Screen strike threats stir bad vibes
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Screen Actors Guild president William Daniels said debate within the acting community over a potential for a strike later this year has forged hard feelings that could hurt contract negotiations. "It troubles me to hear so much talk of another strike," Daniels said. "There is no good that can come from talk of a strike before the unions and producers have even had a chance to begin formal talks." He said media coverage has exaggerated a feeling of unrest within the acting community. "I would ask the media to give these negotiations time and space to play out," he said. "Both sides deserve the chance to talk and work this out at the table." The most recent Hollywood walkout occurred last year when actors struck against producers of commercials. The strike lasted six months before a deal was reached in October

A writers' strike could coincide with other potential walkouts following the June 30 expiration of contracts for the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Hollywood writers have said a top issue will be increasing residual fees for TV shows and movies, particularly those in foreign countries

Theater entrepreneur Mann dies at 84
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ted Mann, the theater entrepreneur and movie producer whose name graces one of Hollywood's most famous landmarks, died of a stroke Monday. He was 84. Grauman's Chinese Theater, famous for the footprints and handprints of Hollywood movie stars embedded in its courtyard's concrete sidewalks, became Mann's Chinese Theater in 1973 after Mann acquired it. Mann, married to actress Rhonda Fleming, continued the theater's tradition of glitzy movie premieres. He broke into the movie business in Minnesota in the 1930s, renting St. Paul's financially troubled Selby Theater for $100 a month and booking films, selling tickets and running the projector. Within a few years he owned a chain of 25 theaters and drive-ins across Minnesota. The Mann Theatres chain grew to 360 screens - the largest independent chain in the country - before he sold it to Gulf and Western in 1986. He remained chairman until 1991.

Cindy Crawford sued over noise
NEW YORK (AP) - Cindy Crawford is being accused of less-than-model behavior by an irate neighbor who says excessive noise and the "intimate sounds of daily life" from the actress-model's apartment are disturbing her. Marina French, 59, says she hears telephones ringing, doors opening and closing, baths running and toilets flushing in the apartment directly above hers where Crawford and her husband, nightclub owner Rande Gerber, live. On sections of the floors that are not carpeted, French says, she can hear heels pounding. She says chandeliers shake and crystal glasses rattle inside her sixth-floor apartment when people walk in Crawford's apartment. In the fall of 1998, when Crawford and Gerber renovated their apartment on the seventh floor, workers apparently removed soundproofing material from between the floors and ceilings and failed to replace it, court papers say.