Entertainment [4]

Hey, baby, he's back -- and Austin Powers In Goldmember is a mess. However, it is a mildly amusing mess, even though the premise -- and the shagadelic '60s and '70s -- are getting a wee bit long in the tooth.

It's hot. It's happening. It's the home improvement show that isn't just for housewives.

Every year, TV critics ask the same question: Will the Emmys finally get hip, or will they nominate the usual suspects? And every year, TV critics complain when they nominate the usual suspects. Well, this year, the Emmys finally got hip.

It's the day before Andrew Shue's 35th birthday and the former Melrose Place star is feeling reflective. Any time you hit the fives or the zeros you start to realize that you're getting older, Shue says in the laid-back tone that recalls his role as nice-guy Billy Campbell on the prime-time soap.

Playing a sexy, sensual siren in the indie comedy Tadpole wasn't much of a stretch for Bebe Neuwirth, the Broadway veteran who first bedazzled TV audiences as sharp-tongued, saucy Lilith on the popular '80s comedy Cheers.

With more edge than Austin Powers has chest hair, double agent Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyonce Knowles) surpasses the sexy standard as the International Man of Mystery's leading lady. Austin's women are always sexy, but she's extra confident and charismatic, says costume designer Deena Appel.

Though he may not be able to jump-step as high as he used to, Fred Berry, the actor who played good-natured dancing machine Rerun on the late 1970s sitcom What's Happening! and its 1980s spin-off, What's Happening Now!, can do his share of fancy footwork. I'm glad I can still kick a few steps, he says.

Sarah Jessica Parker gave special thanks to the city of New York who is indeed the fifth lady when she accepted her Golden Globe for best actress last January.

Steve Irwin, aka the Crocodile Hunter, has been tireless in traveling around the United States pitching the dingo doo out of his debut film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, which opens Friday.

The record company's been boasting that When I Was Cruel, Elvis Costello's new album, is his first loud album in years. The reviews have ranged from respectful to raving, some saying it's his best album in eight years, or maybe 15, or perhaps even 20 -- invoking those halcyon days of Armed Forces and Trust when the one-time King of America was the Nabob of New Wave.

Mike Daisey knew the exact moment it was time to leave Amazon.com.

It would have been Mallory Keaton's fantasy come true.

Style may not be commonly associated with electronic devices, such as personal digital assitants (PDAs), laptops and cell phones, but several companies are creating fashionable and functional accessories to help change this view.

This year's Emmy nominations won't be announced until July 18. But it's never too early to speculate on the mistakes the members of the TV Academy will likely make with their picks. Here are the potential nominees we hope they don't overlook (even though we know they probably will).

Polish beauty Izabella Scorupco describes Alex, the helicopter-flying dragon biologist she plays in Reign of Fire, as tough, without losing her femininity. No damsel in distress, Alex fights alongside hotshot warrior Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) and reserved fire chief Quinn (Christian Bale) in an epic battle to annihilate dragons and save mankind.

Big hair, bold makeup and a biker-chic black outfit is de rigueur for the New York City woman. And it's especially appropriate when she's really an alien-turned-lingerie model who's plotting to take over the world, like Serleena, Lara Flynn Boyle's character in Men In Black II.

You know VH1's ''Where Are They Now?'' series? Sadly, that phrase could apply to the network itself. Where is VH1 now? In a pretty dire place.

Margaret Cho is letting it fly.

Taking a uniform approach to fashion, stars like Drew Barrymore, Kate Moss and Nelly Furtado are stepping out in sleek military-style jackets.

Note to Hillary Clinton: It's okay to wear a headband again. But this time choose a wide version, preferably cloth, like the ones sported by stars like Minnie Driver, Brooke Shields and Sela Ward.

Need a fresh fashion direction?

Feuds are as much a part of hip-hop history as two turntables and a microphone, so it's easy to gloss over the Nas-Jay-Z flap as another in a long line of MC battles.

Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America, French historian Jacques Barzun once famously wrote, had better learn baseball. Fortunately, for those who want to know America's heart and mind, there are hundreds of books offering lessons on the sport.

When Sean Drummond says, Trust me on this, don't. He may be cocky and a smooth operator, but sometimes -- many times -- he just doesn't know what he's talking about.

The real delight amid Amelie's whimsy and feel-good sweetness is not just Tautou's doe-eyed charm as a waify waitress who overcomes her solitude and happily meddles in the lives of others.

When Easy Rawlins first appeared, in 1990's ''Devil in a Blue Dress,'' he was an unemployed WWII vet taking on detective work for quick cash. His prime assets were a cool resolve and a loyal friend named Mouse.

Maybe it's the post-9/11 climate, but artists do seem to be dealing with their God issues all of a sudden. Take David Bowie, who, on his new album, ''Heathen,'' suggests that God better give us battered humans a break soon ''or I might just stop loving You.'' Or Dolly Parton, who on ''Halos and Horns'' implores, ''Hello, God...are you listenin' anymore?''

 The ravenous crocs, venemous snakes, and impassioned conservationists are the real things in The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course.

Her club hit One Day in Your Life has a kicky Flashdance retro vibe, but Anastacia, the ex-Club MTV dancer and European star, is really about R&B -- in the Patti LaBelle-meets --Deborah Cox mode.

Kate White, editor in chief of Cosmopolitan, well understands that sex sells. And her first novel, ''If Looks Could Kill,'' a mystery set in the snippy world of women's mags, has one pedicured foot planted firmly in the gutter.

The Kid Stays in the Picture is a candy store for film buffs.

Despite a totally lame opening with Peter Graves, Men in Black II does deliver the goods with double barrels. But in all honesty, nothing can truly recapture the magic of the first film.

Don't underestimate the groove quotient of Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup, the three little girls with superpowers who regularly save the world before bedtime on the Cartoon Network series ''The Powerpuff Girls.''

Arthur Phillips' first novel, Prague, is so thoroughly bittersweet that its title describes not the setting, but the supposed paradise its expat characters haven't reached.

The old saying goes the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and sadly, that's the case with the new film Road to Perdition.

Holden Caulfield of ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' Benjamin Braddock of ''The Graduate,'' and Max Fischer of Rushmore contributed to the gene pool that spawned Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford), the hypersophisticated 15-year-old prep-school hero of the ingratiating romantic coming-of-age comedy ''Tadpole.''

So this is what heaven is like. It comes bottled in a blue drink of a book and reads like a fairy tale. Author Alice Sebold will be your guide. ''The Lovely Bones'' will be the Bible. And everyone from Jonathan Franzen to Anna Quindlen has formed a choir to sing the praises of what could have been another missed-by-most, midlist first novel.

Bill Scheft, a longtime monologue writer for David Letterman and newly anointed Sports Illustrated columnist, combines the two callings in his winning debut novel ''The Ringer.''

In June 1961, just a year after Francis Gary Powers' U2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR and 16 months before the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of war, a brand-new Soviet nuclear submarine, the K-19, was launched on its maiden voyage. After the successful test firing of a missile in the Arctic Sea, the sub was off the eastern coast of the United States when disaster str...

The contest is over: ''K-19: The Widowmaker'' is, without a doubt, the worst title that any would-be blockbuster has been saddled with this summer.

What if the world's best songwriters teamed up with the greatest living soul singer?

Maybe there's something in the water -- or lack of it -- that affects United States senators from the state of Arizona. In its relatively brief history, the state has produced two men who have left an indelible impression on the Senate and on American politics.

Anything short of a billion gajillion dollars isn't pay enough to spoil the fun by describing the opening of ''Austin Powers in Goldmember.'' Well, maybe for a million -- okay, for 10,000 simoleons.

The first thing one notices about Bruce Springsteen's ''The Rising'' is that Springsteen himself sounds as if he's risen. His voice is in robust, throat-clearing form, stripped of the Jersey-dust-bowl affectations that have lately seeped into his delivery.

The event: Co-owner Sean Penn (other investors include John Malkovich and Johnny Depp) and Parisian restaurateur Thierry Klemeniuk join forces at a star-studded féte to celebrate the Manhattan Asian-fusion hot spot's first birthday.

When you think of Las Vegas, images of Wayne Newton and Elvis probably come to mind first. But here's another performer to add to the roster of stars whose names have appeared in lights along Sin City's famed Strip: Sheena Easton.

The sub's reactor was overheating. The crew desperately fighting to stop the temperature from rising, trying to avoid a complete meltdown... an explosion... and an ecological catastrophe on par with Chernobyl.

John Sayles and Maggie Renzi have little tolerance for modern Hollywood blockbusters.

What a difference a year makes.

What a difference a year makes.