Sting

The lyrics of Sting, almost every word he wrote, from his solo records to his years with the Police, will come out in book form this fall. "Lyrics by Sting" will include the words of such hits as "Roxanne," "Every Breath You Take" and "Spirits in the Material World," along with commentary by Sting.

A British employment tribunal ordered Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, on Tuesday to pay a former chef $51,000 in compensation after she won a sexual-discrimination claim against them. Jane Martin, 41, won her claim in May. She said she was fired after she became pregnant. At a hearing earlier this year, Martin said she had worked for the pop star and his wife for eight years, cooking meals for them and guests including Madonna and Elton John.

PASSIONATE love, parental opposition, eventual madness -- who can resist the love story of composer Robert Schumann and his student and later wife, Clara Wieck Schumann? Hollywood legends Paul Henreid and Katharine Hepburn played the couple in the 1947 movie "Song of Love" (and reprised their roles in 1950's "The Schumann Story").

Rock musician Sting will portray composer Robert Schumann on Broadway -- for one night. Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, will head a production of "Twin Spirits" on March 27 that will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. They will read excerpts from the letters of Schumann and his wife, Clara Wieck, with musical interludes of Schumann compositions performed by violinist Joshua Bell and five other musicians and singers.

Rocker Bruce Springsteen has released an album of folk songs paying tribute to Pete Seeger, but if anyone thinks that's strange, Sting is ready to do him one better. The next album from the former lead singer of the Police will feature 16th century music performed on the lute. It's due out in October on the classical label Deutsche Grammophon. "It's a strange record, a delightful record, and I think people will be intrigued by it," the singer-songwriter says on his website.

ON a Warner Bros. Television sound stage, Sting is perched on a stool, singing a plaintive, urgent ballad to an absent lover. No surprises here -- except that the song, "Come Again," is more than 400 years old. It was composed by John Dowland, a contemporary of Shakespeare who is considered one of England's greatest songwriters.

Sting will make his Walt Disney Concert Hall debut Jan. 11 singing music from his recent release, "Songs From the Labyrinth," a collection of works by Elizabethan lutenist and songwriter John Dowland. Joining Sting in the Los Angeles Philharmonic presentation will be his album partner, lutenist Edin Karamazov, and the American male a cappella Concord Ensemble, a sextet that won the 1998 Early Music America/Dorian Records Competition two years after it was formed at Indiana University.

The hurt of social rejection or exclusion is emotional. But there must be a reason why we so often experience it -- and talk about it -- as if it were a physical pain. One feels "burned" by a partner's infidelity, "wounded" by a friend's harsh words, "heartache" when spurned by a lover. It turns out, there is a good reason we use such terms: The same circuits in the brain that are responsible for processing physical pain are also called into play when one feels the sting of social rejection.

The rock singer Sting may be a man of furtive cool, mystical tantric talents and exotic, globe-spanning tastes, but it was his affable drummer who could always boast the more intriguing back story. Sting, né Gordon Sumner, was the son of an English milkman and a hairdresser. Stewart Copeland -- supplier of the fussy yet propulsive rhythm that was a hallmark of the Police -- was born in Alexandria, Va., in 1952, the son of Miles Copeland Jr., a Middle Eastern operative for the CIA, and archaeologist Lorraine Adie, who worked for British intelligence during World War II. The drummer-to-be grew up in Cairo and Beirut.

I'm confused, is this the preseason or the season? And how do you tell the difference? The Lakers were without Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol on Sunday night. Kobe Bryant scored 26 points in the first half, two in the second, and left with 6:58 left, as they rolled over another overmatched little team. Oh, those were the New Orleans Hornets? Right! Light-blue pinstriped unies, Byron Scott on the sideline, Chris Paul, brilliant as ever, David West, Peja Stojakovic . . . Aside from that, they could be cardboard cutouts.