People

PAUL AND HEATHER TIE THE KNOT IN IRELAND

Anyone who placed his or her money on speculation that Sir Paul McCartney had chosen an isolated Irish castle as the site for his wedding to Heather Mills would have won big. The former Beatle managed to keep the venue for the wedding under wraps until just hours before the ceremonies, in spite of the gossip columnist Cindy Adams' assertion that Ireland was the choice. According to various media reports, more than 300 guests arrived at Castle Leslie, in County Monaghan near the Northern Ireland border. Among them was Ringo. Twiggy was there as well as St. George Martin, former Beatles producer. Mills entered the castle to the strains of "Heather," a new McCartney song, written for the occasion. McCartney and Mills met at a charity event three years ago.

ALAN JACKSON FANS PACK MEETING HALL

It was the second time that country mega-star Alan Jackson has staged a "homecoming" of sorts for his fan club. And, like meeting No. 1, this week's encore was more than a big hit. CMT, known as Country Music Television, says estimated that about 1,800 Jackson devotees jammed the Acuff Theater in Music City USA. The Theater is located next to the Grand Old Opry House. Before the official club meeting, fans swarmed through souvenir stands and the concession area. Inside the theater Jackson talked with his fans and posed for photographs. Many in the group joined the singer in impromptu rendering of his biggest hits. Jackson then introduced members of his family to those in attendance. It was a mini, one-on-one version of the highly successful FanFair held each year in Nashville.

READERS MUST HAVE WONDERED ABOUT THIS

If you realized that the neighbor who lives on the right side of your property had a pickup truck for sale and the neighbor on your left mentioned that he was looking for a pickup up truck at a good price ... would you help them work out a deal? Well, that question may have been in the mind of the person who prepares the on-line edition of the Washington (Ind.) Times-Herald newspaper this week. In Tuesday's cyber edition the publication featured two adjacent articles with similar themes. One mentioned that the city of Loogootee (luh-GO'-tee), Ind., wanted to get rid of its drug-sniffing dog. Then, in the next story, it was reported that the city of Washington (about 18 miles away) had decided to start looking for a drug-sniffing dog. A check with the paper today reveals that when the print edition hit the streets the two stories were combined. But for readers on the Net, it would have appeared that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, or thought it better to be a journalist than a "matchmaker."

OPRAH TO INCREASE HER WORK LOAD

The folks at Harpo Inc., Oprah Winfrey's production company, confirm that the "queen of television talk" has inked a deal with Oxygen Media where she will stick around after the taping of her daily show and do an additional, separate half hour -- to be called "Oprah After the Show." The format, according to Winfrey, will be laid back. She tells MSNBC that: "We're going to kick off our shoes, take questions from the audience and see where the conversation takes us." The head of Oxygen tells the news provider that the main reason for the new show, which will be made available for evening and early morning release, is that a great number of working women never get to see Oprah's show because it runs in most markets during the work day. Winfrey owns 25 percent of Oxygen and has arranged for that group to have distribution rights to reruns of her original daily show. "Oprah After the Show" will debut on Sept. 16.

SPEARS SUED FOR 'STEALING' MUSIC

Court records in Philadelphia show that two local songwriters have sued Britney Spears, claiming that the young singer stole two of their songs and incorporated them into her second album, "Oops! ... I Did it Again." Michael Cottrill and Lawrence Wnukowski claim that they sent the two songs, on spec, to Spears' representatives back in 1999. They were told that the singer would not use their creations. They say they were later mortified to find their music on the multi-platinum album. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, claims that the songs are "virtually identical" to the songwriter's music. Meanwhile, People magazine says that Spears is in the final throes of getting her new Manhattan eatery off the ground. The 20-year-old performer will cut the ribbon on the Nyla restaurant later this month.

NASCAR & STANLEY HIT COUNTRY CHARTS

When the racing franchise NASCAR announced it had enlisted a cadre of country stars to produce a compilation of "fast paced" songs under its aegis, the project not only generated instant interest but has been the impetus for the creation of some interesting new music. The CD, called "Inside Traxx," according to country.com. "Never slows down." And, it's revved its way to the top of the new releases chart. Additionally, venerable bluegrass star Ralph Stanley -- who figured prominently on the soundtrack of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" -- has an album out with a new batch of songs. By the way, Stanley would seem to have his career reborn. At age 75 he's fresh from winning two Grammys, worldwide acclaim from the George Clooney movie, special recognition by the Grand Ole Opry and now he's back on the road ... touring again.

A SPECIAL NOTE: During last week I inadvertently gave the wrong new e-mail address. I left an "s" off the end of "comments." So, it's [email protected] via the Internet.

UPI DAILY SURVEY QUESTION NO. 353

Recently I read a wonderful article on the evolution of recorded music, from cylinders to flat disks to LPs to the CD. So, inspired by that, here's today's question: "Do you now, or have you ever had a really extensive collection of music? If so, how expansive is/was it? Additionally, do you have a mixture of mediums? Put RECORD in the subject line and send to [email protected] via the Internet.

RESULTS OF QUESTION NO. 348 (PARK)

Last week we asked what funny names you might suggest for the naming of ballparks. All this was inspired by the renaming of the Astros Field to Minute Maid Park. So, from a random sampling of the inbox, here are some of your thoughts: IMTU suggests something that many of you sent in ... The Toilet Bowl for any park in a city where there's a big company making plumbing. MTM says he loves the Great American Ballpark, "the future home of the Cincinnati Reds, sponsored by Great American Insurance." Brenda says that the Atlanta Braves Stadium should be renamed Mel Gibson Stadium (because the team has a Brave Heart). She also suggests that the Chicago White Sox should name their park Clorox Stadium (to keep the sox clean). On an allied subject, CWS says that in one city in Indiana the BOY's sports teams are named the Alices, in honor of the heroine of a book about the city. My favorite REAL stadium name is in a California city that has the highest rate of earthquakes of any American city, Rancho Cucamonga. It's called the Epicenter. The team there is called, you guessed it, the Quakes. TOMORROW: What puts you to sleep? GBA.