People

By Michele Orecklin

THE END COMES EARLY

Though CBS presumably named The Early Show for the hour it airs, the title could just as easily describe the exit of its anchors. The show was launched in 1999, but original host Bryant Gumbel signed off in May. Now his co-anchor, JANE CLAYSON, is also departing. To make the exodus near complete, weatherman Mark McEwen announced that he will follow Clayson off the set. Julie Chen, the current newsreader, plans to stay on. The show has had little success catching up to the morning programs on NBC and ABC despite the millions of dollars CBS has sunk into it. Clayson will now report for The CBS Evening News and 48 Hours. The network will probably name Harry Smith and Hannah Storm to co-anchor a revamped morning format, but producers say they don't plan to find a new weatherman. Maybe they'll change their mind when the future of the program doesn't look so cloudy.

Maybe They Ran Out of Nachos

The bond between father and son seems rivaled only by that between a first-base coach and his team. In a move rarely expected outside Yankee Stadium, two men in the stands at Chicago's Comiskey Park charged the field during the top of the ninth inning and attacked Tom Gamboa, first-base coach of the visiting Kansas City Royals, and began beating him. The Royals immediately cleared the bench and piled on the two men, identified as WILLIAM LIGUE JR., 34, and his 15-year-old son. Security guards entered the fray and dragged the shirtless duo off the field, after which a folded pocket knife was found on the ground. As for motivation, besides utter stupidity, the elder Ligue suggested that he had exchanged words with Gamboa and that the coach had made an obscene gesture, a charge vehemently denied by Gamboa, who suffered cuts and bruises. He did discover the devotion he has earned from his players. "Security did a good job cleaning it up," Royals first baseman Mike Sweeney said. "If it wasn't for them, we'd probably still be beating on those guys." Instead the Royals beat the White Sox 2-1.

TOGETHER AGAIN--IN A LAWSUIT

Some divorced couples stay civil for the sake of the children. TOM CRUISE and NICOLE KIDMAN are doing so for the sake of a lawsuit. The two claim that while they were still married (as they were in this photo), a perfume ad for cosmetics-store chain Sephora USA featured their picture, making it look as though they endorsed the product. Claiming that they served as "involuntary models without pay," they are suing for $15 million and say they hope the award will be tripled. They are also seeking unspecified punitive damages in light of what their lawyer called "the vast wealth and income of Sephora and its owner, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton." Better it increases the vast wealth and income of Tom and Nicole.

EXCUSE OF THE WEEK

Some would prefer that author J.K. Rowling have no social life, no TV, no clothes with buttons--in short, nothing that would further delay the fifth book in the HARRY POTTER series. The book is long past its July publication date, and fans have been vibrating with dark suspicions about what is holding her up. Last week Rowling said a lawsuit accusing her of plagiarism had interrupted her focus. Now that a judge has dismissed the suit, she claims she can get back to Harry. She also revealed that she is pregnant, giving fans something new to worry about: morning sickness.

LADIES' CLUB

One golfer has the potential to accomplish what none other has managed: stealing the spotlight from Tiger Woods. SUZY WHALEY, a pro at a Connecticut golf club, has become the first woman to qualify to play in the PGA. Whaley, 35, beat all other competitors, including another woman, in a sectional championship in Connecticut, which automatically qualified her to play in the Greater Hartford Open next summer. At the moment, Whaley hasn't decided whether she'll join. She won the section championship by playing off the women's tees, which are 10% closer to the holes than the men's, an option that would not be available on the PGA tour. She has expressed concern that she would not perform well among the men and might thereby set back the women's cause.

FAMOUS FAMILY FEUDS

FAMILY: THE BROWNS

FEUD: James Brown's two daughters claim that the bad blood started flowing in 1998, when they had their father committed to a psychiatric institution for an addiction to painkillers. Upon release, he said he would never give them a dime. Now Deanna Brown Thomas and Yamma Brown Lumar are suing him for $1 million, alleging that they are owed back royalties for helping him write 25 songs, including many of his signature hits such as Get Up Offa That Thing. They were apparently as precocious as Mozart, since they were 3 and 6 at the time. Their names do appear on the copyright, but Brown has yet to deliver any cash.

Not Only Out but Also Out of Print

If your days seem to be missing some of their luster now that ROSIE O'DONNELL has left the airwaves, brace yourself: soon she will also be leaving the newsstand. And if the publisher of her self-titled magazine is to be believed, she has already taken leave of her senses. After months of public feuding with Gruner & Jahr, the company that publishes Rosie, O'Donnell quit the enterprise, saying she had been deprived of the editorial control promised her when the magazine was launched in April 2001. "I cannot have my name on a magazine if I cannot be assured that it will represent my vision and ideas," she said at a press conference. Her contract may give O'Donnell editorial control, but G & J has veto power, which it apparently felt compelled to use when the star it had hitched its magazine to seemed to be turning into someone else. In the past several months, Rosie has shed her friendly suburban TV persona, revealed that she is a lesbian and restyled her hair in a way not altogether flattering. O'Donnell also reportedly tried to fire an editor days after she had been appointed by the publisher. After O'Donnell quit, G & J's chief marketing officer said the company had been "caught in the maelstrom of Rosie O'Donnell apparently abandoning her past." The magazine's final issue will arrive in December, but don't be worried about getting your Rosie fix. Lawsuits will probably start soon after.

PUPPET POLITICS

For years, Sesame Street has been expanding outside the neighborhood. It has launched 20 international editions in such places as Egypt, China and Russia, each with characters derived from the local customs and population. A muppet recently introduced on the South African edition reflects the harrowing reality in that country, where 1 in every 9 people is afflicted with AIDS. KAMI, a 5-year-old HIV-positive muppet, has taken up residence. Kami has lost her mother to AIDS and now lives with a foster mother. Currently, there are no plans to introduce a similar character to the U.S. or any other international market.