NEW YORK – Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show hasn’t been on the air three months, but he’s already got an award. The comedian was chosen as person of the year by the annual Webby awards for being “one of the most ardent online evangelists.”

The 13th annual Webbys were announced Tuesday. A special achievement award was also given to Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who released his 2008 album, “The Slip,” as a free download.

Seth MacFarlane, the “Family Guy” creator, was honored as film and video person of the year for his Web franchise “Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.”

Nation Public Radio led winners with seven awards, including wins for its music division, mobile news and podcasts. The New York Times’ online unit — last year’s Webby leader — earned six awards, the same total that NBC.com also received.

Twitter, the fast-growing microblogging site, won the Webby for breakout of the year.

Two well-known comedians were also singled out.

Sarah Silverman was honored as best actress for her performance in the viral video “I’m … Matt Damon” and for her contribution to a voting initiative video. Lisa Kudrow won for outstanding comedic performance as the star of the series “Web Therapy” on lstudio.com.

The awards will be presented in New York on June 8, hosted by Seth Meyers (“Saturday Night Live”). The Webbys are known for their brief acceptance speeches, where winners are limited to five words. (Stephen Colbert, a special achievement winner last year, said: “Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.”)

Since “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” began in early March, the comedian has augmented his NBC broadcast with Web videos, blogging and tweeting on Twitter.

Reznor’s online fervor was evident Sunday, when he posted in a Nine Inch Nails forum that he was frustrated with what he called Apple’s inconsistent standards. He criticized the company for not making the band’s album “The Downward Spiral” available on its iPhone app even though it’s for sale on iTunes.

The Onion won for best humor Web site and its television news parody, Onion News Network, won for best writing. The Huffington Post won for best political Web site.

Best individual comedy short went to “Prop 8: The Musical,” a video from the Will Ferrell co-founded site FunnyOrDie.com. The star-studded video (Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris) suggested that gay marriage (which was then being voted on in California as Proposition 8) would save the economy.

Best comedy series went to “Childrens’ Hospital,” the medical drama parody for TheWeb.com by Rob Corddry (“The Daily Show”).

PBS won four Webbys, including best news and politics series for its “Frontline/World iWitness.” Others with multiple awards included the BBC, Sundance Channel, YouTube Live, Next New Networks and Wired.com.

The Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member group of Web experts. Every category has two winners: one picked by the Webbys and the other chosen by online voting.

———

ON THE WEB

Webby Awards www.webbyawards.com

CHICAGO – A former member of Wilco is suing the band’s lead singer, claiming he’s owed royalties for songs during his seven years and five albums with the group.

Jay Bennett also claims in the breach-of-contract lawsuit filed Monday against singer Jeff Tweedy that he deserves money from the band’s 2002 documentary, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.” The film documents the making of Wilco’s album “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.”

Bennett worked as a sound engineer and played instruments for the band from 1994 to 2001, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court, which asks for at least $50,000 in damages.

The lawsuit said Bennett was compensated but only in “infrequent partial payments” equal to 15 percent of Wilco’s income from sales and performances.

“As a recording musician in Wilco, Bennett is entitled to compensation for his services rendered in the form of continuing and perpetual artist royalty payments from” Tweedy, according to the lawsuit.

There was no immediate response to an e-mail sent Monday after business hours to Tweedy and Wilco’s management company, Tony Margherita Management.

Bennett worked on the albums “Being There,” “Summerteeth,” “Mermaid Avenue,” “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” the lawsuit said.

In this Sunday Feb. 1, 2004 file photo, entertainer Janet Jackson, left, covers her breast after her outfit came undone during the half time performance with Justin Timberlake at Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston. The Supreme Court on Monday, May 4, 2009 ordered a federal appeals court to re-examine its ruling in favor of CBS Corp. in a legal fight over Jackson's wardrobe malfunction.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a federal appeals court to re-examine its ruling in favor of CBS Corp. in a legal fight over entertainer Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction.

The high court on Monday directed the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to consider reinstating the $550,000 fine that the Federal Communications Commission imposed on CBS over Jackson’s breast-baring performance at the 2004 Super Bowl.

The order follows the high court ruling last week that narrowly upheld the FCC’s policy threatening fines against even one-time uses of curse words on live television.

In a statement, CBS said the Supreme Court’s decision was not a surprise given last week’s ruling and expressed confidence the court will again find the incident was not and could not have been anticipated by the network.

Last year, the appeals court threw out the fine against CBS, saying the FCC strayed from its long-held approach of applying identical standards to words and images when reviewing complaints of indecency.

The appellate court said the incident lasted nine-sixteenths of one second and should have been regarded as “fleeting.” The FCC previously deviated from its nearly 30-year practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was so “pervasive as to amount to ‘shock treatment’ for the audience,” the court said.

The FCC appealed to the Supreme Court. The case had been put off while the justices dealt with a challenge led by Fox Television against the FCC’s policy on fleeting expletives.

The case is FCC v. CBS Corp., 08-653.

Singer songwriter Pete Seeger performs at the benefit concert celebrating his 90th birthday at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The concert is a benefit for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, created by Seeger to preserve and protect the Hudson River.

NEW YORK – A star-studded medley of musical guests played tribute to Pete Seeger at a benefit concert for the legendary folk singer’s 90th birthday.

Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco and John Mellencamp were among the 40 musicians performing in Madison Square Garden for the Sunday night show, a benefit to raise awareness for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an organization Seeger started to preserve and protect the Hudson River.

A lone light shone on Seeger as he opened the show playing a flute solo called “Menomonee Love Song.” As the lights came up, they revealed the outline of a sloop, fitting for an event dubbed the Clearwater Concert after the organization’s vessel, the gaff sloop Clearwater.

The crowd ranged from teens to octogenarians and perhaps even older. Springsteen brought them to laughter as he introduced Seeger.

“He’s gonna look a lot like your granddad that wears flannel shirts and funny hats. He gonna look like your granddad if your granddad can kick your a—,” the Boss said. “At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country’s illusions about itself.”

John Mellencamp came out early and performed, “If I Had A Hammer (The Hammer Song).”

“It was the very first song I learned how to play on guitar,” he said.

Most of the evening consisted of multiple artists performing together with one highlight coming before the intermission — Seeger joined by Harris, Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, and others for a spiritual version of “We Shall Overcome.”

Arlo Guthrie, son of folk legend Woody Guthrie, was joined by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep.”

Tom Morello was the evening’s interloper, performing four numbers with different artists. The most impressive was his duet with Springsteen near the end of the show. The pair traded verses on Springsteen’s “the Ghost of Tom Joad.” The former Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist also performed “John Henry” with Tom Paxton, and “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” with Taj Mahal.

Dave Matthews told the crowd: “The first concert that my mother took me to was Pete Seeger.” Then he launched into a searing version of “Whiskey Rye Whiskey.”

Seeger and the rest of the evening’s performers came on stage for an extended cover of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is My Land.” They came back on for several encores and at the end brought out the entire Seeger family.

Proceeds from the event will go toward preserving and protecting the Hudson River.

———

———

ON THE WEB

clearwater.org/

Susan Boyle's new look

LONDON – The economy is scary, jobs are disappearing and taxes are going up. But Britain is buzzing over something else — Susan Boyle’s new hairdo.

Some say the overnight singing sensation who rocketed to fame after a phenomenal performance on “Britain’s Got Talent” has every right to upgrade her dowdy appearance. Others fear she may lose her authenticity — and her amazing connection with the TV audience — if she goes too far in the image makeover department.

The change is startling. Gone is the fusty woman with graying, frizzy hair and a jowly face who joked on air that she had never been kissed, replaced by a stylish, freshly-coiffed lady in fashionable leather jacket and what looks to be a Burberry scarf. The dark, unkempt eyebrows have been shaped and colored.

Fashion experts say she’s taken years off her looks, but should think twice about making more improvements, particularly if they go beyond styling and involve artificial enhancements.

“She looks 10 years younger,” said Toni Jones, assistant fashion editor at The Sun tabloid newspaper, which featured the new look Boyle on its cover Friday.

“Compared to what she had, it’s a 200 percent improvement. But our readers think this is as far as she should go. We want her to stay one of us.”

Jones said Boyle’s decision to dye her hair brown was causing some consternation among the powers-that-be at “Britain’s Got Talent” by stoking fears that she may no longer seem real.

“It’s got massive implications for her because the people above her want her to look ordinary,” said Jones, who praised Boyle for spending 35 pounds ($51) at a salon near her home in Scotland rather than trekking to London for a 200 pound ($295) cut at a celebrity salon.

Jones said she was amazed at the interest generated by Boyle’s new do and warned the singer against going too far by adding, for example, the hair extensions and fake tans favored by England’s WAGs, as the pampered wives and girlfriends of Britain’s elite professional athletes are known.

Max Clifford, Britain’s most prominent publicist, said the makeover was risky because it could jeopardize the singer’s emotional connection to her audience..

“Keep her as natural as possible for as long as possible,” was his advice. “It’s more about protection than promotion. She’s got the voice. She has to make sure that the person people all around the world fell in love with remains the same.”

The debate has crossed the Atlantic, with Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan urging Boyle in print to take advantage of the opportunity to transform her appearance.

“The tale of Susan Boyle will not be complete until the shy spinster blossoms,” Givhan wrote before the makeover. “Those who have been entranced by her story so far should let Boyle’s fairy godmother finish her work.”

But Givhan cautioned that Boyle might be tampering with success: “Boyle would not be mesmerizing if she were not an ugly duckling,” she wrote.

Londoners seem to be split over the new look.

Dean Elliott, a young drama student in London, said Boyle had lost what made her special by altering her appearance.

“Part of the charm was that she wasn’t done up,” he said.

But Helen Gledhill, a London photographer, said she understood Boyle’s decision and would likely have done the same if she was in the same position.

“If I had a bit more money and was exposed, I’d probably have something done too,” said Gledhill.

She said the fact that talent is often less important than looks and sex appeal is a sad commentary on modern society, blaming Madonna for a wholesale change in attitudes.

“Before Madonna, you just had to have talent,” she said. “Now, it’s the whole package.”

The success of the mini-makeover may hinge on how far Boyle progresses on “Britain’s Got Talent.” Judges will decide May 23 whether she gets through to the next round.

———

ON THE WEB

Susan Boyle on “Britain’s Got Talent”

WASHINGTON – For the first time in its storied (some say cursed) history, the cover of EA Sports’ “Madden NFL” video game will feature two cover athletes: Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu and Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

“Being on the cover of ‘Madden’ is a real honor,” Fitzgerald said Friday after Electronic Arts made the announcement. “And sharing it with a talent like Troy is really special.”

EA’s football franchise is feared for its mysterious “Madden curse”: Previous cover models like Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander and Vince Young have suffered injuries during their “Madden” season.

Fitzgerald, however, was defiant. “I didn’t think about the curse,” he said. “If both of us have MVP years, everybody will be chomping at the bit to get on the cover.”

The shared cover of “Madden NFL 10,” which arrives in stores Aug. 14, has something for everyone: Polamalu is a defensive AFC player and Fitzgerald an offensive NFC player.

EA Sports senior product manager Anthony Stevenson called the two Pro Bowlers “exemplary examples of the epic battle between offense and defense in the NFL.”

Both played in last season’s Super Bowl, which the Steelers won in a 27-23 nail-biter. Both athletes are known for their long, helmet-defying hair. Steel City football fans should be particularly happy, since Fitzgerald played college ball at the University of Pittsburgh. (He was also on the cover of EA’s “NCAA Football 2005.”)

———

ON THE WEB

http://maddenNFL.easports.com/

LAUGHLIN, Nev. – Thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts are expected in the Colorado River resort town of Laughlin for a weekend rally forever marred by a biker gang shoot-out in 2002.

Authorities in Arizona and Nevada said Wednesday they were planning to send fewer officers to the 27th Laughlin River Run than in previous years. They say there has been a decline in crowds and arrests.

Las Vegas convention officials say 40,350 people attended last year.

Las Vegas police Sgt. John Loretto says about half as many arrests were made last year as the year before, when more than 70,000 people attended.

Three people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in the 2002 brawl and shoot-out between Hells Angels and rival Mongols at the Harrah’s Laughlin casino.

LAS VEGAS – The Rocket Man bid farewell to the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday after five years and 241 shows at Caesars Palace — but said it won’t necessarily be a long, long time before he returns.

Wearing a bright red shirt that matched his piano and a coat emblazoned with “Las Vegas Pirates” on its back and “Captain Elton” on its right sleeve, Elton John rolled through his hits and reflected on his time at the Colosseum, a stage he famously shared with Celine Dion, Bette Midler and Cher.

“The ex-home of Celine Dion … and now it’s the ex-home of Elton John as well,” the 62-year-old said. John said later in the show that he’d like to see Dion play the venue again.

“Who are you going to get to fill in our shoes now?” he said. “You’ve got Bette Midler, you’ve got Cher. It’s gonna be the Village People next.”

John initially signed on for 75 shows over three years when his run began in February 2004, but casino officials say the deal was expanded because of demand.

“I really have enjoyed every single moment of this engagement,” the five-time Grammy winner said after opening the show with “Bennie and the Jets.”

John’s tour with Billy Joel has the second-highest average gross box office revenue with a ticket price of $115.84, according to Pollstar, the concert industry trade publication. Each show averages a gross $2.2 million, behind only Britney Spears, Pollstar said.

Many audience members seated close to the stage Wednesday night gave the pop singer a standing ovation after each hit he played, including “Candle in the Wind,” “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer.”

Several of the songs were combined with complex video productions created by famed photographer and director David LaChapelle. The offbeat music videos included appearances by singer Justin Timberlake, actress Pamela Anderson and actor Paul Reubens.

“One day I might even see you in Vegas, OK? But until then, I love you,” John said before ending the show with “Your Song” and kissing an audience member’s hand as he exited the stage.

“I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words,” he sang. “How wonderful life is while you’re in the world.”

City of New Orleans entomologist Greg Thompson gets ready to release "mosquito fish" as a mosquito control tool in a swimming pool in Eastern New Orleans. The "mosquito fish," South cousins to the guppy, have long been used as a tool for keeping abandoned pools from becoming mosquito farms.

NEW ORLEANS – Mosquito control workers can measure the recession by the number of green, cloudy swimming pools they see — algae-covered havens for mosquitoes dotting neighborhoods hit by the foreclosure crisis.

Aside from their annoying bites, mosquitoes carry West Nile virus and other diseases. With the number of foreclosures rising, it’s becoming a more-important challenge to track down abandoned homes with pools from suburban Washington, D.C., to California.

In Phoenix, for example, the number of pools left untended — often because of foreclosures — rose from about 6,000 in 2007 to more than 9,100 last year, said John Townsend, division manager for Maricopa County Vector Control.

“If we keep up with the same numbers this year, we could be up to around 12,000 to 14,000,” he said.

Deep South cousins of the guppy, “mosquito fish” have long been a mosquito control tool for keeping abandoned pools from becoming mosquito farms.

For years, Townsend’s department could collect enough of the fish from a local wastewater plant pond where they were seeded years ago to use in abandoned swimming pools. This year, he said the department expects to buy 250,000 to 300,000 of the minnow-sized fish.

“We kind of fished them out,” he said.

He wasn’t among the nearly 900 professionals at the American Mosquito Control Association’s meeting in New Orleans in April. Budget cuts prevented it.

About 50 people attended a session April 9 featuring entomologist Greg Thompson of the New Orleans Mosquito, Termite & Rodent Control Board. He described how his agency found and treated thousands of abandoned swimming pools and ponds after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and destroyed more than 100,000 homes in August 2005.

The pools can’t just be drained. For one thing, a bottle cap can hold enough water for some species to lay eggs, and a gentle rain would leave more than that in a swimming pool. And an empty pool could rise out of the ground.

Thompson’s talk came as cities across the country struggle to find those ditched swimming pools.

The 1,330-square-mile Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District said a year ago that the number of requests to treat abandoned pools was up 40 percent from 2007, mainly because of foreclosures.

The district has changed its data collection since then, and has no directly comparable figure, spokeswoman Truc Dever said. However, she said workers treated 364 pools and got 202 requests for attention to mosquito havens in March. That compares with 58 requests and 162 pools treated in March 2007 and 216 requests and 481 pool treatments in March 2008.

Thompson suggested that cities with records still intact — unlike New Orleans after the hurricanes of 2005 — could start by looking at swimming pool construction permits issued in the past 10 years.

Jorge Arias, the head of the West Nile virus program in Fairfax County, Va., started out with addresses for the county’s 11,000 backyard pools. He’s checking to see which of those match addresses of the 2,000 or so houses in foreclosure, he said.

Thompson said pools get prominent mention in for-sale ads, so real estate agents and listing services are another good source of locations, as are banks. Satellite photographs can also be useful.

“He gave really good information,” said Jejbir Sandhu, a researcher for the Northwestern Mosquito and Vector Control District based in Corona, Calif. He said his department has worked with some banks to locate abandoned pools, but may need a more systematic approach.

James Burgess, manager of mosquito and disease surveillance at Lee County Mosquito Control District in Lehigh Acres, Fla., near Fort Myers, also was in Thompson’s audience. He said he hadn’t thought about using building permits — workers usually fly over areas in helicopters.

Foreclosures or no, calls to several fish farmers and brokers that sell mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis or Gambusia holbrooki) didn’t turn up a boom in fish sales. But the fish do continue to sell in massive quantities. And they reproduce quickly, making it unnecessary to replenish pools that have been seeded.

“You have to stretch for new customers,” said Daniel Suttle of Suttle Fish Farm in Laurel, Miss. He’s gotten calls from as far as Nevada and California.

Fish broker Pat Church of Tempe, Ariz., said she probably sold 150,000 Gambusia in 2007, and expects the 2008-09 sales to be above 200,000.

The fish will thrive as long as no one pours in bleach or chlorine — a problem New Orleans had to deal with by posting big red signs.

The fish are by no means a perfect solution everywhere. They’re native to south Louisiana, but can become a big problem outside their home territory. Townsend’s department in Phoenix only uses the fish where they can’t get into waterways and compete with local species.

———

ON THE WEB

New Orleans Mosquito, Termite and Rodent Control Board: www.cityofno.com/Portals/MosquitoandTermiteControlBoard/portal.aspx

Maricopa County Vector Control: www.maricopa.gov/EnvSvc/VectorControl/

Fairfax County, Va.: www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hd/westnile/

Suttle Fish Farm: www.suttlefish.com/

Gambusia Control Network: www.gambusia.net/

Parents like to joke that children are addicted to video games. A new study shows they might be right.

Almost 1 in 10 American children, ages 8 to 18, are addicted to video games the way people are addicted to drugs or gambling, researchers at Iowa State University found in the largest study of its kind.

So-called “pathological gamers” were glued to games for 24 hours a week, about twice that of other players. They were more likely to be boys and twice as likely to have doctor-diagnosed attention problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The findings suggest the United States could be a few years behind more tech-savvy countries such as South Korea, which has opened more than 100 clinics to treat video-game addiction, researchers said.

Scores of studies have suggested video games bring out the worst in children, but they usually target violent behavior. The addiction findings surprised even skeptical researchers.

“I started with this idea that parents just weren’t part of the video game generation and didn’t understand it,” said Doug Gentile, an ISU child psychologist who studies how advertising and other media drive behavior. “This seems to be a real problem for a lot of kids. I think parents probably have been right.”

Parents also might have played a role in the problem, the study shows.

Most addicted gamers had sophisticated game systems in their bedrooms. Of the nearly 1,200 children surveyed for the study, half had rules at home that limited access to games.

“One of the things we know from other addictions is that a major risk factor is access,” said Gentile, whose paper will be published in the May edition of Psychological Science, the journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Gentile said video games fire up the brain’s “reward centers,” which set off the type of rush that drug addicts feel. But the impulse to play is like pathological gambling.

“It is behavior pattern, and it gets out of balance with the rest of your life,” he said.

Gentile used standards for gambling addiction to identify young video game addicts.

The addicts in Gentile’s study were more likely to report fighting, stealing, poor grades, health problems – for example, hand or wrist pain made worse by long hours of play – and attention problems. The study didn’t explore a link between those problems and video games.

Gentile says his findings spark more questions than answers. He wants to know which ages are most vulnerable, why boys make up the majority of addicts and how the dependency can be treated.

Answers might take years, he said. It also might be awhile before the public takes video game addiction seriously, Gentile said.

LONDON – The family of physicist Stephen Hawking expects him to recover fully from a chest infection that has left him hospitalized, Cambridge University said Tuesday.

Hawking “was being kept in observation” at Addenbrooke’s hospital after being admitted Monday.

“He is comfortable and his family is looking forward to him making a full recovery,” the university said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether the scientist’s condition had actually improved or whether the family was merely basing its remarks on hopes for his improvement.

The hospital declined to comment, referring all calls to the university.

Hawking, 67, gained renown for his work on black holes and has remained active despite being diagnosed at age 21 with ALS, (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), an incurable degenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Hawking has been almost entirely paralyzed for years and communicates through an electronic voice synthesizer activated by his fingers.

Hawking has searched for a major goal of physics — a “unified theory” — to solve contradictions between Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which explains the laws of gravity that control the motion of large objects like planets, and the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, which deals with subatomic particles.

“A complete, consistent unified theory is only the first step: our goal is a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence,” he wrote in “A Brief History of Time,” his best-selling book published in 1988.

In the sequel “The Universe in a Nutshell,” published in 2001, Hawking looked into concepts such as supergravity and the possibility of a universe with 11 dimensions.

“He is amazingly resilient,” said Andrew Fabian, the head of the Royal Astronomical Society and a professor of astronomy at Cambridge. “He goes around the world — he does more traveling than most of us. … And he just seems unstoppable. It’s truly amazing.”

Hawking did announce last year that he would no longer hold his post as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a title that 18th-century physicist Isaac Newton once had. Because the university said Monday that Hawking intended to continue working as Emeritus Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Fabian said that he thinks Hawking will “carry on and do just the same.”

The chest infection, which Hawking has been fighting for several weeks, had caused him to cancel an appearance at Arizona State University on April 6.

———

ON THE WEB

Stephen Hawking: www.hawking.org.uk

In this 2008 file photo, Professor Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, makes remarks at an event marking the 50th anniversary of NASA, at George Washington University in Washington. Hawking has been rushed to a hospital and is seriously ill, Cambridge University said Monday

LONDON — Famed mathematician Stephen Hawking has been rushed to a hospital and is seriously ill, Cambridge University said Monday.

The university said Hawking has been fighting a chest infection for several weeks, and was being treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, the university city north of London.

“Professor Hawking is very ill,” said Gregory Hayman, the university’s head of communications. “He is undergoing tests. He has been unwell for a couple of weeks.”

Hawking, 67, gained renown for his work on black holes, and has remained active despite being diagnosed at 21 with ALS, (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), an incurable degenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

For some years, Hawking has been almost entirely paralyzed, and he communicates through an electronic voice synthesizer activated by his fingers.

“Professor Hawking is a remarkable colleague. We all hope he will be amongst us again soon,” said Professor Peter Haynes, head of the university’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

Hawking had canceled an appearance at Arizona State University on April 6 because of his illness.

He announced last year that he would step down from his post as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a title once held by the great 18th century physicist Isaac Newton, and the end of this academic year. However, the university said Hawking intended to continue working as Emeritus Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.

The University of Arizona is the No. 5 party school in the country, according to Playboy magazine’s latest issue.

Arizona State University, a perennial on party lists, is ranked No. 15.

“ASU is nice for a weekend but four years are better spent at the U of A in Tucson,” the magazine writes.

Topping the list was University of Miami, followed by University of Texas-Austin, San Diego State University and University of Florida.

Playboy rated each school in five categories: bikini (a combination of weather, guy-to-girl ratio and cheerleader ranking), sex, campus life, sports and brains.

SEATTLE – Some former Seattle Post-Intelligencer writers and photographers have launched an online newspaper, nearly a month after their publication closed.

The Web site, seattlepostglobe.org, went live Tuesday afternoon, featuring pictures and stories about the Seattle Mariners’ home opener and the race for city attorney.

The nonprofit venture by the former P-I staffers has partnered with the Seattle Weekly, which is owned by Village Voice Media, and with public television station KCTS.

Kery Murakami, one of the organizers of the new venture, said the Seattle Weekly will take care of selling advertising for the Web site, while KCTS serves as the fiscal sponsor. The station is also providing office space.

Articles written by seattlepostglobe.org staffers will also appear in the Seattle Weekly’s blog, Murakami said.

In March, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its last edition after 146 years. More than 130 staffers lost their jobs. A skeleton crew of 20 stayed on to work at seattlepi.com. It’s the first major U.S. daily paper to switch from print to digital, a step that the P-I’s parent company, Hearst Corp., took after it failed to find a buyer for the newspaper.

Murakami said that the new Web site has not raised enough money to pay its writers, and that volunteers built the site. He hopes to collect enough revenue to pay writers soon. The Web site is asking for donations from the public.

“The main reason why we are doing this, we felt that the work we were doing at the P-I was important and there’s a real need for it,” Murakami said.

The Web site announced that it will have one reporter covering City Hall, and feature stories and commentary from other Seattle Post-Intelligencer veterans on general news and sports.

Woody Allen

NEW YORK – A clothing company known for its racy ads is fighting a $10 million lawsuit brought by Woody Allen, arguing that it can’t have damaged his reputation by using his image because the film director has already ruined it himself.

The 73-year-old Allen started the fight against American Apparel Inc. when he sued the company last year for using his image on the company’s billboards in Hollywood and New York and on a Web site.

Allen, who does not endorse products in the United States, said he had not authorized the displays, which the Los Angeles-based company said were up for only a week.

Now the company plans to make Allen’s relationships to actress Mia Farrow and her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn the focus of a trial scheduled to begin in federal court in Manhattan on May 18, according to the company’s lawyer, Stuart Slotnick.

“Woody Allen expects $10 million for use of his image on billboards that were up and down in less than one week. I think Woody Allen overestimates the value of his image,” Slotnick said.

“Certainly, our belief is that after the various sex scandals that Woody Allen has been associated with, corporate America’s desire to have Woody Allen endorse their product is not what he may believe it is.”

One billboard featured a frame from “Annie Hall,” a film that won Allen a best-director Oscar. The image showed Allen dressed as a Hasidic Jew with a long beard and black hat and Yiddish text. The words “American Apparel” also were on the billboard.

Allen’s lawsuit said the billboard falsely implied that Allen sponsored, endorsed or was associated with American Apparel.

Slotnick said it was not a cheap shot to bring up Allen’s sex life in a lawsuit over the billboard and Internet ads.

“It’s certainly relevant in assessing the value of an endorsement,” he said, noting that Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps lost endorsement power after a photograph surfaced of him using marijuana.

Farrow starred in several of Allen’s movies during a relationship with the director that ended in 1992, when she discovered he was having an affair with her oldest adopted daughter, then 22. Allen married Soon-Yi Previn in 1997.

During a bitter custody fight, Farrow accused Allen of sexually abusing their adopted daughter Dylan, 7. Allen was exonerated of the abuse charges, but Farrow won sole custody of the children.

Leslee Dart, a spokeswoman for Allen, said Friday that she does not believe Allen wants to comment on the litigation at this point.

American Apparel is known for its provocative ads of scantily dressed young models in tight-fitting and sometimes see-through garments.

Allen testified at a December deposition that he considered the company’s advertising to be “sleazy” and “infantile.”

Lawyers for American Apparel have complained that Allen has refused to turn over much of the information they have demanded to prepare for trial.

Among their demands were documents concerning any endorsement requests that were withdrawn after the sex scandal with Farrow and Previn became public.

The documents defined sex scandal as “your relationship with Soon-Yi Previn including the discovery … (of) nude pictures you took of Soon-Yi Previn.”

The lawyers also requested documents concerning Allen’s public image and reputation, including his contention during his deposition that he was a “special kind of entity” or a “special taste.”

Allen’s attorneys said the request for documents related to the sex scandal and custody battle were “vexatious, oppressive, harassing” and not relevant.

Slotnick said he could not discuss whether there were any settlement talks under way but he hinted that the company may be open to avoiding a trial.

“All I can say is that the company has apologized for the use of Mr. Allen’s image, however brief. And the company apologized if they offended Mr. Allen’s sensibilities,” he said.