Names in the news

A drifter who repeatedly demanded to pray with “The Passion of the Christ” director Mel Gibson… A drifter who repeatedly demanded to pray with “The Passion of the Christ” director Mel Gibson has been ordered to stand trial in Los Angeles on charges of stalking.

Zack Sinclair, 34, was arrested in October after arriving unannounced at Gibson’s Malibu, Calif., home saying he wanted to pray with him and turning up at a chapel where Gibson attends Mass on Sundays.

In court papers, Gibson said the man had also sent him numerous “alarming, harassing and annoying” letters insisting they should pray together.

ARTISTIC ROLE

John Malkovich will play the lead in a movie about the life of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. Malkovich’s friend Raoul Ruiz will direct when shooting begins next month in Vienna, Austria.

Ruiz also wrote the screenplay about the famous art nouveau painter, whose masterpieces include “The Kiss.”

JUSTICE DELAYED, ETC.

The jury has been sworn in, but actor Robert Blake’s much-delayed murder trial has been postponed again.

Blake’s attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, told the court a computer containing “the heart and soul of the defense case” had been stolen from his apartment, and he requested a hearing.

The trial had been scheduled to start Monday in Los Angeles. Blake is accused of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, in 2001.

CELEBRITY DOCKET

Claiming their teenage daughter was drugged and sexually abused at a party in the Malibu home of Nick Nolte, the girl’s parents have sued the actor and several others who were at the party. One defendant, Nicholas Woodring, was convicted in March of having sex with the girl, then 15.

Nolte, who was not on the property when the incident occurred, “was at the time, and still remains, concerned for the young lady’s well-being,” said his publicist, Arnold Robinson.

NO LOVE MATCH

From a TV standpoint, it was a straight-sets loss: John McEnroe’s talk show was axed yesterday by CNBC after barely six months on the air.

The former tennis star’s show was averaging 75,000 viewers a night, less than half the viewership for business programming in the time slot before “McEnroe” went on. On some nights, it did not get a Nielsen Media Research rating at all, meaning the audience was too small to measure.

It will be replaced next month by “The Big Idea,” a talk show hosted by advertising executive Donny Deutsch, which has run on CNBC occasionally as a special.

CNBC is happier with comic Dennis Miller, whose talk show’s ratings are improving.

(Wire services contributed to this report.)

(c) 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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