Cinema
Kubrick's Dead, but His Projects Aren't
STANLEY KUBRICK died in March, days after finishing his controversial film Eyes Wide Shut. But that may not be the last moviegoers see of his work. Warner Bros. owns the rights to AI, a science-fiction flick Kubrick wanted to do about artificial intelligence. Warner co-chief TERRY SEMEL says there is a script and even storyboards completed for the movie. Normally, Kubrick never did storyboards--he preferred to let movies develop over a long period--but he had to do them for AI, which mixes computer-generated figures with human actors. As with all things Kubrickian, the story line is a bit of a mystery. Semel describes it as "a boy in space and artificial intelligence," while Kubrick's friend and producer on Eyes, Jan Harlan, says it's "a study of a society well in the future where you cannot have a child without a license."

If not for the slow development of artificial intelligence in the real world, the movie might have made it to the screen before Eyes. "Stanley was eager to get back into the game" after a 12-year hiatus but couldn't decide which film to do first, says Semel. The director even toyed with the idea of having Steven Spielberg direct AI, and the two men discussed the story, but Kubrick decided he wanted to do it after Eyes. Warner owns the rights to the script--just as MGM owns the rights to another Kubrick script, Napoleon--but there are no plans to make the film. Pity. For the man who made 2001: A Space Odyssey, AI would have been a fitting finale. BY CATHY BOOTH

Hollywood
Forget the Lawsuit, The Movie Must Go On
Hollywood relationships can be awkward--especially when love dies. Years ago at Sony Pictures, manager BRAD GREY set up GARRY SHANDLING'S upcoming movie What Planet Are You From? with himself as a producer. But by the time filming started, Shandling was suing Grey for $100 million, claiming that his former manager-producer had cut him out of all kinds of deals. With the trial set to start any minute, the studio faced an expensive hiatus--more than $1 million a week--while Shandling went to court. Sony, which recently bought part of Grey's production company, asked its new partner to delay the court date. But Grey declined to be quite that good a sport. As the trial loomed, Shandling settled late last week, with Sony dollars helping to grease the deal. So director MIKE NICHOLS can keep shooting and Grey remains an executive producer with a share in the profit, if there is any. BY KIM MASTERS

Justice
Freeh-Agentry: Is the FBI Chief Playing to Bush?
If Attorney General Janet Reno had a least-wanted list, former campaign-finance-task-force chief Charles LaBella would be on it. Republicans regularly bludgeon Reno for rejecting LaBella's call for an independent counsel to follow the trail of alleged campaign violations into President Clinton's inner circle. Next week LaBella returns to Washington in triumph. FBI director Louis Freeh is staging an invitation-only ceremony at which he intends to bestow upon LaBella a "Director's Award for Excellence."

Some at Justice and on the Hill regard Freeh's move as a taunt at Reno, who's resented by senior FBI executives as too solicitous of the White House. There's speculation that the LaBella award is a classic Freeh maneuver, a signal to the G.O.P. majority in Congress that Freeh is no Clinton-Gore lackey and would be a good fit in, say, a George W. Bush Administration. "Freeh is widely seen by the Democrats as grandstanding and being far too political for that job," says a congressional Democratic staff member. But Freeh associates insist he has no ulterior motive. "He's just giving an award to Chuck LaBella, a person he admires, for a job well done," says an aide. Freeh's term officially must expire after 10 years, on Sept. 1, 2003--though he can be asked to resign sooner. BY ELAINE SHANNON

Lifestyles of the Rich and Wanted
THE UNTOUCHABLES The hunt for financier Martin Frankel and at least $215 million from insurance firms he controlled led us to wonder what happened to the other moneymen on the lam. A roundup:

In 1997 investors lost billions when it was revealed that Bre-X Minerals engaged in the largest mining fraud in history. Bre-X vice chairman John Felderhof, who is charged with insider trading, lives beyond extradition, with his wife, in the Cayman Islands.

Christopher Skase is wanted in Australia, following the 1989 collapse of his highly leveraged firm, Qintex, under $1 billion in debts. He resides in a mansion in Majorca, from which the Spanish government refuses to extradite him.

Billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich fled to Switzerland in 1983 after he was indicted for wire fraud, racketeering and trading with the enemy by allegedly buying oil from Iran. He now resides in a villa near Lucerne with a private harbor and a steel-gated boathouse.

Thankfully, there is justice for some. Robert Vesco left the U.S. in 1972 after looting a mutual fund of $224 million and making an illegal $200,000 donation to Richard Nixon's campaign. He eventually found refuge in Cuba, only to be jailed by that government in 1996 for marketing an unproved cancer drug.

Through A Glass Darkly
SHADE-OFF Once Tom Cruise was the undisputed sunglasses king. Any shades he wore in a movie took off like fireworks. Can he be unseated?

Tom Cruise
Signature Shades: Ray-Ban Wayfarers in 1983's Risky Business Price: $55

Reflection on Sales: On the brink of discontinuation before Cruise wore them; sales soared after the film

Signature Shades: Ray-Ban Aviators in 1986's Top Gun Price: $100

Reflection on Sales: The 50-year-old style's sales had been flat; after the film, they shot up 40%

Caveat: In Eyes Wide Shut, Cruise wears no signature shades, but he does spend much of the film wearing a mask. New merchandising opportunity?

Will Smith
Signature Shades: Ray-Ban's Predator 2, in 1997's Men in Black Price: $99

Reflection on Sales: In six months, sales tripled; Ray-Ban says it was like $25 million in free ads

Signature Shades: Custom-made oval shades in Wild Wild West, which opened last week

Reflection on Sales: Millions more Whoppers sold, if Burger King has it its way. It's selling knock-offs of the glasses for $1.99

Caveat: When Keanu Reeves' slightly slanted specs from The Matrix become publicly available in August, they could also be contenders