Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe ROSIE O'DONNELL Rosie O'Donnell's upcoming memoir, "Find Me," isn't due in stores until April 23, but various published reports indicate that the talk show queen turned magazine publisher reveals in the book that she is a lesbian. Advertisement Publisher's Weekly quoted a sales representative for Warner Books as saying that people will be "very surprised" by the book, and the New York Daily News quoted a source last weekend as saying that O'Donnell writes "about her relationship with women and having a girl break her heart in college." O'Donnell dedicated her Daytime Emmy award last May to her companion, Kelli Carpenter, but she has never come right out and acknowledged whether she is a lesbian. (Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason) KIRK DOUGLAS Legendary actor Kirk Douglas and his wife, Anne, have donated $2.5 million to the non-profit Center Theatre Group to help transform the historic Culver Theater in Culver City, Calif., into a 400-seat live theater venue. Advertisement Completion of the project is scheduled in time for the 2004 fall theater season. The announcement of the Douglases' gift was made Wednesday by the Center Theatre Group's Artistic Director/Producer Gordon Davidson under the marquee of the landmark building. The former movie house, which will now become the Kirk Douglas Theatre, was built in 1946, the year that Kirk Douglas began his Hollywood career with "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers." "Theater was my first love," Douglas, 85, said. "When I was 25, I got my first break on Broadway as a singing-telegram boy in 'Spring Again.' My subsequent plays had short runs, so I reluctantly accepted a screen role just to feed my young family. I always thought I would go back to the stage, but that didn't happen until 1963 when I produced and starred in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' The audiences loved it; the critics didn't. Now I will have my name up in lights again on a theater marquee." NEW CBS REALITY SERIES CBS has announced the premiere dates for its two mid-season reality series -- "The Amazing Race 2" and "AFP: American Fighter Pilot" -- as well as the date for the special event finale of "Survivor: Marquesas." Advertisement "The Amazing Race 2," from producer Jerry Bruckheimer ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"), features 11 couples racing around the world for a $1 million prize. It will have a special preview on Monday, March 11 (at 10 p.m.) before moving to its regular Wednesday (9-10 p.m. ET/PT) time slot on March 13. "AFP: American Flighter Pilot" -- a new "Top Gun"-like reality series -- follows three men from various backgrounds training to become F-15 fighter pilots. It will debut Friday, March 29 (8-9 p.m. ET/PT) as part of CBS's new Friday line-up. Meanwhile, the winner of "Survivor" Marquesas" -- the fourth installment of television's highest-rated reality series -- will be revealed in a special Sunday finale on May 19 (8-10 p.m. ET/PT). The two-hour finale will be followed by a live reunion show with the cast (10-11 p.m. ET/PT). As previously announced, "Survivor: Marquesas" will premiere on Thursday, Feb. 28 (8-9 p.m. ET/PT). 'HARRY POTTER' The recent premiere of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in Spain's Catalonia region has brought about an old dispute: Should movies be dubbed, and at what price? Warner Sogefilms, the distributor of "Harry Potter" -- which belongs to the AOL-Time Warner group -- decided not to show the film in Catalan because, it said, there was not enough time to dub it. The decision caused an outcry; soon there were calls to boycott the movie and jam the company's Web page. Advertisement In response, Warner Sogefilms promised it would show seven copies in English with subtitles in the local dialect of Catalan, compared with 70 copies dubbed in Spanish. The studio also agreed to show the dubbed Harry Potter sequel to Catalan next December. However, the release of the first part of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy went unnoticed in terms of linguistic disputes. In Catalonia, the distributor showed 82 copies dubbed in Spanish and 12 dubbed in Catalan, attracting 186,000 and 17,546 spectators respectively. The Catalonian government has tried to make Catalan compulsory in the movies for some time. However, the courts in 1999 reversed a governmental decree that had allowed authorities to fine distributors that did not dub their movies to Catalan and Catalonian authorities have been criticized for expending too much money promoting the language. (Thanks to UPI Business Correspondent Miren Gutierrez in Barcelona, Spain)
