I Give Them 8 Months

How long will Julia Roberts' marriage last? Is the Sarah Michelle Gellar-Freddie Prinze Jr. union doomed to fail? Cast your vote at StarsInLove.com, a site dedicated to the odds of celebrity relationships.

Nostalgia fuels the fourth 'Indiana Jones'

No one involved with the three Indiana Jones blockbusters ever really considered the idea of a fourth until the American Film Institute threw a tribute dinner for Ford in 2001, says producer Frank Marshall. The film's principals "all saw each other backstage in tuxedoes, and it was a nostalgic moment where we got to talking and we found how much fun we had on these movies. But these days it takes us all a while to clear our schedules."

"It's going to be the same team: George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and me," Marshall adds. "We are working on the film as we speak. I think production will start in 2004 for release in the summer of 2005. There are certain elements that are in all three movies that we will strive to maintain: the archaeology aspect, the fun of the movies and a little bit of the supernatural."

Speaking of the supernatural, Marshall also is the producer of Signs, starring Mel Gibson and opening Aug. 2. Audiences won't know too much of the plot before it opens, Marshall predicts. Even Touchstone Pictures' advertising campaign for the latest film from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) is a red herring, he says. "It's not a straight-ahead science-fiction movie," Marshall says. "It's about a lot more things than the advertising suggests, which is that it is about crop circles," those mysterious rural images that are supposed to be UFO tracks but usually turn out to be hoaxes.

"Crop circles are really the tip of the iceberg," says Marshall, mixing his metaphors. "I will say that it's like Night's other movies because it incorporates elements of the supernatural."

Frakes Takes on THE THUNDERBIRDS

Jonathan Frakes (STAR TREK: TNG) has committed to directing a live action version of the 1960s "super-marionation" show, THE THUNDERBIRDS.

Set in 2065, the original show used puppets in the story of a top secret international rescue team comprised out of retired astronaut Jeff Tracy and his five sons, as well as several others.

The film has been in development hell for years, but recently Working Title Prods. took it back for reconceptualization to make it more like the original series. THE THUNDERBIRDS original episodes will begin airing on Tech TV on August 5.

Stones Roll 'Simpsons'

"The Simpsons" executive producer James L. Brooks is taking a trip to Springfield -- along with a slew of other celebs scheduled to make cameos next season.

Brooks will appear as himself in an upcoming episode of the Fox toon dubbed "A Star Is Born Again." Oscar winner Marisa Tomei will also lend her voice to the episode.

"The Simpsons" will start its 14th season on Sunday, Nov. 10, with an episode featuring Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, along with rockers Tom Petty, Brian Setzer, Lenny Kravitz and Elvis Costello. The episode is titled "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation."

The series will also mark its milestone 300th episode next year with a half-hour featuring skate god Tony Hawk and Blink 182. Its intriguing title: "Barting Over."

Other guest voices slated to pop up soon include the following:

= Adam West and Burt Ward reprising their roles as Batman and Robin, respectively, in Nov. 24's "Large Marge." Jan Hooks of "Saturday Night Live" fame will also appear.

= Good golly! Little Richard will pop up on the Dec. 15 episode "Special Edna."

= David Lander -- think Squiggy from "Laverne & Shirley" -- is set for the first episode of 2003. He'll play himself, not Squiggy.

= Elliott Gould will also play himself in "The Dad Who Knew Too Little," set to air Jan. 12.

Beauty News, eh?!?

It seems that Homer Simpson is Canadian.

Drainage Ponds Named for 'Simpsons'

The Minnesota Department of Transportation was having trouble keeping track of its several hundred drainage ponds at highway interchanges.

So it named some of them Bart, Barney and Milhouse.

Yes, TV's "The Simpsons" has come to stormwater runoff management, courtesy of state hydrologist Patrick McLarnon. "It's just something fun," he said, and a better naming scheme than the numbers and letters that used to be employed.

The Simpsons ponds — there's also Apu, Clancy Wiggum, Maggie, Itchy, Lenny, Quimby, Scratchy and Seymour — are all part of the Interstate 494-Highway 61 interchange project in Newport in the metro area.

McLarnon also has named ponds after "Happy Days" characters Richie, Joanie, Chachi and The Fonz along Interstate 94 and for "Star Wars" aliens along Highway 12.

None of the names appear on plaques at the ponds, but that's how they're designated in state databases to track water quality and runoff flows.

Other state planners use different naming schemes, McLarnon said. One had a project with five ponds, which he named for his five children.

What's next? "Maybe `South Park,'" McLarnon said.