By Jessica E. Vascellaro

Barry Diller’s online-commerce empire IAC/InterActiveCorp, which is preparing to break up into several companies, reported lower first-quarter net income because of continuing problems in its retailing and home-lending businesses and reduced profits at Ticketmaster.

The results are likely to be one of IAC’s last report cards in its current structure. IAC plans to split off four of its older businesses, Ticketmaster, HSN, LendingTree and time-share exchange Interval International, retaining its ad-supported Internet businesses such as Ask.com and Match.com.

By DERRIK J. LANG

LOS ANGELES — Mothers Against Drunk Driving wants a stricter rating on “Grand Theft Auto IV.”

The organization is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the independent organization that assigns video-game ratings, to reclassify “GTA IV” as an Adults Only game. The action-driving game, which includes the ability to drive while intoxicated, is currently rated Mature.

“Drunk driving is not a game, and it is not a joke,” MADD said in a statement released Tuesday. “Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable.”

MADD is also calling on publisher Take-Two Interactive and developer Rockstar Games to consider stopping distribution of the game — which analysts expect to sell 9 million copies and make over $400 million at launch — “out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving.”

In the critically acclaimed open-world game, players have the choice of patronizing a bar and then attempting to drive drunk. While virtually under the influence, the screen becomes blurred and the controls are more difficult to use. Players also have the option of hailing a taxi or walking. The intoxication effects wear off after a few minutes in the game.

“We have a great deal of respect for MADD’s mission, but we believe the mature audience for ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ is more than sophisticated enough to understand the game’s content,” Rockstar Games said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. “For the same reason that you can’t judge an entire film or television program by a single scene, you can’t judge ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ by a small aspect of the game.”

“GTA IV” follows the criminal exploits of protagonist Niko Bellic, an imigrant-turned-gangster who travels from Eastern Europe to Liberty City, the game’s fictional locale based on New York City. As Bellic, players can hijack cars, earn cash for criminal activities, shoot innocent bystanders and visit strip clubs.

MADD declined to comment further about their statement.

On the Net:

• Mothers Against Drunk Driving: http://www.madd.org
• Entertainment Software Ratings Board: http://www.esrb.org

By Neil Milbert

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Lexington Stakes winner Behindatthebar and Florida Oaks winner Proud Spell are out of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. Because of their defections, Santa Anita Derby runner-up Bob Black Jack and Denis of Cork, the beaten even-money favorite in the Illinois Derby, are in.

The Derby field is limited to the 20 horses with the highest earnings in graded stakes races. Before Behindatthebar and Proud Spell dropped out, Bob Black Jack and Denis of Cork were No. 21 and No. 22, respectively, in the pecking order.

The Derby would have been Behindatthebar’s third race in a month and trainer Todd Pletcher decided that would be overextending the colt. Pletcher still has 1-2 finishers in the Bluegrass Stakes, Monba and Cowboy Cal, going for him in the Derby.

The breeder and owner of Proud Spell, former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones, made the decision to run her in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks instead of the Derby. The ex-governor isn’t related to Larry Jones, who trains both his filly and owner Rick Porter’s filly and Kentucky Derby candidate Eight Belles.

THE FAST LANE

“I’ve never had a horse work that fast,” trainer Eoin Harty said, looking back on his nine years as a head trainer in putting Colonel John’s sensational Sunday workout in perspective.

The Santa Anita Derby winner worked 5 furlongs in 574/5 seconds, fastest of 62 Churchill Downs workouts at the distance.

Eight Belles also had an exceptional Sunday workout, going the distance in :581/5 and outdoing four colts also preparing for the Derby_Cowboy Cal (1:00), Court Vision (1:01), Z Humor (1:011/5) and Adriano (1:014/5).

EXPERT ADVICE

Those ultrafast rehearsals by Colonel John and Eight Belles brought back memories of the Monday of Derby week last year when Hard Spun worked in :573/5 for Larry Jones. It was the fastest workout at the distance since General Assembly was clocked in :572/5 three days before the 1979 Derby.

Hard Spun’s workout led many to believe it would leave him depleted in the Derby, but the trainer got a reassuring phone call from General Assembly’s trainer, LeRoy Jolley.

According to Larry Jones, “LeRoy told me: ‘That fast workout didn’t get General Assembly beat in the Derby. Spectacular Bid got General Assembly beat in the Derby.’ ”

Like General Assembly, Hard Spun showed no adverse effects from the workout and finished a solid second.

By ANICK JESDANUN

Media conglomerate Cox Enterprises Inc., betting its future on Internet advertising as newspaper and television audiences shrink, plans to spend $300 million to buy a startup that helps Web sites pool their ad space.

The all-cash deal with Adify Corp., to be announced Tuesday, represents the latest evolution for a media company that began more than a century ago with one newspaper in Dayton, Ohio. As new technologies emerged, Cox expanded to include radio, television and cable systems across the country.

“We’re absolutely convinced at Cox that online revenue is continuing to grow,” John Dyer, Cox executive vice president for finance, told The Associated Press. “If you look at Cox’s history, we’ve not necessarily been the first into a space. … But we’ve prided ourselves in the course of history in being early investors.”

With Adify, Cox gets a technology platform that can help Web sites more successfully sell higher-priced ads targeted to specific audiences, such as parents or travel enthusiasts, keeping brand-name advertisers from fleeing to larger Internet companies like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

Marketers wishing to reach a targeted audience may find a particular media Web site lacking enough ad space to sell. Adify helps media companies form networks of Web sites around parenting, travel and other topics, allowing marketers to reach readers on dozens or hundreds of like-minded sites through a single buy.

Adify already runs several ad networks, including a lifestyles-focused one for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. and a network of hundreds of independent financial blogs assembled by the online unit of Forbes Inc.

Cox is exploring its own specialty ad networks around such Web properties as cable TV’s Travel Channel, the AutoTrader.com classifieds site and the Kudzu local search portal.

Russ Fradin, who will continue to run Adify, said Cox was initially in talks with Adify to launch such networks as a regular customer. A year of discussions led to Cox deciding to buy the startup outright, he said.

Fradin said Adify would continue operating as an independent company, with Cox competitors treated as well as Cox-owned Web sites.

But he said early investors in Adify, which include General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and Time Warner Inc.’s investment arm, will cash out and have no direct control after the deal closes, which is expected to happen in mid-May. NBC will remain a customer, however.

Adify and its 80 or so employees will remain in San Bruno, Calif.

Competitors include Burst Media Corp., which runs an ad network for Viacom Inc., and Seevast Corp., which also has a deal with NBC — through its MSNBC.com joint venture with Microsoft Corp.

Cox, a privately held company with headquarters in Atlanta, also runs cable and high-speed Internet systems across the country, 17 daily newspapers including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 15 TV stations, and it has majority stake in about 80 radio stations in Atlanta, Houston, Miami and 16 other markets.

By JEFF ZELENY

WILMINGTON, N.C. — If it was not clear before Monday, Senator Barack Obama said, it should be clear now: His presidential campaign has no control over what the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his former pastor, says or what he does.

“He does not speak for me,” Mr. Obama said. “He does not speak for the campaign. He may make statements in the future that don’t reflect my values or concerns.”

“I think certainly what the last three days indicate is that we’re not coordinating with him, right?” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Obama made his remarks at a hastily called news conference on the tarmac of the airport here late in the day, with the engines of his campaign plane buzzing in the background. His decision to address the issue directly reflected the extent to which Mr. Wright has emerged once again as a problem for his campaign.

And at a sensitive time: Mr. Obama has been seeking to appeal to white and blue-collar voters who voted in big numbers for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Pennsylvania, and is trying to persuade uncommitted superdelegates to rally to his side.

But for the third time in four days, Mr. Wright made a high-profile public appearance to discuss and repeat some of his more controversial statements, this time at the National Press Club in Washington. Mr. Wright suggested that the attacks of Sept. 11 were at least in part a response by terrorists to terrorism practiced by the United States abroad. “You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you,” he said.

He stood by his suggestion that the United States might have invented H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. He defended the Rev. Louis Farrakhan — whom he referred to at times just by his first name — noting his large appeal among African-Americans.

“He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century: That’s what I think about him,” Mr. Wright said, adding, “When Louis Farrakhan speaks, it’s like E. F. Hutton speaks, all black America listens. Whether they agree with him or not, they listen.”

And he suggested that Mr. Obama’s speech in which he distanced himself from some of Mr. Wright’s more controversial remarks was politically motivated. “He had to distance himself,” the pastor said, “because he’s a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was anti-American.”

Mr. Obama’s discomfit was evident during a six-minute news conference during which he repeatedly tried to steer the conversation back to other issues. Mr. Wright was not mentioned — by Mr. Obama or voters — during a town-hall-style meeting on Monday afternoon.

Initially, the campaign did not plan to have Mr. Obama speak to reporters here, but aides changed their mind as it became clear how much attention Mr. Wright was drawing.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior strategist. “It’s pretty clear that Reverend Wright is not out there to help Obama — he’s out there to help himself. It’s a sideshow, and the media is consumed by it.”

Mr. Axelrod, though, suggested it was far from clear how the controversy would affect either voters or the superdelegates, the party officials and elected Democrats who have not signed on yet.

“I think the superdelegates still understand that Obama has a much better chance to expand this party and win this election,” he said.

Mr. Obama has drawn criticism from both Mrs. Clinton and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, for his association with his former pastor, though both were muted in their remarks on Monday, likely so as not to step in the way on a day in which Mr. Wright was on his own causing trouble for Mr. Obama.

By Meg James
The WB lives on.

Eighteen months after shutting down its TV network that captured the youth zeitgeist with such shows as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dawson’s Creek,” Warner Bros. Television said Monday that it was resurrecting “the WB” vibe and moniker — on the Internet.

The Burbank-based television studio, part of the Time Warner Inc. empire, has been experimenting with ways to parlay its strength in TV programming onto the Web. Although earlier efforts sputtered, Warner Bros. now believes that targeting younger audiences with advertiser-friendly online communities is the most promising strategy.

“I see ourselves as being in the storytelling business, and this is just a different platform to tell stories,” said Bruce Rosenblum, president of the Warner Bros. Television Group. “We are developing targeted niche destinations that will fulfill advertisers’ appetites.”

Its website, TheWB.com, is scheduled to debut in August and will feature episodes of such popular Warner Bros.-produced series as “Friends,” “The O.C.” and “Gilmore Girls.” However, Rosenblum believes that original programming created specifically for the Internet ultimately will be a bigger hit among the under-35 audience that advertisers seek.

Warner Bros. has recruited several producers to develop content for the site, including Josh Schwartz, creator of “The O.C.” and McG, director of the “Charlie’s Angels” movies. McG plans to team with the producers of the digital series “Prom Queen” for a new show called “Sorority Forever.”

The site will feature an application that permits users of Facebook to grab Warner Bros. images to decorate their profile pages without violating the studio’s copyright.

Warner Bros. said it would provide its programs to Fancast, the video site of television programming owned by Comcast Corp.

In addition, Warner Bros. is relaunching its children’s site, now named www.KidsWB.com, with Comcast as a distribution partner. Mattel Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. have agreed to participate in the venture, which will target children 6 to 12 and drawn upon the studio’s cartoon characters.

By CURT ANDERSON

MIAMI — The call girl linked to the downfall of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer sued the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” series on Monday for $10 million, claiming he exploited her image and name to advertise the racy videos.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre, 22, contended in the lawsuit that she was only 17 — too young to sign legally binding contracts — and drunk on spring break in 2003 when she agreed to be filmed for “Girls Gone Wild” in Miami Beach.

Dupre “did not understand the magnitude of her actions, nor that her image and likeness would be displayed in videos and DVDs,” says the lawsuit filed by Miami attorney Richard C. Wolfe.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami names as defendants “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis, two of his companies and a man purportedly involved in creation of two Internet sites that the lawsuit contends improperly use Dupre’s image to sell DVDs and other products.

Francis, 35, has built a soft porn empire filming and marketing videos of young women exposing their breasts and being shown in other sexually provocative situations, often at public events such as Mardi Gras or spring break beach locales.

Dupre gained notoriety in March when it came out that she was the high-priced call girl named “Kristen” named in court documents who was hired by Spitzer for at least one tryst at a posh Washington hotel. Spitzer, known as “Client 9″ in the documents, resigned as New York governor a few days after the scandal broke.

Francis made a public $1 million offer for Dupre to appear in a “Girls Gone Wild” video and go on a promotional tour, then rescinded the offer after he realized he already had footage of Dupre from 2003. Dupre’s lawyer warned she was only 17 when the video was shot, not 18 as Francis claimed.

Francis said in March that Dupre spent a week on a “Girls Gone Wild” bus and made seven full-length tapes after signing release papers. He also said he bought her a bus ticket home to North Carolina.

Francis said he was surprised by the lawsuit.

“It is incomprehensible that Ms. Dupre could claim she did not give her consent to be filmed by Girls Gone Wild, when in fact we have videotape of her giving consent, while showing her identification,” Francis said in a statement.

He said the photos were taken “in front of a room full of people, including two newspapers and multiple crews we had in the room.” Francis also said he would be happy to discuss the $1 million offer with her again.

The lawsuit claims Dupre is the victim of unfair trade practices, false advertising and unauthorized use of her likeness.

Francis is no stranger to legal problems in Florida. He spent a year in jail and was released in March after pleading no contest to child abuse and prostitution charges for filming underage girls in the Panhandle beach town of Panama City. Four women who claim they were 17 or younger when filmed have filed lawsuits there against Francis.

Francis also faces federal tax evasion charges in California. Prosecutors say companies controlled by Francis claimed more than $20 million in phony deductions in 2002 and 2003 and that Francis used offshore accounts to conceal income.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama will know when it’s time to drop out of the nomination race after the end of the primaries in early June.

“We want the voters to have their say. That’s over on June 3,” he said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Dean, saying he was speaking from experience as a candidate for president in 2004, said he won’t have to force anyone from the race.

“Either of these candidates, if it’s time for them to go, they’ll know it and they will go,” he said. “They don’t need any pushing from me. You know when to get in and you know when to get out. That’s just part of the deal.”

“This is not about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama,” Dean added. “This is about our country. It’s about a better course for our country. … We’ve got to move on and win the presidency.”

Obama has more delegates and popular votes than Clinton, but she also is fresh off a big-state win in Pennsylvania.

Indiana and North Carolina hold primaries on May 6.

Dean also said that while party rules say superdelegates can wait until the August convention to make up their minds, that would be too late to unify the party and defeat the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain.

“We really can’t have a divided convention. If we do it’s going to be very hard to heal the party afterwards,” Dean said. “So we’ll know who the nominee is and that’ll give us an extra 2 1/2 months to get our party together, heal the wounds of having a very closely divided race and take on Senator McCain.”

By MICHELLE ROBERTS

SAN ANTONIO More than half the teenage girls taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas have children or are pregnant, state officials said Monday.

A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either have children or are pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. He didn’t specify how many are pregnant.

“It shows you a pretty distinct pattern, that it was pretty pervasive,” he said.

State officials took custody of all 463 children at the ranch controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying a pattern of teen girls forced into underage “spiritual” marriages and sex with much older men created an unsafe environment for the sect’s children.

Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but none of these girls is believed to have a legal marriage under state law.

State officials said earlier that they had found girls who were pregnant or had children of their own at the ranch, but they had not provided more than rough estimates until Monday.

Church officials have denied that any children were abused at the ranch and say the state’s actions are a form of religious persecution.

FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said he does not believe the CPS count is accurate. He said that from talking to ranch residents, he believes at least 17 of the girls may actually be adults but have been labeled by CPS as minors.

Agency officials have called into question claims of adulthood among the girls since the raid and have in some cases disputed documentation provided, saying the girls look younger than 18. Because many FLDS members share similar names and have complicated family relationships, identifying all of the children taken into custody has been a challenge.

“I do have serious questions about how they are determining age in there,” said Parker, who is trying to get a better count from FLDS families.

He noted though that since law enforcement confiscated every document that might show family relationships as part of its weeklong raid, the sect is at a disadvantage in proving names and ages.

The latest information from CPS comes with “absolutely nothing to back it up other than it’s coming from them, and they think we should trust them,” Parker said.

All the children are supposed to get individual hearings before June 5 to help determine whether they’ll stay in state custody or that parents may be able to take steps to regain custody of their children.

Civil-liberties groups and lawyers for the children have criticized the state for sweeping all the children, from nursing infants to teen boys, into foster care when only teen girls are alleged to have been sexually abused.

No one has been charged since the raid, which was prompted by a series of calls to a domestic abuse hotline, purportedly from a 16-year-old forced into a marriage recognized only by the sect with a man three times her age. That girl has not been found and authorities are investigating whether the call was a hoax.

On Monday, CPS also revised its total count of children in state custody to 463, up one from Friday. Azar said the change resulted from finally getting the children out of the San Angelo Coliseum and into foster facilities around the state, where they were able to get a more accurate count.

Of those 463 children, 250 are girls and 213 are boys. Children 13 and younger are about evenly split — 197 girls and 196 boys — but there are only 17 boys aged 14 to 17 compared with the 53 girls in that age range.

Azar said the numbers could still change slightly because authorities have not seen documentation on all the children and have struggled to positively identify everyone.

On Monday, all were assigned caseworkers, who will work only on FLDS cases.

The sect, which broke from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints more than a century ago, believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven. Its leader, Warren Jeffs, is revered as a prophet. Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of forcing a 14-year-old girl into marriage with an older cousin.

NEW YORK -Nick Charles, who serves as host and play-by-play announcer for the critically acclaimed SHOWTIME boxing series ShoBox: The New Generation, will receive the prestigious Sam Taub Award for excellence in broadcast journalism at the 83rd Annual Boxing Writers Association of America Awards Dinner on Thursday, May 1, 2008, in Los Angeles.

The lifetime achievement award, now bestowed upon all four boxing announcers serving SHOWTIME Sports telecasts (Steve Albert, Al Bernstein for Championship Boxing and analyst Steve Farhood for ShoBox), is sweet for the broadcast veteran.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to receive the lifetime achievement award,” said Charles, an Atlanta resident who is known for his accurate, colorful and refreshing delivery. “It means a lot when the Boxing Writers Association of America looks at your entire body of work and decides that you deserve to be recognized for it.”

If you tuned in to CNN during the 1980s and 90s, chances are you saw Nick Charles. Hired to help launch the network in 1980, Charles won three Cable Ace Awards as co-host of CNN’s “Sports Tonite.”

During his time with the news network, Charles covered some of the all-time greatest boxers in many of their greatest fights, including Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Riddick Bowe, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya.

“In the early years of CNN, we had such a can-do attitude,” Charles said.  “It was new horizons, un-chartered waters.  Ultimately, not only did we not drown, we sailed around the world.

“They had me camp out in Miami after Roberto Duran’s ‘No Mas’ fight until I got an interview.  They sent me to Japan to see Buster Douglas knock Tyson on his butt.  I was in camp with Hearns in Detroit and at home with Hagler.  Through the years, I witnessed boxing history.”

In 2001, SHOWTIME tabbed Charles as its blow-by-blow announcer for the new boxing series, ShoBox: The New Generation, which features up-and-coming fighters in tough match-ups in all boxing divisions.  Thus far, Charles and his partner Farhood have called the action for nearly every ShoBox telecast since its inception—nearly 125 shows and 250 fights. In that time, Charles has witnessed many fighters advance from prospect to contender; from contender to world champion.

“You know little about these guys except that they better have a blazing desire to succeed,” Charles said.  “The fighters have no entourages, and we do not feature ring walks.  It is just boxing where two guys are matched tough, and it is a question of who moves forward and who falls back.  That is the central theme of every ShoBox.”

With Charles and Farhood at the helm, ShoBox has found a niche with boxing fans and sports enthusiasts.

“Nick is a highly respected sports commentator who has traveled to more than 50 countries and covered all of the major sports stories for the last 25 years,” said Gordon Hall, SHOWTIME vice president and executive producer of ShoBox. “He brings a vast knowledge of boxing and great passion to each telecast.  He is a true professional who brings out the best in those around him.”

Charles says the match-ups are what make ShoBox so intriguing.

“We usually have these young undefeated fighters who have never lost, and other times these guys who cannot afford to lose again,” Charles said.  “It is all about acclaim and redemption, risk and reward.  Ultimately, in this series, people’s careers have either taken off or have ended.”

The well-traveled journalist has worked as a site reporter and host for six Olympics, five Goodwill Games and the Pan-Am Games in Havana, Cuba.

“Nick’s love for boxing, and specifically for ShoBox, makes every show special,” said Farhood. “He’s the ultimate professional, and his enthusiasm never wanes. If you ask Nick, he’ll tell you he’s lucky to have boxing. But if you ask me, boxing is lucky to have Nick.”