The Lo Zone

They may sport love handles and Ivy League degrees, but every two weeks some Silicon Valley techies turn into vicious street brawlers in a real-life, underground fight club.

Kicking, punching and swinging every household object imaginable — from frying pans and tennis rackets to pillowcases stuffed with soda cans — they beat each other mercilessly in a garage in this bedroom community south of San Francisco.

Then, bloodied and bruised, they limp back to their desks in the morning.

More than 35 agents, geologists, archaeologists and other experts spent 12 days digging and demolishing a 100-foot barn to examine the ground beneath the foundation.

Gillette Venus (PG), a recognized authority on women's legs, [...] named Mariah Carey the first "Celebrity Legs of a Goddess." The superstar, who captured three GRAMMY® Awards for her celebrated six-times platinum album The Emancipation of Mimi, was immortalized with a 16-foot high likeness of her perfect legs. Ms. Carey unveiled the replica during a ceremony at New York's legendary Radio City Music Hall, home to some of the most famous legs in the world.

[...]

"Mariah Carey was our hands-down choice for the first Venus 'Celebrity Legs of a Goddess' title," said Peter Clay, Vice President Premium Systems, Gillette Global Grooming. "She has gorgeous legs, and she radiates the inner beauty and confidence that embodies the Venus brand."

Julia Roberts may have been dropped as the face of Christian Dior makeup, as Page Six reported last month, but the former "Pretty Woman" will still be the face of something. According to Us Weekly, Roberts is about to sign on as the spokeswoman for more downmarket Avon - for a whopping $2 million-$4 million a year. Roberts will join Salma Hayek (who earns a measly $1 million- $2 million a year) in representing the company.

And Avon?

...and this...

Hell hath no fury like aging in Hollywood.

When and if Star Jones Reynolds leaves "The View" — which many insiders still believe she'll do, despite her flack's denials — a surprise candidate might be emerging as a possible replacement: South Carolina talk radio host Bo Griffin. The fortysomething Griffin — who's rumored to have caught Barbara Walters' eye since the Gayle King boomlet fizzled — used to co-host the syndicated Fox show "Good Day Live" and was a correspondent for "Extra." A tipster says: "Bo is a journalist like Meredith [Vieira], but is a dead ringer for Star. She's now the front-runner for Star's seat." But a spokesman for "The View" told Lowdown: "Barbara Walters said, 'That's fascinating' because she's never heard the same and we are not looking for a co-host." Still, Griffin apparently has no beef with Rosie O'Donnell.

A homeless man brutally beat a drinking buddy to death, crushing his head with a cinder block in a cocaine-fueled fury over a seemingly innocent question, police said.

Daniel Callahan, 37, became enraged when William Moschinger, 46, of Selden, asked if he was a cop because of his clean-cut appearance, Suffolk County police homicide Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said yesterday.

"Mr. Moschinger was struck, fell to the ground, and Mr. Callahan picked up a nearby cinder block and crushed his head," Fitzpatrick said, describing the after-hours fight outside the Cafe Bada Bing in Port Jefferson Station.

Got Rocks. Ain't Scared To Use 'Em.

I tell ya, it's all about me today. Lolita. Sorta. Let me explain.

Remember at the beginning of last month I did a post about my friend Jan? She's a member of one of my favorite book clubs, Reading Group of Sisters and Friends.

Remember Jan has a beautiful line of jewelry that she makes called "Bejeweled by Janeth"? Remember these gorgeous earrings with dynamic Swarovski crystals that change color according to the light that she made for me?

Remember? Well, Jan's website, "Bejeweled by Janeth," is now up and running, and guess what? She's named the above earrings after me!!! The crystal drop earrings will now be called "Lolita"!!! How awesome is that??!!!

So be sure to visit the website to check out and BUY some of her amazing pieces. Per Jan, the site will be updated daily with new merchandise, so anyone browsing and/or shopping should check back daily/weekly for new items. She'll also be running sales and specials, so you should definitely pay her a visit!!!

Another sister doing the damn thang. Her website is also in the "Links" section of this blog, so she's always just a click away.

Let's show her some love, y'all, let's show her some love!!!

Bejeweled by Janeth
Previously: The Lo Zone: I'm "Bejeweled"!!!

The duo are prepping the release of their widely talked about project called Gnarls Barkley, which has already made history in the UK by hitting #1 solely off internet downloads and they hope to make the same kind of impact in the U.S.

According to the new theory, chimps and humans shared a common apelike ancestor much more recently than was thought. Furthermore, when the two emerging species split from each other, it was not a clean break. Some members of the two groups seem to have interbred about 1.2 million years after they first diverged -- before going their separate ways for good.

Soul singer and former South Park star Isaac Hayes and his wife Adjowa are the parents of a baby boy, the couple have announced.

Nana Kwadjo Hayes – Hayes's fourth son and his first with Adjowa – was born April 10 and weighed 8 lbs., 5 oz., said spokesman Rob Moore.

In the Ghanaian language, according to the Associated Press, Nana means "King" and Kwadjo (pronounced "Kwo-Jo") means "boy born on Monday" (April 10 was, indeed, a Monday).

In 1992, Hayes, 63, was crowned honorary king of Ghana's Ada region in honor of his humanitarian work.

He was arrested April 14 for allegedly committing the lewd acts on four boys March 28 and on one boy April 13.

Jones reportedly saw the four boys next to a park near Dana Point Library, 33841 Niguel Road.

He told them he worked for Johnson & Johnson and wanted to use them in commercials for which they would be paid $1,500, Amormino said. He told the boys he needed to inspect their feet to make sure they fit the right profile and that they were clean, Amormino said.

Once the boys were barefoot, he allegedly licked and smelled their feet, Amormino said.

On April 13, Jones allegedly approached three boys sitting on a bench at a San Clemente mobile home park. Jones used the same ruse, saying he wanted to use them in a Johnson & Johnson commercial.

"He's accused of licking the bottom of one of the boys' feet," Amormino said, adding that the other two boys ran off.

Jones, who is jailed in lieu of $115,000 bail, has worked as a security guard and in food services. He has a record for child annoyance as well as theft and drug-related charges, Amormino said.

"Dateline" works with a civilian watchdog group and local law enforcement to unmask would-be pedophiles using Internet sting operations. An adult poses as a teenage boy or girl online and invites a predator for a tryst. The suspect finds himself in a cozy suburban kitchen filled with snacks, only to discover the "Dateline" correspondent Chris Hansen and hidden cameras lying in wait. Since the first installment of "To Catch a Predator" on "Dateline" in 2004, all kinds of men have fallen into the trap, including a rabbi from Potomac, Md., who thought he was going to have sex with a teenage boy. Many suspects are passive and astonishingly candid when confronted: a testimony, perhaps, to the hypnotic powers of a television camera.

These raw, unscripted spectacles of men caught sweaty-handed were such a hit that "Dateline" has made "Predator" a recurring feature, usually timed to a sweeps week.

"Having tried exceptionally hard to make our relationship work given the daily pressures surrounding us, it is with sadness that we have decided to go our separate ways," a statement from the couple said. "Our parting is amicable and both of us still care about each other very much."

McCartney's wealth was estimated at $1.5 billion by the Sunday Times in their annual list of Britain's richest people. The couple are believed not to have a prenuptial agreement.

Nobody wants to surrender Barry Bonds' next home run, and Astros righthander Russ Springer wasn't about to wind up on the wrong end of history last night.

He wound up and plunked the San Francisco slugger instead.

Oprah-backed musical adaptation of "The Color Purple" logged 11 noms -- including tuner, book, score, and four for acting [...]

"You have to know that it is time for you all to take charge," Cosby said. "You have to seriously see yourselves not as the old women where the men stood in front and you all stood behind, because the men, most of them are in prison."

Added Cosby: "It is time for you to pick up the pace and lead because the men are not there. They're not there and every one of you young women know it."

"California plans to use global positioning technology to ensure that sex offenders are staying far enough away from schools."

Okay? How cool is that!!

"Gayle really wants the job in a big way," says one source. "It's her absolute dream situation. She thinks it's perfect, because there are others to share the spotlight with and she wouldn't have to deal as much with the 'Oprah's Best Friend' label that follows her everywhere. She just wants to be 'Gayle King, television personality.'"

King is already at ABC as a correspondent on Oprah Winfrey's show, she's girlie-stylish, has years of experience and a reputation for good ethics. So what's the trouble?

"The problem for her," a cognoscento confides, "is that she's friends with [current 'View' co-host] Star [Jones].

"She can't publicly lobby for the job in any way. Star would certainly get upset about her friend trying to get a job she's not technically done with yet."

Sean Cumberbatch appeared in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday to face charges of attacking three women in Park Slope.

Each incident followed a similar pattern: Cumberbatch allegedly grabbed a woman's legs, rubbing her feet and then running off with her shoes.

And in the most recent attack, the suspect was wearing a Superman costume.

"I wasn't scared by the cape, but I was scared that he was holding me against my will in the middle of the street," victim Lauren Dewey, 24, told the Daily News.

"He lunged at my waist and then went down to my legs and feet. He had such a grip on my ankles," she said of the terrifying April 13 episode. "He kept holding my feet to his crotch."

Cumberbatch, 21, is charged with menacing, harassment and attempted grand larceny.

With 160 of 168 districts reporting, Mr. Booker was leading his closest challenger, Ronald L. Rice, a former deputy mayor in the administration of Mayor James, by three to one, 30,717 to 10,088.

Voters who had shunned Mr. Booker, 37, in 2002 indicated that they were ready for change after seeing only two mayors in the past 36 years. He has made safety his top priority, promising to overhaul the police department and fight gangs in schools. He has also promised to bring professionalism, accountability and fresh ideas to the city, which has long had a reputation for mismanagement.

Congratulations, Cory!! Do the damn thing!!!

STAR Jones Reynolds has been told to hitch up her hefty wagonload of freebies and waddle off into the sunset, sources say.

ABC will announce this week that the big-boned talking head is out at "The View," a source close to the inner workings of the late-morning gabfest tells Page Six. What network brass won't say is that she's being unceremoniously ousted at the direct behest of the show's grand dame Barbara Walters and the incoming Rosie O'Donnell.

"It was always Rosie's condition of joining the show, and Barbara agreed to those conditions from the outset," our source said. The network and Jones are now concocting a face-saving scenario in which Jones will be touted as moving on to pursue important new projects.

Since about 1 p.m. on Monday [ed., that would be Monday last week, y'all], he has been living underwater and breathing through an air tube, taking in only Gatorade and other liquid nutrients.

Already pruny but otherwise in decent health, Mr. Blaine is scheduled to stay in his aquarium until about 9:30 p.m. on Monday, when he will be taken from the water, locked in chains and placed back in the tank. Then he will simultaneously try to escape from the chains and break the world record for holding one's breath, currently 8 minutes and 58 seconds. All of it, on live television, as part of a two-hour ABC special.

[...] those close to new addition Rosie O'Donnell say she’s not only crazy about the idea, but would let King moderate the show if she wanted to.

Whitney was rumored to have checked into the Meadows Clinic ( the same clinic Mike Tyson ran out on a week ago) back in April and has apparently thrown in the towel on her getting clean.

A New York City bus driver fatally stabbed and shot his estranged wife on Wednesday and killed his mother-in-law by slitting her throat before he jumped to his death from a bridge in central New Jersey, the authorities said.

"They would argue, like any married couple," said Carol Johnson, who lived next door to Mr. Palladino and his wife. "But I never saw any signs of violence."

Ms. Johnson recalled Mr. Palladino as the kind of neighbor who would help her with packages when she came home from the store; his wife was always happy to dispense advice on kitchen remodeling, Ms. Johnson said.

I could have summed it up in five: The b*tch needs to eat.

Richie explains that stress causes her to lose her appetite, and one of the factors over the past year was her broken engagement with DJ AM. "I had a bad breakup, and it eats me up inside when I'm upset about something," she explains. "I get really stressed out, and I do lose my appetite, but I do force myself to eat. I tried to put the weight on my way, eating burritos, but that wasn't working, so I started seeing a nutritionist and a doctor. I was scared that it could be something more serious, because it wasn't making any sense to me; I really was trying.… Yes, I'm too thin, but that's just a result of what's really going on with me; the bigger picture is how I deal with problems," she says.

Get a damn sandwich and shut up already.

My dad was my best friend and greatest role model, and I will miss him deeply. I’m overwhelmed when I think of all of the great things he accomplished in his life. He was an amazing dad, coach, mentor, soldier, husband and friend. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him, and I’m honored to continue his legacy of sharing and caring.

A SHOOTOUT, okay?

Witnesses told the Enquirer the problem started when a large group of men at the night club became upset after money was being thrown from the stage by one member of a rapper’s entourage.

“It was supposed to be for the ladies,” said one witness, who asked not to be named. “But it (the money) was hitting the guys in the face and they were like, ‘We got money’ so why are you throwing money at us?’”

The tension mounted and moved outside, where the witness said T.I. was trying to get his group packed up in their vans.

“T.I. was telling his boys, ‘Come on let’s go. Let’s Go.’ And the Cincinnati boys were like, ‘Yea, let’s go.’”

The witness said about four people – believed to be from Cincinnati -- followed the rappers’ vans in a large vehicle, possibly a GMC Tahoe.

The witness said one shot was fired in the parking lot, but he did not think it was related to the tension.

“They were just showing off,” the witness said.

The names and conditions of those shot were not available. They were all taken to University Hospital.

A new movie - the first in 12 years - is currently on the storyboard, and Murphy is confident. He says, "I have seen the new script and it is looking good."