October 4, 1999
Web posted at: 2:59 p.m. EST (1859 GMT)

• Spears: It's puberty, buster, so back off
• A 'Hank'-ering for 'West Point'
• Schwarzenegger: The cool-down set
• Dion comforts Columbine survivors

Spears

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Britney Spears attributes her increased proportions to adolescence -- not breast implants.

"When I first signed with the record label (BMG), we took a lot of photos, and those were the pictures that got used. I weighed 105 pounds; I weigh 130 now. I went through a major growth spurt," the 17-year-old recording artist tells TV Guide.

Spears says she was upset while touring to promote her album "... Baby One More Time" to find people asking her about her changing profile. "In some interviews," she's quoted as saying, "I would just start crying. I'd be like, 'Why are you being so rude to me?' After a while people stopped saying stuff. But for a while it got really tough."

Hanks

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Another "Saving Private Ryan" notable is enlisting in a military-themed project for TV. Tom Hanks, who played Capt. John Miller in that 1998 film, is to serve as executive producer on "West Point," an hour-long drama series being developed for FOX for next season.

The show follows the lives of freshmen and sophomore cadets as they advance through the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, an institution founded in 1802 and located some 50 miles north of New York. Roughly 900 officers are graduated annually from West Point, which has a corps of cadets numbering 4,000, about 15 percent of them women.

"It's a college show with very real stakes involved," said David Nevins, FOX Entertainment's executive vice president for programming.

Nevins isn't alone among programmers in thinking we're all crying for shows about military training. According to the New York Times, "Private Ryan" director Steven Spielberg has agreed in principle to create "Semper Fi," a dramatic series about young Marines going through boot camp for NBC next fall. He's also working on a 13-part HBO miniseries about an elite group of World War II paratroopers called "Band of Brothers."

Where's Gomer Pyle when we need him?

Schwarzenegger

SAN JOSE, California (CNN) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger is terminating speculation that he plans to enter the California gubernatorial race in three years.

The actor-bodybuilder hinted to Talk magazine that he might consider campaigning in 2002. But on Friday, he said his remarks had been taken too seriously. "I have thought about it many times, but I'm in show business," Schwarzenegger said. "I am in the middle of my career. Why would I go away from that and jump into something else?"

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, wrestler-turned-politician, sent a cautionary message to Schwarzenegger on the subject Sunday, on NBC's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert. "My advice to Arnold, as a friend," said Ventura -- now getting smacked down by the Reform Party for his Playboy magazine comments -- "is, 'Continue with your movie career, Arnold, don't get involved in it. It won't be worth it to you.'"

Dion

DENVER (CNN) -- Quebecois singer Celine Dion invited victims' families and survivors of the Columbine High massacre to sit in the front row at her concert in Denver on Friday. She sang "Let's Talk About Love" with the high school's chorus providing backup.

When the song ended, Dion told the students, teachers and parents that they're not forgotten. "Your pain and suffering was felt around the world," she said. "Everyone grieved with you, everyone prayed for you, everyone wanted to comfort you and everyone cared -- and they still do."

Dion has said she'll donate proceeds from the concert to the victims' relief effort.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.