November 19, 1999
Web posted at: 3:48 p.m. EST (2048 GMT)

• Judge casts out Parks' OutKast complaint
• Another wave of protest hits 'The Beach'
• Newman-nudge: Getting into giving
• Moore, suffering from PSP, appears at fundraiser
• Will this leap be Knievel's last?

Rosa Parks

DETROIT (CNN) -- The First Amendment isn't on Rosa Parks' side in her lawsuit against OutKast. A federal judge says the rap duo didn't violate the civil rights icon's rights by using her name as the title of a Grammy-nominated song.

Parks, whose attorney characterizes the song as vulgar and profane, sued the duo in March, saying OutKast used her name without permission. She sought $25,000 in damages and wanted to have her name removed from all OutKast products.

But U.S. District Judge Barbara Hackett ruled Thursday that the group's right to use Parks' name is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and that OutKast does not have to compensate her.

Parks, 87, was thrust into the national spotlight in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The event is seen as a spark for the African-American civil rights movement.

"All of the defendants have the greatest respect for Rosa Parks, but their music, like poetry, is protected by the First Amendment," says Joseph Beck, a lawyer representing the Atlanta-based OutKast. "Rosa Parks" is one of 15 songs on OutKast's "Aquemini" album, which has sold 2.5 million copies since its September 1998 release.

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Arguments are being heard in court in a US $2.6 million lawsuit (100 million baht) against the makers of the Leonardo DiCaprio film "The Beach."

Thai officials testified on Friday that 20th Century Fox, a Thai production company and the Royal Forestry Department removed vegetation, widened the beachfront and planted dozens of coconut trees -- which aren't native to the island. The plaintiffs say this has caused the sands of Maya Bay to wash away during the monsoon season, after film production ended.

Somsak Kittitorakul, chief of the Krabi provincial administration where Kho Phi is located, said, "We are now paying a high price. Who will come to visit a destroyed beach?"

The filmmakers say they acted within the law, and put up a 3 million baht (US $80,000) caution against damage. "The Beach" is based on Alex Garland's 1998 novel about a traveler's search for the perfect beach. Its international release is scheduled to start February 11, 2000, in the United States, followed by distribution in Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Newman

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Paul Newman says it's time U.S. corporations shared more of their wealth. So the actor has joined some of the country's top CEOs in launching a venture -- aptly called Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy -- that's expected to publish a yearly ranking of which company gives how much. The goal is to push corporate America into giving at least $15 billion a year to charity by 2004.

"We're in the '90s, it's flush times," said Newman on Thursday. He gives all profits from his Newman's Own food products company to charity and is to be the committee's chairman and national spokesman. Joining Newman on the committee are outgoing Chase Manhattan Chairman Walter Shipley and Franklin Raines, head of Fannie Mae.

"The country is waiting," he said. "It's scanning the horizon, hoping for some institution to distinguish itself ... to be the standard bearer for social and civic responsibility. What an opportunity -- and you only have to reach out and grab it."

Moore

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- In his first public appearance since announcing that he has an incurable, degenerative brain disease, Dudley Moore received a standing ovation. He took the stage at the downtown Park Hyatt Hotel Thursday night during a benefit concert for the nonprofit organization, Music For All Seasons Inc.

Frail and on crutches as he was helped to the stage, Moore settled into his chair next to actress Julie Andrews to recite poetry by Ogden Nash.

"It was very important to be here. It's a continuation of life," Moore said. He revealed in September that he has progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), an illness related to Parkinson's disease. It makes it hard for him to walk, speak and eat.

Later, the 64-year-old actor best known for the "Arthur" films and his longtime comedy work with Peter Cook, was to attend a fundraiser to launch the Dudley Moore Research Fund, created to find a cure for PSP.

Knievel

LAS VEGAS (CNN) -- Evel Knievel on Friday is to be married atop the fountains in front of Caesars Palace. These are the same fountains he tried to jump on New Year's Day, 1968. The stunt ended in a spectacular wipeout, with Knievel in the hospital for 31 days.

But Knievel, 61, says he's optimistic about jumping into marriage with 30-year-old Crystal Kennedy. He chose the site for their nuptials because the Caesars crash launched his career in the daredevil spotlight.

Knievel became a household name in the 1970s by attempting to propel himself over just about anything, including the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974 (that, too, ended in a crash of his "Skycycle").

Knievel says that after surviving a lifesaving kidney transplant earlier this year he decided to marry. "I feel like I got a chance and new life, so Crystal and I decided to start a new life, right here, where it all began," Knievel says in a statement