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Web posted on: Thursday, September 17, 1998 5:12:39 PM EDT

• DiFranco: Don't embrace 'politics of apathy'
• Presley's religious beliefs off limits in lawsuit
• Halliwell's Spice dress fetches $69,000
• Backers take control of Polanski picture

DiFranco

BERKELEY, California (CNN) -- As the campaign season hits full swing, folk punker Ani DiFranco has a message for the masses: "Everything is politics," said DiFranco. "If you decide you're not going to get involved, that's just a way of saying that you're not concerned, that you're embracing the politics of apathy." She's backing up her words with political action this weekend, too. DiFranco, 27, will be joined in concert Saturday by Me'Shell Ndegeocello and Michael Franti as part of a conference at the University of California, Berkeley, featuring political activist and former Black Panther Angela Davis and Ms. magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem. "Critical Resistance: Music and Solidarity" will benefit the Prison Activist Resource Center and the California Fund for Women Prisoners.

Presley

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A Los Angeles judge has ruled that lawyers for the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer cannot examine Lisa Marie Presley's religious beliefs during a defamation suit trial. Presley sued the tabloid over its June 1997 story headlined "Lisa Marie Suicide Drama," which said she tried to kill herself and performed self-mutilation, drawing blood from her body and scrawling, "Nobody loves me" and "I'm ugly" on her arms. Calling the report "entirely false," Presley's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, said the Enquirer wanted to invade Presley's personal relationship with the Church of Scientology as a "way to distract the case from the merits." The trial is to begin January 25. Presley's libel lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Former Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell's Union Jack dress

LONDON (CNN) -- Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, along with Sotheby's auction house, raised $250,000 for a children's cancer charity on Wednesday by selling items from the pop singer's wardrobe. The Union Jack dress worn by Halliwell, known as Ginger Spice when she danced and sang with the Spice Girls, fetched the largest price for a single item: $69,000. It was sold to Peter Morton of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Other items sold included a 1967 MGB roadster, bought by Halliwell with her first royalty check, and an Elvis-style rhinestone-studded outfit worn at the 1997 Billboard awards, which brought in $6,910.

Polanski

HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Director Roman Polanski's first feature film in four years has fallen behind production schedule due to unforeseen factors, prompting the film's backers to take control. The film is "The Ninth Gate," a thriller starring Johnny Depp, Lena Olin, Frank Langella and Emmanuelle Seigner. Artisan Entertainment, which is financing and distributing the picture, and completion bond provider International Film Guarantors have stepped in, according to Variety. "Gate" is Polanski's most ambitious film since the 1988 thriller "Frantic," which starred Harrison Ford. The filmmaker's most recent film was the 1994 drama "Death and the Maiden," starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.