly became a household name when she testified in 1991 against Clarence Thomas at his Senate confirmation hearing as Supreme Court justice, plans to join Court TV as a regular contributor.

Hill is scheduled to make her first appearance on the "Crier Today" show on Friday. The cable network says she'll comment on the Albany, New York, trial of four white New York City police officers accused of killing unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo last year.

In future shows, she's also expected to comment on the presidential campaign, and on issues such as race, women, the media, law, sexual harassment, civil rights and civil liberties.

Nine years ago Hill, a former law professor, accused Thomas, her onetime boss, of sexual harassment. The charges were not proved, the Senate confirmed Thomas, and he joined the court.

Three Tenors to sing at Met benefit

Jose Carreras,left, Placido Domingo, center, and Luciano Pavarotti, right

NEW YORK -- They'll be in the same building, but not the same stage at the same time. A single room, apparently, is not enough to contain those Three Tenors at once.

Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti are scheduled to perform at the Metropolitan Opera on May 11. The famed songbirds will be warbling to raise money for the Met's pension fund in an event that also will feature conductor James Levine with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, chorus and ballet.

But don't expect to see the three together. Each will star in one act of a different opera, organizers say.

Domingo is scheduled to make the first appearance in Act 2 of Giordano's "Andrea Chenier." Carreras follows in Act 4 of Bizet's "Carmen." The program concludes with Act 3 of Puccini's "Turandot," with Pavarotti.

Don't look to get in with a few bucks, either. Tickets range from $100 to $1,000 for the performance.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.