Jockstrip: The World As We Know It

SEND IN THE CLONES

George Lucas and his hands at Lucasfilm Ltd. Are playing beat the clock as they get "Star Wars: Episode -- Attack of the Clones" ready to open in the U.S. this May -- a challenge made all the more difficult by the fact that the fifth "Star Wars" movie will also open in most international markets within the same month.

"It's going to be a madhouse for the next six months," said producer Rick McCallum in a message posted at starwars.com.

The decision to open worldwide at more or less the same time puts a lot of pressure on post-production teams to produce mixes tailored for each market. "It means we have to have the finished film done a month ahead of what we did for Episode I," said McCallum. "It means we have to audition and cast 60 to 80 actors to do the parts in each country, and we're in 30 different countries."

McCallum said it's an "intense, complicated and time-consuming period, but awfully fun if we can pull it off."

Talent agents around the world have been pitching local voice talent to Lucasfilm, where producers listen to tapes and decide who will provide the foreign-language voices for Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and the rest of the cast.

(Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)

THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

A 19-foot bronze statue replicating a newspaper photograph of three New York City firefighters raising the American flag in the rubble of the World Trade Center is drawing criticism.

The three firefighters who erected the flag were white. However, the memorial statue that is to be placed outside the headquarters of the Fire Department of New York, in Brooklyn, is to have a white, a black and a Hispanic firefighter. Some firefighters think that by changing who the people are in the sculpture is "rewriting history," but according to the Fire Department of New York "ultimately a decision was made to honor no one in particular, but everyone who made the supreme sacrifice."

The New York City firefighters in the photograph -- Billy Eisengrein, George Johnson and Dan McWilliams -- declined to comment. The picture was taken by Tom Franklin, a photographer with The Record of Bergen County in New Jersey.

NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS

Officials at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb., are trying to figure out how one of their female bonnethead sharks managed to give birth when none of them have had any contact with any male of their species for more than three years.

"It was a big surprise," zoo director Lee Simmons said. "When we solve it, the mystery, it's going to make a very, very interesting scientific paper."

Simmons said the sharks were just babies, about 6 months old, when they were captured. He said the only possible explanation he can think of for the mysterious birth is that somehow one of the females retained sperm in her reproductive organs until she was mature enough to reproduce. "It (sperm retention) is a long shot but statistically probable," he said. "Next would be a virgin birth."

The perfectly formed bonnethead pup was born earlier this month and lived for about five hours.

Simmons said though no male bonnethead has been in the Scott Aquarium shark tank, some much smaller, egg-laying epaulette sharks did bunk with the bonnetheads for a time. "Genetically, there's a huge distance between them -- we think anyway," he said.

The zoo had planned to introduce a male bonnethead within the next couple of weeks. Ultrasounds have since been performed on the three females, and none is currently pregnant.

TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING

British officials confirm a London tabloid newspaper report that 17-year-old Prince Harry was sent off to a rehabilitation clinic for a day after he admitted smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. The BBC quotes a spokesman saying the action by Harry's father, Prince Charles, resolved the matter and the young prince has not indulged since. The incidents took place last summer, when Harry was 16.

AND FINALLY, TODAY'S UPLIFTING STORY

In one of the broadest grass-roots efforts to solve the dilemma of racism in the United States, nine religious denominations are establishing an ecumenical relationship to be known as Churches Uniting in Christ. The nine denominations -- including three African-American denominations -- say they will periodically celebrate the Eucharist together, they will recognize one baptism and they will work together to achieve a shared vision of disabling racism at every level of American society.

"The time to live out our unity in Christ and to be a witness for racial reconciliation -- especially at the local church and community level -- hereby begins," said the Rev. Michael K. Kinnamon, director of the new organization.

Denominational leaders, including clergy and laity, will gather Jan. 20, at the historic Mt. Olive Christian Methodist Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis, Tenn., to celebrate the new accord during ceremonies marking the 73rd anniversary of the birth of civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The following day -- Martin Luther King Day -- 300 of them will re-enact the march by clergy to City Hall that helped end the garbage collectors' strike 33 years ago.