People

By Michele Orecklin

NO SQUARE DEAL

Would-be Hollywood Squares contestants and those who simply like to play along at home will have to rethink their gaming strategy. WHOOPI GOLDBERG, who has occupied the oft-chosen center square since the program relaunched in 1998, is vacating that most enviable piece of show-business real estate at the end of the season. Her departure comes over a salary dispute with syndicator King World Productions, since the two parties were unable to agree on terms for the next two years. According to the Washington Post, Goldberg, who also served as an executive producer, earned $10 million a year to offer up one-liners and recruit a rotating galaxy of her celebrity friends to appear on the show. No replacement has been named, but somewhere a failed sitcom star is calling his agent.

THE END OF THE CO-ED BATHROOM

With ratings of Ally McBeal sagging in recent months, the show's producers tried to give the series TV's equivalent of cosmetic surgery, goosing it with guest stars like Matthew Perry, Jon Bon Jovi and even Dame Edna. But such distractions couldn't mask the fact that the show was aging badly, and last week Fox announced that after five seasons, the series will go off the air in May. Thus end the travails of Ally, the neurotic Boston lawyer played by CALISTA FLOCKHART, whose vividly rendered fantasies and ethereal body mass captivated and irritated viewers in almost equal measure. At one time anointed the new image of the single working woman, Ally finally proved to be too few people's idea of a fun date.

IT'S O.K. JULIA STILL LOVES HER LIFE

Proof that BENJAMIN BRATT is suffering few ill effects from his breakup with Julia Roberts last May came when he married actress TALISA SOTO last week. The two met on the set of Pinero in 2000, but he was still dating Roberts, and Soto was newly divorced. Seven months ago they began seeing each other (and Julia, for those keeping score, began seeing cameraman Danny Moder). Apparently, things between Bratt and Soto progressed quickly: friends report she is pregnant.

HERR RAISING

U.S. citizens dispirited by the petty obsessions of Washington can comfort themselves by looking to Germany, now in the midst of a brawling election campaign. At the moment, one of the central issues in the race for Chancellor is whether incumbent GERHARD SCHRODER comes by his enviable head of auburn hair naturally. After a German news agency suggested that Schroder, 58, covers his gray, he sent his lawyers to court to stop the agency from repeating the claim. He also sent his barber, who vouched for his hair's authenticity. The court will rule in May, but Schroder's opponents are demanding a hair sample for scientific analysis. At least the press attention is evenhanded: a German newspaper has reported rumors that opposition candidate Edmund Stoiber exaggerates his capacity for heavy drinking by secretly putting water--and on occasion herbal tea--in his beer mug at campaign stops. Suddenly, Al Gore's beard doesn't seem so trivial.