CELEBRITY WATCH
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April 5, 2000
Web posted at: 3:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

Today's buzz stories:

• DiCaprio interview pits ABC vs. White House
• Disgraced financial adviser to the stars wants to be entertainment agent
• Carey recovering from food poisoning
• Daniels: Second-stringer for 'Beauty'

DiCaprio

DiCaprio interview pits ABC vs. White House

NEW YORK -- Did ABC send "Titanic" heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio to interview President Clinton? Network bosses say no. Some staffers think otherwise, as does a White house press secretary.

DiCaprio, 25, was to do a walking tour Friday with Clinton to observe recent changes at the White House designed to help the environment. The actor's an emcee April 22 at Earth Day ceremonies in Washington.

DiCaprio apparently did more than just walk. With cameras running, the two talked for about 15 minutes on environmental topics, prompting protests from ABC staffers who said the network sent an actor to do a reporter's job.

"No one is that stupid" as to send DiCaprio to conduct a presidential interview, responded ABC President David Westin. "(A)ll roles of journalists must be played by journalists," he wrote in an e-mail to colleagues.

But White House deputy press secretary Jake Siewart begged to differ. He said the interview request was submitted in February, and that ABC News indicated it was "Leonardo DiCaprio that would ask the questions." The queries, he added, were submitted a day ahead.

DiCaprio's spokesman said the box-office darling "didn't know if it was walking or sitting, he was just pleased to talk to President Clinton."

Disgraced financial adviser to the stars wants to be entertainment agent

NEW YORK -- Dana Giacchetto, the investment adviser to the stars charged with stealing millions, now says he wants to be an entertainment agent. A federal judge suggested that would be an ill-advised career move.

At a hearing Tuesday, United States Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck told Giacchetto that no one "in their right mind" would deal with an entertainment agent facing charges like those confronting Giacchetto. His charges include securities fraud and making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Federal prosecutors say Giacchetto stole up to $5 million from the alternative rock band Phish, plus $1 million more from others, while misappropriating as much as $20 million entrusted to him. If convicted, the 37-year-old New Yorker could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $12 million fine.

Peck allowed Giacchetto to post a $1 million bond that would permit him to travel within the United States to promote his new business. The only catch: Giacchetto must get the government's permission and submit travel plans to prosecutors.

Peck rejected prosecutors' arguments that the defendant was a flight risk. Giacchetto's accounts, he noted, have been frozen.

"Assuming Mr. Giacchetto can get on a Greyhound bus and stay in a Motel 6 with the last suit he owns on his back to go schmooze with someone in California in the business, why should we all care?" Peck asked.

Carey

Carey recovering from food poisoning

BOSTON -- A case of food poisoning has sent Mariah Carey to the hospital.

The 30-year-old singer was in fair condition Tuesday at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was being treated for dehydration and other side effects of food poisoning, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Carey felt ill after eating raw oysters in Atlanta, where she performed Saturday, the spokeswoman said. The performer felt worse after she flew to Boston and entered the hospital Monday.

The illness forced Carey to cancel Tuesday's concert at the FleetCenter. It's been rescheduled for April 13.

Daniels: Second-stringer for 'Beauty'

MARQUETTE, Michigan -- Instead of Kevin Spacey, it might have been Jeff Daniels holding that Oscar for "American Beauty."

Daniels says he was second choice to star in the dark satire on the American suburban family, which won five Academy Awards last month -- including best actor for Spacey.

"I wanted that part," he told an audience Monday during a fund-raising appearance for the Marquette Lake Superior Theater.

Daniels said he met with director Sam Mendes at a coffee shop and lobbied for the role of a suburban father facing a midlife crisis, but Spacey beat him out.

Daniels, a Michigan native, has spent the past month in the state's Upper Peninsula filming "Escanaba in da Moonlight," a comedy about deer hunting.

"It was definitely the most fun I ever had making a movie," he said.