Morning Briefing:
Peddling Smith's pictures: It's a morbid bit of business, but the images from a photo shoot with Anna Nicole Smith and her son, Daniel, taken just days before he died, went to auction over the weekend. On Tuesday, Lowdown reports that In Touch won the bidding for the print rights with an offer of $400,000, while "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" paid $250,000 for the TV exclusive. Of course, some of the images have already leaked online -- Gawker posted these thumbnails from the shoot on Monday. At the same time, investigators haven't made much headway in discovering the cause of Daniel's sudden death. While it was announced on Monday that Daniel had been taking an antidepressant medication, the forensic pathologist hired by Anna Nicole Smith to perform a second autopsy on her son insisted that the 20-year-old's death was not a suicide. (Lowdown, Gawker, People)
Fox pursues religious market: News Corp.'s Fox Filmed Entertainment is about to announce its newest studio arm: Fox Faith, a niche division that plans to release about a dozen Christian-oriented films a year, all of them to be based on Christian bestsellers and made for less than $5 million apiece. "A segment of the market is starving for this type of content," said Simon Swart, the general manager of Fox's home entertainment division. "We want to push the production value, not videotape sermons or proselytize." (Los Angeles Times)
Willie Nelson uses drugs? Willie Nelson's tour bus was pulled over for a routine commercial-vehicle inspection on a Louisiana highway on Monday, but things didn't go too smoothly. "When the door was opened and the trooper began to speak to the driver, he smelled the strong odor of marijuana," said the state police in a release. The ensuing search found one and a half pounds of marijuana and more than three ounces of illegal mushrooms stashed on the bus, and Nelson and four others were given misdemeanor possession citations. (Associated Press)
Also:
Both David Geffen and supermarket magnate Ronald Burkle have reportedly made offers to buy the Los Angeles Times, though no deals have yet been struck. (CNN) ... Matt LeBlanc, who's divorcing his wife of three years, Melissa, has filed court papers revealing that he'll be representing himself in the case. (TMZ) ... INXS, with first-season "Rock Star" winner J.D. Fortune as frontman, has been dropped by their label, Epic Records. (TMZ) ... Pop singer Aaron Carter -- at 18, the youngest solo male artist to have four Top 40 singles -- has announced he's engaged to 22-year-old girlfriend Kari Ann Peniche, the former Miss United States Teen turned Playboy Playmate. (Us Online) ... Actor/champion bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, who was married to Jayne Mansfield and is the father of Emmy-winning actress Mariska, died in Los Angeles at the age of 80 on Monday in Los Angeles. (BBC News)
Money Quote:
Born-again actor-turned-evangelist Stephen Baldwin on Brad Pitt: "He comes from Christian roots -- I pray that he will do the right thing and marry that girl." (Lowdown)
Turn On:
Tonight's premieres: It's the series debut of crime show "Smith" (CBS, 10 p.m. EDT) -- starring Ray Liotta as the leader of a pack of thieves -- and the season openers of "NCIS" (CBS, 8 p.m. EDT), "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (NBC, 9 p.m. EDT), "The Unit" (CBS, 9 p.m. EDT), "Boston Legal" (ABC, 10 p.m. EDT) and "Law & Order: SVU" (NBC, 10 p.m. EDT).
On the Talk Shows:
Charlie Rose (PBS, check local listings): Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
David Letterman (CBS, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Patrick Dempsey, ventriloquist Jay Johnson and Darwin, Kasabian
Jay Leno (NBC, 11:35 p.m. EDT): Justin Timberlake, Sarah Silverman
Conan O'Brien (NBC, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Johnny Knoxville, Caroline Rhea, Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Craig Ferguson (CBS, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Skeet Ulrich, Nora Ephron, Rodney Atkins
Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, 12:05 a.m. EDT): Zach Braff, Xzibit, Josh Radin
Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 11 p.m. EDT): Ben Affleck
Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Frank Rich
-- Scott Lamb
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