CELEBRITY WATCH
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May 26, 2000
Web posted at: 5:39 p.m. EDT (2139 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

Today's buzz stories:

• Spears album sets sales record
• Fox's last 'Spin City' gets record ratings
• O'Donnell to send bodyguard to school with son
• Soulful Santana gets soles
• 'Puffy' takes rap for concert injury

Spears album sets sales record

NEW YORK -- Britney Spears set a one-week sales record to put Madonna, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston to shame.

Spears' second album, "Oops! ... I Did It Again," sold 1.3 million copies, according to Soundscan. And it's expected to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

"Oops!" is also the second fastest-selling album. It's right behind 'N Snyc's "No Strings Attached," which set a sales record of 2.4 million copies in its first week this spring.

Both Spears and 'N Sync are on the Jive Records label.

Fox's last 'Spin City' gets record ratings

LOS ANGELES -- Michael J. Fox has left "Spin City" to try to find a cure for Parkinson's disease. Millions of people tuned in to watch him make his final bow on the ABC sitcom Wednesday night.

The show, which earned its highest ratings with the one-hour season finale, had Fox's character, wisecracking New York Deputy Mayor Michael Flaherty, leaving City Hall to take a job as an environmental lobbyist in Washington.

The episode included nostalgic references to his former "Family Ties" character, the money-loving Alex Keaton. After the curtain call, Fox appeared in a public service announcement, urging viewers to support the fight against the nervous-system disorder that cut short his entertainment career.

O'Donnell to send bodyguard to school with son

GREENWICH, Connecticut -- Rosie O'Donnell has received permission to send her 4-year-old son to kindergarten with a bodyguard. The talk-show host said she made the request because she has received threats from gun-control opponents.

The bodyguard has applied for a concealed weapon permit, but O'Donnell said he won't be bringing the gun to school in the fall.

O'Donnell, who helped organize the Million Mom March earlier this month in Washington to push for tougher gun legislation, said she sees nothing wrong with supporting gun control while paying an armed bodyguard to stand watch outside her child's school.

"I don't personally own a gun," she said. "But if you are qualified, licensed and registered, I have no problem."

Soulful Santana gets soles

ST. LOUIS -- It wasn't enough for Carlos Santana to stand tall at this year's Grammys, when his "Supernatural" dominated the awards ceremony. Now he's getting some shoes to boot.

Brown Shoe Co. announced Thursday that it will create "Carlos," a fashion line of footwear named after the 52-year-old performer. The collection will feature multicultural influences and be sold in stores nationwide starting in the fall, company officials said. Part of the sales will go to the Milagro Foundation, which Santana and his wife started to help young people.

"Meeting with Brown Shoe, I realized they could connect with my vision," Santana said.

This won't be the first named line of shoes for the St. Louis-based company. It also produces Buster Browns, the shoes that have clad generations of youngsters' feet.

'Puffy' takes rap for concert injury

Rap mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to a young woman who was injured in a deadly stampede at City College of New York nine years ago.

The settlement Wednesday with Nicole Levy, 25, marked the last of several lawsuits that were filed against Combs, rapper Dwight "Heavy D" Myers and the college for a 1991 concert that left nine people dead.

Levy, whom Combs had invited to the celebrity basketball game and dance at the college's gymnasium, was one of dozens injured at the bottom of a staircase that led to the gym door.