Lasseter began his career as a Disney animator and is the creative force behind
Pixar's films. He will report directly to Iger.

Pixar President Ed Catmull will serve as president of the combined Pixar and
Disney animation studios, reporting to Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt
Disney Studios.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co has agreed to acquire Pixar Animation
Studios in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion, Disney said on Tuesday.

PASADENA, Calif. - NBC's political drama "The West Wing," which briefly made
bureaucrats hip and won four Emmy awards for best drama, will end this spring
with the inauguration of a new fictional president.

NBC announced the series' conclusion after seven seasons on Sunday. In the end,
it fell victim to television's democratic process: sinking ratings, particularly
after this season's move to Sunday nights.

The series will end May 14, preceded by an hour's retrospective.

Actors and producers toasted the show's end Sunday night at a cocktail party
with television critics, who championed the series from the beginning.

"We knew we had a special show and we remained as a family," said Martin Sheen,
who portrayed President Josiah Bartlet. "We all knew that we weren't going to
get this kind of a chance again."

Series producers have only in the past few days decided who would win the
presidential campaign that has been this season's main story; it will be
revealed in April. The contest pits a Democrat played by Jimmy Smits and a
Republican portrayed by Alan Alda, and the show's writers have fought over who
should win.

"It's been quite a brawl," said John Wells, executive producer.

The decision to cancel it was made before actor John Spencer, who played former
presidential chief of staff Leo McGarry, died of a heart attack Dec. 16, said
Kevin Reilly, NBC entertainment president.

Although "The West Wing" briefly considered it calling it quits after Spencer's
death, or remaking episodes featuring him that were filmed but not yet aired,
Wells said they ultimately decided to use the late actor's work.

It's been tricky working the death into the story line; McGarry was a candidate
for vice president, and producers found there was no constitutional provision
for what happens when a candidate dies so close to the election.

"We're now dealing with the death of a character we loved after having dealt
with the death of a person we loved," Wells said.

Lawrence O'Donnell, a former Washington insider who is one of the show's
executive producers, said he knew the show was making a cultural impact when he
found politicians who rarely watch TV were fans. He found it a better place to
debate issues than real political shows on TV, he said.

Actor Bradley Whitford said he once heard from former Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan, who was upset that nobody seemed to care when his television
counterpart died.

"I actually would get lobbied by lobbyists," he said. "I thought they wanted my
autograph. But they were lobbying to get their issues mentioned on the show."

Producers are negotiating the return of Rob Lowe, the early series star who left
because he was upset by his diminished role, for the finale. Series creator
Aaron Sorkin Ñ responsible for the rapid-fire style of dialogue Ñ has no plans
to return.

Sheen said the show's most positive impact on the country was, during a cynical
time, to make people realize the important job that public servants perform.

"The government continues because of people who care for the country," he said.

Meanwhile, NBC announced a reshuffling of its midseason schedule, effective
after the Winter Olympics. "Las Vegas" will move from Monday to Friday; "The
Apprentice" will be shifted again to Monday; "Law & Order" will air an hour
earlier on Wednesdays; and the game show "Deal or No Deal" will be a regular
Monday show.

NEW YORK - Reese Witherspoon's gown wasn't vintage Ñ though it had been worn by
another actress three years ago.

Photos published this week showed the Golden Globe winner wearing the same
glittery Chanel cocktail dress that Kirsten Dunst had worn to the awards in
2003.

Witherspoon, the best actress in a musical or comedy winner for "Walk the Line,"
was seen asking Chanel President Maureen Chiquet at an after-party why she
wasn't told the gown already had a public outing, Women's Wear Daily reported.

Gretchen Fenton, publicist for Chanel, told The Associated Press the fashion
house was "unaware" that Dunst, star of the "Spider-Man" movies, had worn the
dress.

The fashion house apologized for "the oversight."

"We are honored that Reese chose to wear Chanel and thought she looked
beautiful," the company said in a statement. "We congratulate her on her
well-deserved win."

Witherspoon believed the gown Ñ in a champagne color with metallic trim on the
bust - was vintage, her publicist, Nanci Ryder, was reported as telling the New
York Post in Wednesday's editions.

"Reese was told the dress was vintage," Ryder was quoted as saying. "It was not.
I'm not angry - just a little disappointed, but the big deal is Reese won the
Golden Globe."

A press release from the company on celebrities wearing Chanel gowns to the
Golden Globes had described the dress as vintage. Fenton said the gown is from
the 2002 couture collection and isn't considered vintage.

Still, Fenton said, the term vintage, long used to classify dresses from bygone
eras, has become "very vague" and is a "new way" to define apparel not available
in recent designer collections.

The snafu is "embarrassing for both Reese and Chanel," celebrity stylist Phillip
Bloch told the AP, calling Witherspoon "a victim of people just not doing their
job correctly."

"She was a victim of fashion powers that be," he said.

Ryder and her designer-loving clients, who include Jennifer Lopez and Renee
Zellweger, will continue to support Chanel, said publicist Leslie Sloan, who
works with Ryder at the Baker Winokur Ryder publicity firm.

The Golden Globe Awards were presented Monday in Beverly Hills, Calif.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Los Angeles Angels agreed to one-year deals Tuesday with
right-handed relievers Francisco Rodriguez and Scot Shields.

Rodriguez will earn $3,775,000. He made $440,000 last year, when he completed
his first full season as the Angels' No. 1 closer. He had a 2-5 record with a
2.67 ERA and 45 saves, tying for the AL lead.

Rodriguez, who recently turned 24, converted his final 18 save chances and had
12 saves in September, tying the club record for saves in a month.

Shields will earn $2.1 million. He had a 10-11 record and a 2.75 ERA with seven
saves after appearing in a club record 78 games in 2005. He made $950,000.

Shields, 30, has pitched 197 innings over the last two seasons, most by any
reliever in the major leagues.

Right-hander Brendan Donnelly is the lone Angel who remains in arbitration. He
has asked for $1.05 million and been offered $850,000. He made $420,000 last
season.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. has filed to trademark the phrase
"Mobile Me" for use in a wide range of businesses, furthering speculation it
could introduce an iPod phone.

"We believe this is further indication of (Apple's) strategic direction to
extend its iPod + iTunes and Mac franchises into new business areas including
smart phones, value-added mobile content services, and the broader consumer
electronics space," American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a note
on Thursday.

Apple made the filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 5.

There has long been speculation that Apple would ultimately introduce an iPod
that also works as a smart phone, extending its brand and functions as more
content becomes digital and mobile. In addition to music, one model of the iPod
also now plays videos and purchased content such as TV shows.

The areas that the trademark covers include computing devices, mobile devices,
and mobile services including digital music, video, games, e-mail, and messaging
across Internet, intranets, extranets, television, cellular, and satellite
networks, the filing shows.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

This week, at Apple's annual Macworld show in San Francisco, Chief Executive
Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Pro, which will replace the PowerBook line of
its high-end notebook PCs, and a new iMac all-in-one computer.

The two machines are the first that use Intel Corp.'s Core Duo microprocessors.
Apple said in June it would move to Intel chips from the PowerPC chips it had
used for years, made by International Business Machines Corp. and Freescale
Semiconductor Inc.

There has also been speculation that Apple would, along with an iPod phone,
resell cellular phone service provided by a cell service provider, becoming
what's known as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO.

"We believe this would be a successful strategy, given the type of content and
markets Apple has had success in," Wu wrote, referring to mobile music, video
and the youth market.

Orioles Reach Deal With Boston's Millar
By DAVID GINSBURG, AP Sports Writer
20 minutes ago

BALTIMORE - First baseman Kevin Millar agreed to a $2.1 million, one-year
contract Thursday with the Baltimore Orioles, who hope the former Boston Red Sox
star can provide leadership and some punch in the lineup.

"I see him playing a lot of first base, designated hitter and in the outfield,"
Orioles first-year manager Sam Perlozzo said. "We get a guy with playoff
experience, someone who was part of a World Series team. We can use that kind of
player in our clubhouse. It gives us a little chemistry."

The 34-year-old Millar, who can make an additional $2.6 million in performance
bonuses, hit .276 with 25 home runs and 96 RBIs with the Red Sox in 2003. It was
during that season that he coined the phrase, "Cowboy Up!" Ñ which became
Boston's battle cry in September and into the playoffs.

Millar also fell in love with the with the intense competition of the AL East,
and the opportunity to stay in the division made Baltimore his first choice
among the teams that tried to sign him.

"This division is where you want to be as a baseball player. There's nothing
like it," Millar said. "It's like 162 playoff games."

Millar batted .297 with 18 homers and 74 RBIs for the World Series champions in
2004, but his production dropped last year, when he hit .272 with nine homers
and 50 RBIs. He did, however, remain a leader in the Boston clubhouse, and he
hopes to do the same in Baltimore.

"I like people. I like my teammates. I can't stand cliques," Millar said. "I'm
not a very good player, but I will bring a presence (where) there's not many
cliques. If there's an intangible, I bring that intangible."

"Kevin will be missed," Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield said. "He was the guy that
always kept things light and humorous and funny. Baltimore is getting a pretty
good hitter and a great teammate, a guy that makes things fun."

Most of all, the Orioles want Millar's right-handed swing to bolster a lineup
that struggled to score in 2005.

"It's certainly a piece that helps us along the way," Perlozzo said. "We're
starting to fill some holes."

Millar is a career .289 batter over 932 games and exactly 3,000 at-bats. He has
111 homers and 471 RBIs.

In six full major league seasons, he has averaged 17 home runs and 67 RBIs. He
is a career .302 hitter with runners in scoring position, and has a career
on-base percentage of .365. He hopes to see a return to those sorts of numbers
in 2006.

"I expect myself to have a way better year, statistically," Millar said. "I
think Fenway, to an extent, got me pull-happy. I started trying to pull every
solitary pitch possible."

Primarily a first baseman during his three years in Boston Ñ he made 102 starts
at first base last year, with 12 starts each in left and right field Ñ Millar
has played 425 games at first and 352 in the outfield. He also has appeared in
28 games at third base.

Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan conceded that Millar and Jeff
Conine Ñ also signed by Baltimore this offseason Ñ are similar players, but he
said their presence would improve a clubhouse that became tense and fractious in
the second half of 2005, when Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for using steroids
and the team plummeted in the standings.

"It was an extroverted ballclub that became just the opposite the second half of
the season, so it's been a conscious effort to make sure we can try to maintain
that energy," Flanagan said.

Angels' Name Change Goes Before Courts
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 10, 8:20 PM ET

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Charles Richter roots for the Angels. Not the Anaheim Angels,
not the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, not the California Angels. Just the
Angels.

For Richter, that's the easiest way to keep ahead of a game that took a strange
twist last year. That's when owner Arte Moreno renamed the 2002 World Series
champions the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - and the city slapped the team with
a lawsuit, claiming tens of millions in lost publicity.

Apple is announcing the first Mac with an Intel processor. The first of a new
generation of Macs. The iMac!

Same form factor as iMac G5, at the same price. But it's 2-3 times faster than
the iMac G5.

New PowerBook is called MacBook Pro. "We're done with Power," and we want Mac in
the name of our products.

It's 4-5 times faster than a PowerBook G4.

Apple has built in video podcasting tools into iMovie.

"Photocasting. This is podcasting for photos." This appears to be a way of
sharing photos. It allows people to subscribe to an album, and get whatever
photos you added to that album automatically. Any RSS reader will work for a
subscription, but you have to be a .Mac member to publish.

FM tuner for iPod! It's a remote for the iPod that includes a tuner. This has
LONG been asked for, and is a great feature o finally bring to the iPod
platform. When you tune in a station, it's displayed on the iPod's screen. The
device is quite small.

PORTLAND, Maine --Taxpayers in Maine will have three extra days to file their
federal and state income tax returns this year.

The Internal Revenue Service has pushed back the deadline for federal tax
returns to April 18 for people in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York,
Vermont, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

The deadline was pushed back because April 15 falls on a Saturday and April 17
is Patriots Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts and Maine. Because of the
holiday, the IRS service center in Andover, Mass., where the tax returns from
the six states are processed, will be closed on April 17.

The deadline was last pushed back in 2002, said IRS spokeswoman Peggy Riley.
Mainers will be given two extra days to file in 2007 because April 15 falls on a
Sunday and Patriots Day falls the day after, she said.

Maine Revenue Services has pushed back the deadline for state tax returns as
well. They have to be postmarked by midnight April 18.

The IRS said it expects to process about 624,000 tax returns from Maine
taxpayers this year.

The agency said it has improved its online tools and electronic services and has
launched a newly redesigned Web site.

The IRS is encouraging taxpayers to use its e-file services and to file taxes
electronically. Last year, more than half of all U.S. taxpayers filed their tax
returns electronically.

Taxpayers who file electronically and have their tax refunds deposited directly
into their bank accounts can receive the funds in two weeks or less -- or less
than half the time needed for paper returns.

Taxpayers can also track the status of their refunds on the IRS Web site. To do
so, they will need their Social Security number, filing status and exact refund
amount.

Back to the "Futurama"?
By Gina Serpe
2 hours, 6 minutes ago

What has Stewie Griffin wrought? How about a Bender rebirth.

Following the hugely successful resurrection of Family Guy, Fox execs are
reportedly in talks to bring Futurama back from the dead.

The studio has begun talks to revive the Emmy-winning animated series and
produce a limited number of new episodes, thanks to a resurgence in the show's
popularity on DVD and in reruns, Variety reports.

Reps for 20th Century Fox have declined to comment on the news, but Variety says
initial negotiations have begun.

If revived, it's unclear exactly which network would air the new episodes. While
Fox housed the original series, the show found new life once reruns began
showing on the Cartoon Network. Comedy Central subsequently snapped up the
off-air rights and will exclusively air the repeats beginning in 2008.

The brainchild of Simpsons mastermind Matt Groening and writer David X. Cohen,
Futurama debuted on Fox in March 1999. The series revolved around Fry, a pizza
delivery boy, who is accidentally frozen for a thousand years. He wakes up in
the year 3000 and befriends sassy one-eyed pilot Leela and the cranky robot
Bender, who both work for an intergalactic delivery service run by a distant
nephew of Fry's.

After five seasons and three Emmys, including the 2002 prize for Best Animated
Series, Futurama was shuttered in August 2003.

Should the show make its way back to the airwaves, it would follow in the
footsteps of another Fox cult 'toon, Family Guy.

The latter show was brought back in 2004 thanks to robust rerun ratings and
staggeringly high DVD sales--the show ranks as the fourth-biggest TV series
seller ever. Since its comeback, Fox has produced two more seasons and the
direct-to-DVD movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.

For Futurama to return, the studio would need to re-sign the show's production
team, as well as voice stars Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio.

In the meantime, Futurama lives on in comic-book form, with all-new stories
continuing to be released by Groening's Bongo Comics.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and one of the most
influential men in horse-racing, has died today while on a visit to Australia's
Gold Coast. He was 62.

Police in Queensland said that Sheikh Maktoum was staying at the exclusive
Palazzo Versace hotel with a retinue of 33 people when he died. It is understood
that he was on a private visit to attend yearling horserace sales.

The cause of his death has not been confirmed, although he had previously
suffered heart problems.

Emergency security clearance was granted to allow the emir's personal Boeing 747
to fly his body home from Brisbane as quickly as possible, in compliance with
strict Muslim customs on the burial of the dead.

During Sheikh Maktoum's leadership, Dubai used its legacy of oil money to
develop into a tourist Mecca attracting wealthy foreigners to visit and to buy
holiday homes.

Much of the development was masterminded by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid
Al-Maktoum, the emir's younger brother, who has already been announced as his
successor.

The emir was instrumental in founding the United Arab Emirates, helping to
arrange the alliance of Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 1968 and the accession of six
other small Gulf states to form the UAE in 1971.

Racing was Sheikh Maktoum's first love, however, and under his influence the
annual Dubai World Cup became known as the richest horse race in the world.

He had more than 200 horses in training with 10 trainers worldwide, including
Sir Michael Stoute, Ed Dunlop and Mark Johnston, and Neil Drysdale in America.
His best-known horses included Fantastic Light, Land of Dreams, Cadeaux
Genereux, Royal Applause, Hatoof, Shadeed and Shareef Dancer.

He owned the Gainsborough stud in Newmarket, where many of his stallions were
stood after their successful racing careers.

Joe Mercer, a former champion jockey who was Sheikh Maktoum's racing manager for
the last 19 years, said that the news of the Sheikh's death was "absolutely
awful". Mr Mercer said: "He really enjoyed his racing. He knew what was going on
and was a very good man to work for. He was a good loser and a good winner.

"The whole family have done a remarkable job for English racing. They bought
stallions at the right price and invested a tremendous amount of money into the
bloodstock business. They have been great for the industry."

A statement on Sheikh Mohammed's website said that Sheikh Maktoum's funeral will
take place tomorrow morning at Umm Hurair cemetery in Bur Dubai, with the
funeral prayer read at the Zabeel mosque at 10am.

Government offices in Dubai will close for seven days, and the emirate will
observe the traditional 40 days of mourning.

Sheikh Maktoum was born at the family home in Dubai in 1943, the eldest of the
four sons of the previous emir. He attended university in Britain, an experience
that he said broadened his political vision and helped him to steer Dubai
through the upheavals preceding the British withdrawal from the Gulf in 1971.

Sheikh Maktoum was also Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and
represented the country abroad during the years when the former president,
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the leader of Abu Dhabi, was ill.