How Does Ledger's Death Impact Last Films

Before he died, Heath Ledger had two films in production: "The Dark Knight," the latest chapter in the Batman saga, and "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," the latest film from director Terry Gilliam.


Heath Ledger's Joker character, here on the "Dark Knight" poster, is the focus of the film's marketing effort.

1 of 2 more photos » Ledger's death has affected both of them in different ways.

The actor, who died Tuesday of unknown causes at age 28, had finished filming "The Dark Knight" late last year. It's due to be released in July. But marketing of the film, currently in post-production, has been thrown into turmoil, the trade paper Variety notes.

The early push for the film has focused on Ledger's villainous Joker character, including a poster with a shrouded Joker scrawling "Why So Serious?" in blood on misty glass.

The film's studio, Warner Bros., recently restructured its marketing department, Variety reports, after the departure of the executive who helped create the "Dark Knight" campaign. (Warner Bros., like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.)

The trade paper speculates that the marketing campaign will be changed abruptly.

The studio put out a statement Tuesday saying it was "stunned and devastated" by the news of Ledger's death. "The entertainment community has lost an enormous talent. Heath was a brilliant actor and an exceptional person. Our hearts go out to his family and friends," the statement said. Watch colleagues' memories of Heath Ledger »


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With the Joker, Ledger was taking on a role that Jack Nicholson had rendered indelibly in 1989's "Batman." But "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan said the actor had more than measured up to Nicholson. "To be perfectly honest ... what he's doing is indescribable. He's figured it out," Nolan told the crowd at an August comic book convention in Chicago. Interactive: The life of Heath Ledger »

The role as arch villain The Joker disturbed Ledger, according to The Associated Press. He called the character a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

Although unusual, Ledger's death does not mark the first time a major star has died while a film has been in production.

Perhaps the most famous example is James Dean, who died in September 1955, before post-production on "Giant" had finished. Dean's dialogue in the film's final scene had to be re-recorded, Variety observes, because he had mumbled in the shot. (Dean and director George Stevens famously clashed during filming.)

Dean was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, his second posthumous Oscar nomination after "East of Eden."

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Brandon Lee died during filming of 1994's "The Crow," prompting director Alex Proyas to use a stunt double and special effects. Oliver Reed had a heart attack during the making of 2000's "Gladiator"; technology made it possible for director Ridley Scott to use a double as a stand-in with Reed's face computer-generated in.

Gilliam's film, which concerns prime Gilliam material such as a magic mirror, a traveling show, the devil and a rougish character played by Ledger, is more problematic.

The cast had just completed filming in London, which actor Christopher Plummer characterized as "cold as bejesus" to Entertainment Weekly. "You know how damp it gets in London. And at night the temperature drops horribly, and that little breeze gets up. You have to wear tons of stuff," he said.

Plummer said that Ledger had a "terrible, lingering bug in London, and he couldn't sleep at all. We all -- I thought he'd probably got walking pneumonia," he told EW.

Gilliam has had challenges before. During the making of his film "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote," the Monty Python troupe member coped with filming near a NATO shooting range, a flash flood and a star with a herniated disc, a final indignity that prompted financiers to pull the plug.

But nothing approaches Ledger's death. Indeed, part of the reason Gilliam was able to obtain the film's relatively paltry $30 million financing was because of Ledger's agreement to star, according to Variety.

Tattle on Your Rotten Neighbors

CBS) In today's weakened housing market, even the smallest of factors can have an impact on your home's future worth and your own enjoyment living there, not the least of which, your neighbors.

The Early Show national correspondent Jeff Glor reports on one man's hi-tech way of dealing with a rotten neighbor problem.

For many folks location is key when looking for a new home. But it's not just where you live, it's also who lives next door.

Whether it's noisy toys, or bare knuckle brutes, no one wants to be stuck next to the dreaded bad neighbor.

Brant Walker and his girlfriend Kendra Kadas moved into their San Diego apartment this summer only to discover a daily assault on the senses. "You come home from work, start walking up the stairs, you smell it a little bit, and it just starts stinking," Brant remembers.

Day after day, Brant and Kendra's neighbors were cooking. The smell, they say, was unbearable. "The smell's just right in our apartment and it makes it hard to want to cook or eat your own food with this smell in the air," Kendra says.

Rather than talk to his neighbors about the odor, Brant smelled an opportunity. He launched a Web site - rottenneighbor.com - and posted his grievance to the world.

"Anyone has the right to know what their neighbors are like before they move in so they don't regret it the very next day," Brant argues.

Brant opened the site for anyone to post about anyone and right away hit a nerve. Each day, the site gets thousands of postings about neighbor horror stories.

Neighbors being tattled on generally aren't identified by name but their home, right down to the street address, is. Experts say the site can seriously impact a home's worth.

"The question is how far would you have to drop your house in order to make it saleable if everyone knows you have bad neighbors? It might be you know a third. It could easily be a third. It's hard to calculate but I'll tell you, it could definitely be a lot," Phyllis Rockower from the Real Estate Investment Club of L.A.

Brant says protecting people's privacy isn't his concern. He believes he can help save home hunters from making uninformed decisions. "You have so many real estate engines out there helping people find out where they want to live. This is the first one of its kind helping people find out where they don't want to live."

Rottenneighbor.com recently launched a beta version and has gone world wide. The site, which is being supported by private financers, has received millions of hits since launching.


© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Josh Brolin and Oliver Stone Making President Movie

Stone and Brolin to make Bush biopic
Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone is to direct a film about the life and presidency of George W Bush, with Josh Brolin set to play the lead role.

Variety reports that the script for 'Bush' has been written by Stone's 'Wall Street' co-writer Stanley Weiser.

If financing for the film is agreed, it could begin shooting by April and be in cinemas in time for the US presidential election.

AdvertisementThe trade daily reports that Stone is not planning to make an anti-Bush film but to chronicle key events in his life to explain how he came to power, with a structure similar to the Stephen Frears film 'The Queen'.

Stone told Variety: "It's a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to 'Nixon', to give a sense of what it's like to be in his skin. But if 'Nixon' was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone."


He continued: "People have turned my political ideas into a cliché but that is superficial. I'm a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great."

World Golf Tour is Photo Realistic

World Golf Tour: The most photo-realistic online golf experience.
2vote San Francisco-based World Golf Tour (WGT) offers the world’s most photo-realistic online golf experience.


World Golf Tour seeks to democratize the game of golf via the Web, making golf accessible and affordable for all, and to build an online community based on its engaging, interactive golf experience. World Golf Tour enables multiple players to explore famous courses simultaneously and sparks competition with tournament play and real-life prizes.

While you can play golf free online, there are also prizes that Golf World Tour offers to the online golf players.

Register and complete a 9 shot round earning a chance to win:

TaylorMade Burner Driver (1) - A brand new driver with a graphite shaft hot from TaylorMade. SuperFast Technology reduces total club weight to 299 grams from average of 320 and promotes faster swing speed for added drive-crushing distance. Massive 460 cc clubhead combined with TaylorMade’s Inverted Cone Technology produces an extremely-high eMOI* that exceeds 5800 (USGA conforming)

World Golf Tour adidas Polo and Sleeve of TaylorMade TP red balls (10) - Stay cool with the clima-lite black polo. Then enjoy a round with the TP red balls: Thin (.055"), multi-blend ionomer mantle works with the core to promote tour-caliber launch angle and spin off the driver and irons for optimum distance and softer sound and feel.

Source: By World Golf Tour Combined Information

Jillian Grace Having a Baby

It's not your picture-perfect idea of romance, but David Spade and Jillian Grace may be having their first (and probably only) baby together.
The 22-year-old Playmate (Jillian was Miss March 2005) has reportedly stated that actor David Spade, who was previously linked to Heather Locklear, is the father of her unborn baby.

Crazy as it sounds, it may actually be true.

With a whopping 21-year age gap between the pair (Spade is 43) rumors that David is going to be a daddy may not be rumors after all.

Spade told TMZ.com the following:

"I had a brief relationship with Jillian Grace. If it's true that I am the father of her child, then I will accept responsibility."

Weirdly enough, Jillian has yet to release a formal statement in regards to the rumors.

She's a Playboy Playmate, couldn't she find some hot 20-something guy to shack up with instead?

Matthew McConaughey and his girlfriend, Camila Alves also announced that they're expecting their first child together.

Happy news for everyone today!

And baby fever continues in Hollywood...

Cholesterol Drug Zetia Doesn't Work

Study casts doubt on benefits of cholesterol drug
Makers of Zetia under scrutiny for delays in trial showing it may worsen artery plaque
Alex Berenson, New York Times

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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A clinical trial of a widely used cholesterol drug has raised questions both about the medicine's effectiveness and about the behavior of the pharmaceutical companies that conducted the study, cardiologists said Monday.

Merck and Schering-Plough, which make the drug, Zetia, and a pill that contains it, Vytorin, said Monday that Zetia had failed to benefit patients in a two-year trial that ended in April 2006.

Merck and Schering repeatedly missed their own deadlines for reporting the results, leading cardiologists around the world to wonder what the study would show. At the same time, millions of patients have continued taking Zetia and Vytorin.

The drug companies blamed the complexity of the data for the delay.

In a press release, Merck and Schering said that not only did Zetia fail to slow the accumulation of fatty plaque in the arteries, it actually seemed to contribute to plaque formation - although by such a small amount that the finding could have been a result of chance.

Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, said the results are shocking.

"This is as bad a result for the drug as anybody could have feared," Nissen said. Millions of patients may be taking a drug that does not benefit them, raising their risk of heart attacks and exposing them to potential side effects, he said. Patients should not be given prescriptions for Zetia unless all other cholesterol drugs have failed, he said.

Both companies' shares fell Monday. Sales of the two drugs were $5 billion in 2007, and they are important contributors to Merck's and Schering's profits.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating the delay, said in a statement Monday that the fact the results were negative added to suspicions that the companies deliberately sat on their findings from the study, which was known as Enhance.

"In light of today's results, which were released nearly two years after the Enhance trial ended, it is easy to conclude that Merck and Schering-Plough intentionally sought to delay the release of this data," Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said in the statement.

Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University a cardiologist, said drug companies have a responsibility to release all their trial findings, positive or negative, as quickly as possible - even if the results might hurt sales.

"People may have been on this drug without the ability to know that there was additional data that may have thrown into question its effectiveness," Krumholz said. "That's extremely unfortunate, and that's an understatement."

Lee Davies, a spokesman for Schering, said the delay was unrelated to the negative findings and that the companies did not know the results until two weeks ago.

John Kastelein, the Dutch cardiologist who conducted the Enhance trial for Merck and Schering, did not return calls and an e-mail message seeking comment. Davies said Kastelein would not comment until he formally presented the results at a cardiology conference in March.

In the trial, patients received either Zocor - an older cholesterol drug - or a combination of Zocor and Zetia, in the pill form known as Vytorin. About 60 percent of patients who take Zetia do so in the Vytorin form, which like Zetia is jointly marketed by Merck and Schering.

Worldwide, about 1 million prescriptions are written for Zetia and Vytorin each week, and about 5 million people are now taking the drugs worldwide.

The trial covered 720 patients and lasted two years. While it was relatively small, cardiologists have been eager to see its results because they have far less data on Zetia than on other cholesterol-lowering medicines.

Statins like Zocor and Lipitor have been shown to lower cholesterol by 35 to 60 percent in most patients and have also been proved to reduce heart attacks. Zetia, which works by a different mechanism, reduces cholesterol 15 to 20 percent, but it has never been proved to reduce heart attacks.

The Enhance trial was meant to prove that Vytorin's combination of Zetia and Zocor would reduce the growth of fatty plaque in the arteries more than Zocor alone. Instead, the plaque actually grew almost twice as fast in patients taking the combination.

Reducing plaque growth is crucial, because plaque formation - known as atherosclerosis - can lead to the blockages and blood clots that cause cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes, said Howard N. Hodis, a cardiologist at the University of Southern California. That is why the trial's finding is worrisome, Hodis said.

"Clearly, progression of atherosclerosis is the only way you get events," Hodis said. "If you don't treat progression, then you get events."

The results of the trial require further investigation, Hodis said. "That just can't be ignored."

Does Lynsey Nordstrom like Jessica?

Lynsey Nordstrom Poses as Jessica Simpson to Throw Off Tony Romo!
Posted on Jan 14 2008 - 12:24pm by Angela | 3 comments
Jessica Simpson avoided her boyfriend's big game last night so she wouldn't be blamed if the Cowboys happened to lose, but that didn't stop the New York Post from hiring a Simpson lookalike to throw off Tony Romo's game.
Lynsey Nordstrom, an aspiring makeup artist who happens to look a lot like Ms. Simpson, was approached by the New York Post to act as the 27-year-old singer at last night's game against the New York Giants.

Jessica SImpson Lookalike, Lynsey NordstromFree tickets to the game and a little bit of publicity sealed the deal for Nordstrom, who was seated in the third row, at the 50-yard line behind the Cowboys' bench.

Whether Lynsey had any effect on the outcome is still up in the air, but one thing is for sure - Romo only completed 50 percent of the passes in last night's game.

Thanks to the NY Post, the Giants are one step closer to the Super Bowl and the Cowboys are out for the

Controversial Real ID Plan Off The Ground

Homeland Security to press ahead with Real ID
Posted by Anne Broache
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday plans to take the next step in getting its controversial Real ID plan off the ground, despite opposition from numerous states and privacy groups.


Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff

(Credit: U.S. Department of Homeland Security)At a midday press conference in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is scheduled to take the wraps off final regulations for the electronic identification card mandate and to make another pitch for the scheme's perceived importance in keeping Americans safe from terrorist threats.

The new rules, which are a few months behind schedule, are supposed to build on a draft version released last March for public comment.

Chertoff himself has been mum on the details ahead of his public appearance Friday. But according to anonymous sources cited by the Associated Press and The Washington Post, the department has made at least one significant change to its earlier plans: pushing back the deadlines by which the new identification cards will be required to board airplanes and enter federal buildings.

Before, Homeland Security had envisioned requiring the IDs to be in place, starting May 11, 2008--and no later than 2013--unless states had applied for an extension.

But under the new rules, Americans won't be expected to present Real ID-compliant identification cards until 2014. Even then, the mandate will apply only to Americans younger than 50 at the time, in an apparent effort to give some disgruntled state motor vehicle departments more time to issue the licenses. The requirements would be broadened to all Americans by 2017.

"We've worked very closely with the states, in terms of developing a plan that I think will be quite inexpensive, reasonable to implement, and produce the results that...are a part of the core recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, which is secure identification when driver's licenses are presented," Chertoff said Thursday, according to a transcript of his remarks, at a meeting of departmental advisers.

Largely because of the price tag, 17 states have already enacted legislation rejecting the Real ID requirements, which Congress passed as part of an emergency spending bill in 2005, and several others were considering such a step, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the most prominent voices against the plan. But according to the AP and the Post, federal officials have somehow devised a way to reduce the expected $14 billion in costs to states to $3.9 billion under the revised rules.

It's unclear how the department plans to assuage security and privacy concerns about the cards, including whether data encoded on their two-dimensional bar codes will be encrypted to guard against misuse. The AP reported that states will have a "menu" of security options from which to choose but will not be required to embed "microchips"--ostensibly a reference to radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, which, depending on the type, could be read either from a distance or close-up.

Check back with CNET News.com later on Friday for more about the new rules--and, of course, what states and privacy groups have to say about them.

The World's Cheapest Car is Here!

MUMBAI: The launch of Tata Motors’ Rs 1 lakh car saw the auto major’s shares surge 4 per cent, but soon gave away some gains.

At 12:25 pm, Tata Motors shares were up 1.38 per cent at Rs 781.05, coming off a high of Rs 802.30 with volume traded at 5,92,215 against two-week average of 2,85,995 shares.

The small car named ‘Nano’, a hatchback with a 624cc engine, is priced at about half that of the current cheapest car in the market, and is a sharp contrast to the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands that Tata is negotiating to buy from Ford Motor Company.

Nano, which is smaller than Maruti 800 in terms of size, is 21 per cent larger internally, affirmed Chairman Ratan Tata. The car is expected to give an average mileage of 20 kilometers per litre.

He also dismissed fears the cheap car would herald more congestion and pollution, arguing the car would be better and far safer than most motorcycles on Indian roads.

Nano will be available in standard and deluxe variants. The standard car would be priced at Rs 1 lakh only for the dealers excluding value added tax.

Both parties in Texas like '08 chances

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

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AUSTIN — With polls showing voter dissatisfaction in Texas mirroring a national mood, state Democrats believe they will have the "wind" to their backs for the first time in a dozen years in the 2008 elections.

But Republicans say that is a pipe dream that will quickly evaporate through money and organization once the GOP rallies behind a presidential nominee.

This Wednesday is the deadline for candidates to file in the two major party primaries, setting the stage for the next 11 months of political battle. The primary elections are March 4, with the general election on Nov. 4.

And while the presidential election will garner most of the attention nationally, the focus of this year's elections in Texas will be on the U.S. Senate race, a battle for power in the Legislature and a struggle by the major political parties for dominance in Dallas and Harris counties.

Polls released by Democrats and publicly produced polls by organizations such as SurveyUSA and the Texas Lyceum have shown a continuing voter unrest in the state this year. The Lyceum poll in June found 62 percent of the state's voters believe the nation is on the wrong track.

Both parties point to the presidential race as a key factor in how down-ballot candidates fare next fall.

With the candidate filing deadlines approaching this week, Texas Democrats are liking their chances for victory, pointing to a Republican malaise over the presidential frontrunners, the lack of a Bush on the ballot and a general dissatisfaction with the GOP leadership.

State Republican leaders insist they still have the majority of voters in Texas as well as the money and organization to turn them out, even in a year when the political landscape is giving an edge to Democrats nationally.

But some in the GOP see the potential for a party disaster in 2008, including the possibility that the state could go Democratic in a presidential race for the first time since 1976.

''The vaunted Republican organization, which was really strong in the 1990s, has really weakened. The grassroots organization, for all practical purposes, is a remnant of what it once was," said former Texas GOP Chairman Tom Pauken. ''It (the election) is not something to be taken for granted, and the Democrats in the right circumstances could take Texas."

The last time Texas Democrats won a statewide office was in 1994, and their grip on down-ballot offices has eroded ever since. State Party Chairman Boyd Richie is not predicting a political comeback for his party this year, but he said it is the first time in years that the Republicans haven't held all the political advantages.


No Bush on the ballot
Richie said there are realistic opportunities to create an upset in the Senate race to defeat incumbent Republican John Cornyn. He also said the party is shooting to pick up five to six Texas House seats to help moderate Republicans oust House Speaker Tom Craddick. And Richie predicted major Democratic gains in Harris County.

Richie said one reason the tide has turned is this will be the first election since 1980 when a member of the Bush family has not been on the ballot or in state or federal office to help inspire Republican voters. But he said voters now are tired of state and national Republican leadership on the war in Iraq, health care, rising college tuition and increased utility costs.

Richie said there also is a difference in presidential politics that can affect voter turnout this year. "Democrats are excited and would really rally around any of our frontrunners, where it seems to be the Republicans really don't like any of their candidates," Richie said.

But Texas remains a state that has gone Democratic in a presidential election just once in the past 40 years: Jimmy Carter's win in 1976. The voter numbers also still seem to favor Republicans.

A record 2.8 million people voted Democratic in the 2004 presidential election, an increase of almost 400,000 voters over the 2000 presidential election. But President Bush still carried the state in 2004 by a margin

Fernley Nevada Levee break Floods Homes

Fernley, Nevada Levee Fails; 800 Homes Flooded
Written by C. Johnson, Internet News Producer

FERNLEY, NV (AP) -- A levee break in Nevada has sent freezing water into hundreds of homes, trapping 3,500 people.

Authorities said a 30-foot-wide section of the Truckee Canal broke around 5 Saturday morning in the town of Fernley on the eastern side of the Sierra.

The break prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood warning for north central Lyon County in western Nevada until 10:15 a.m. PST.

About 3 feet of water filled about 800 homes in the town near Reno but nobody was hurt.

About 3,500 residents of the desert community are stranded but school buses have been brought in to take them to a shelter. Two helicopters from nearby Fallon Naval Air Station also are helping
make rescues.

The levee break occurred in freezing temperatures and followed a storm that dumped 4 to 6 inches of snow in the area.

Before the snow, a steady downpour on Friday produced a record amount of rain for January 4 in the Reno-Sparks area, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. The National Weather Service reported 1.54 inches of rain at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, breaking a record 0.69 inches set in 1939.


Copyright 2008 News10/KXTv and The Associated Press . All Rights Reserved.


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WWE Diva Carmella DeCesare was recently named Sexiest Celebrity Sports Wife

Reported by Brandon Lau on 12/17/2007

TNAHeadlines.com - Breaking TNA News, Spoilers, Photos & More!

- Former WWE Diva Carmella DeCesare was recently named Sexiest Celebrity Sports Wife / Girlfriend of United States Athletes by a popular online magazine. DeCesare is linked to Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jeff Garcia. They married on April 21, 2007 at the CordeValle Resort in San Martin, California.

- WWE.com had 17.6 million unique visitors for the month of October, which is higher than usual. WWE averaged 567,742 hits a day. WWEShop.com received 710 orders a day, which is up from an average of 620 per day over the previous three months.

- It appears that JBL will be making his return to the ring. There has been talk for weeks now of JBL stepping away from the announcing position on SmackDown!. WWE TV producer Kevin Dunn has been auditioning people with Michael Cole to find a new announcing partner.

source: wrestling observer

Martina Hingis Banned For Two Years

Hingis Banned 2 Years for Cocaine Test
1 hour ago

LONDON (AP) — Martina Hingis was banned for two years Friday for testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon last year.

The International Tennis Federation said an independent anti-doping tribunal found that Hingis, who announced her retirement Nov. 1 on the day she revealed the positive test, had committed an offense.

The 27-year-old Hingis denied using cocaine, but the tribunal rejected suggestions there were any doubts over her sample.

Although the five-time Grand Slam winner is now retired, Hingis' suspension is backdated to Oct. 1. She has three weeks to contest the ruling and punishment.

The ITF disqualified Hingis' results from last year's Wimbledon and any subsequent tournaments she played in. She also forfeits any ranking points gained and $129,481 in prize money.

Hingis provided the sample after losing 6-4, 6-2 to Laura Granville in the third round at Wimbledon.

There was no immediate reaction from Hingis, who dominated women's tennis between 1997-2000 by winning three straight Australian Opens, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She was twice a runner-up at the French Open where her loss to Iva Majoli in 1997 stopped her winning all four Grand Slams that year.

Hingis returned to the sport in 2005 after a four-year absence because of injuries.

When announcing her retirement at a news conference in Zurich, Hingis denied ever using cocaine.

"I find this accusation so horrendous, so monstrous that I've decided to confront it head on by talking to the press," she said. "I am frustrated and angry. I believe that I am absolutely 100 percent innocent."

Larry Scott, chief executive of the WTA Tour, said Friday his organization was saddened by the outcome of the case.

"As a signatory to the WADA Code and a founding member of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program, the WTA Tour is committed to ensuring the integrity and competitive fairness of women's professional tennis, and ensuring the heath and well-being of our athletes," Scott said.

"We are saddened by this news as Martina has meant so much to fans the world over and made many positive contributions to the sport."

Tony Sparano Top Candidate for Miami

Alex Marvez is a Senior NFL Writer for FOXSports.com. He's covered the NFL for 13 seasons as a beat writer. For more by Alex, click here. Updated: January 3, 2008, 12:43 PM EST 10 comments RSS digg blog email print The Tuna won't have to swim through an entire sea of coaches to find Cam Cameron's replacement.

New Dolphins football czar Bill Parcells knows the kind of head coach he wants to fix Miami's sinking ship, which is why Cameron was fired days after completing his first season. Parcells will target someone who understands his modus operandi and can work in lockstep with new general manager Jeff Ireland.

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Miami's new coach is expected to have previous ties with Parcells and most likely the Dallas Cowboys. Parcells coached the Cowboys from 2003 to 2006 and is on the same wavelength with Ireland, who was Dallas' scouting director until being hired away by Miami earlier this week.

Expect the Dolphins to take a long look at the following candidates:

1. Tony Sparano: He is considered the early frontrunner to fill Miami's head coaching vacancy. Sparano, 46, began a gradual ascent up the Cowboys' coaching ranks after being brought to Dallas by Parcells to handle tight ends (Jason Witten is one of his star pupils). Sparano became offensive line coach in 2005 and has subsequently molded one of the NFL's best units, with three starters (left tackle Flozell Adams, center Andre Gurode and right guard Leonard Davis) heading to the Pro Bowl. He also called plays under Parcells in 2006 before being replaced in that role this season by whiz kid Jason Garrett.

The fact Miami also fired Hudson Houck -- one of the NFL's most respected offensive line coaches -- could be a harbinger to Sparano's arrival.

2. Todd Haley: Currently Arizona's offensive coordinator, Haley's roots with Parcells run deep. Haley's father Dick was the Jets' player personnel director when Parcells served as head coach and then general manager from 1997 to 2000. Parcells hired Todd as an assistant in his first year with the Jets and brought him to Dallas as wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator. The Cowboys fielded the NFL's No. 5 passing offense in 2006, an especially impressive feat considering quarterback Tony Romo was a first-year starter.

Haley, 40, left Dallas when Parcells did -- largely because he couldn't co-exist with wide receiver Terrell Owens -- but had continued success in Arizona. The Cardinals finished with the NFL's No. 5 passing offense despite injuries that forced the use of three different quarterbacks.

3. Todd Bowles: An outstanding secondary coach with the Cowboys, Bowles and Parcells also have a previous working relationship. Bowles, 44, landed his first NFL coaching position with the New York Jets in 2000 when Parcells was general manager, then followed him to Dallas in 2004. Bowles is worthy of consideration on his own merits, but he also would fulfill the Rooney Rule requirement that Miami interview at least one minority candidate. The Dolphins are more likely to make a run at Bowles as their new defensive coordinator, as Parcells also fired Dom Capers on Thursday.


4. (tie) Charlie Weis/Romeo Crennel: Both are dark-horse candidates, as Weis (Notre Dame) and Crennel (Cleveland) seem locked into their current head coaching positions. But the long history both have with Parcells shouldn't be ignored. Weis and Parcells are believed on better terms now after a previous falling out, while Crennel's coaching stock has risen since the Browns finished 2007 with a surprising 10-6 record.

5. Bill Parcells: OK, Parcells won't be naming himself Cameron's replacement. But there is always the chance Parcells could backtrack on his retirement pledge from coaching like he has previously. The most likely scenario would be the 66-year-old Parcells returning down the line after Miami is once again a legitimate championship contender a la what Pat Riley did earlier this decade with the Miami Heat.

Even if Parcells never returns, whoever is hired will have that possibility hanging over their head like Stan Van Gundy did until his 2005 ouster down the road from Dolphins headquarters.