CELEBRITY WATCH
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From staff and wire reports

He'll be back? Arnold not the running man

LOS ANGELES, California -- Arnold Schwarzenegger won't be running for governor of California in 2002.

His film career and family have taken precedence over politics, the action-adventure star said in a Wednesday article in the Los Angeles Times. He told the newspaper he was not abandoning the idea of running for office as a Republican, but was only postponing his political career until his four children, ages 3 to 11, are older.

Schwarzenegger also has two film projects in the works. He will focus on finishing a sequel to "True Lies" (1994) and production will begin later this year on "Terminator III," Schwarzenegger said.

"I have to be selfless at this point ... and take care of those things," Schwarzenegger, 53, said. "The movie projects came together. ... I have to keep up my end of the deal. It's not like it could have gone this way or that."

Tommy Lee's big break

NEW YORK -- You can say one thing for jail, says onetime Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee: A break from society can do a soul good.

"I recommend it to everybody -- not jail, but a four-month break from everything and everybody," Lee said Wednesday at a hearing at United States District Court in Manhattan.

Lee testified in a civil suit that claims he took the name of his new band, Methods of Mayhem, from a sound-effects CD of the same name. While on the stand, Lee recalled his 1998 stint in jail, which came about after he pleaded no contest to kicking his wife, Pamela Lee. The couple has since divorced.

While in stir, Lee said, he wrote lyrics and music, and sang the tunes into an answering machine at his California home.

Anthony Michael Hall happy with early work

WASHINGTON -- Not many people would want footage of their 16-year-old selves reviewed for the entertainment of movie audiences everywhere.

But Anthony Michael Hall, who rose to fame in a string of 1980s films when he was a teen, doesn't mind seeing his geeky performances in films like "Sixteen Candles" (1984) and "The Breakfast Club" (1985).

"I actually look back with fondness on the whole period. I'm glad that I'm a part of some comedies that people remember," Hall told AP Radio. "We want to be remembered for something. We want to be a part of something that's greater than ourselves, certainly. So I'm happy with that early work."

Hall has beefed up since those days, and now he's playing Hall of Fame pitcher Whitey Ford in the new HBO film "61*." The movie relives New York Yankees Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle's 1961 chase of Babe Ruth's home run record.

Busy Coens: Three films, two known plots

NEW YORK -- The Coen brothers, the filmmaking siblings who last visited theaters with 2000's "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" are working on a new project, but mum's the word.

The publicity-shy Joel and Ethan Coen are still working with the plot and that's all they'll say, according to Variety.

What is known is that the film will reunite them with veteran producer Ben Barenholtz, who helped secure financing for the Coens' first feature, 1984's "Blood Simple," before serving as executive producer of 1990's "Miller's Crossing" and 1991's "Barton Fink."

Their latest effort, the crime drama "The Man Who Wasn't There," will be distributed by USA Films following its premiere next month at the Cannes Film Festival.

Next up for the duo is "To the White Sea," a feature starring Brad Pitt and based on a James Dickey novel, Variety reports.