EGO

All I can say about this movie is, pay attention! All will be revealed." Those were Guy Ritchie's opening remarks before the screening of his long-languishing twisty noir thriller, Revolver, at the Tribeca Grand Screening Room on Sunday. When the lights came up, Guy stood again and said, "Thank you all for your support and applause. And you know what - this is the first time I've understood the movie!" Guy Ritchie is a fascinating man, part "larky" bloke out for a good time at the pub with his pals, part (the bigger part)

New York -- At the beginning of "For Love of the Game," Kevin Costner's new movie about a baseball pitcher facing the end of his career, the star is shown in actual home movies as a boy, pitching to his father.As an actor and director, he's been returning to baseball ever since.Costner first gained industry clout as Crash Davis, the minor-league lifer at the center of the raunchy 1988 hit, "Bull Durham." He kept the momentum going as an Iowa farmer who harvested the mythology of our national pastime in "Field of Dreams."

I'LL ADMIT IT, I fell victim to the hype. On the day "The Early Show," made its debut I got up earlier than usual and walked the dog. Then I rushed home and planted myself in front of the TV.When the clock struck 7, I expected to see Bryant Gumbel go head-to-head against "Good Morning America" and his former colleagues, Matt Lauer and Katie Couric on the "Today" show. At first, I wasn't too concerned when Don Scott and Marty Bass hung around past 7; I thought they'd eventually fade away. They didn't.

In a high-stakes battle of money and ego, the next round of offers for the Washington Redskins is due today in a bidding war that likely will lead to the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise in this country.New York banker Howard Milstein and Bethesda businessman Daniel M. Snyder have bid more than $700 million and now the other contenders, including current owner John Kent Cooke and Orioles owner Peter Angelos, have to decide whether to match or top it.When Milstein and Snyder made their bid last week, they said it would be on the table for one week.

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza already has set a major-league record this year -- most money ever turned down by a major-league baseball player. The Dodgers offered him a six-year contract worth $14 million per year ($84 million) and Piazza responded by breaking off negotiations.Piazza announced that decision after Dodgers fans booed him on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and kept the heat on him the following night."I have let the talks become a distraction, and for that I apologize to my teammates and our fans," Piazza said in a prepared statement.

In the widely lamented divorce case known as Angelos vs. Johnson, one could blame ego alone. Professional sports team owners, managers and players have almost as much ego as they have money.Yet, in this extraordinary split-up, the parties were separated by an ethical standard, of all things.The matter of Peter G. Angelos, principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles, vs. David A. Johnson, 1997 American League Manager of the Year, had a messy public hearing in the court of fan opinion. Then last week, each party in his own way concluded the relationship had irreconcilable differences.

ATLANTA -- The young man from Denmark apologized for his naivete, then asked Karl Malone the question."Excuse me, I am new to this business, but why is a basket worth two points?" the man wanted to know.Malone smiled."You are new," the Utah Jazz power forward said gently. "That's a tough question. I thought I've heard them all. It's just the way Dr. Naismith designed it, my man. You get two points for a basket, unless you step outside the three-point line. That's the way we play the game over here in middle America, son."

The man with the ''unsinkable ego'' is dead. For decades the distinctive voice of Howard Cosell was familiar to sports lovers across the nation and his name known in every household -- every one, that is, but mine.At the peak of his career, I was invited to a cocktail party by friends who were great football fans and, as it turned out, close pals of the big man himself. Had they known that each morning I routinely toss out the sports pages of the daily paper unread, they probably would not have included me among their guests.

Cheer up, everybody. We're all supposed to be happy about this deal with Jack Kent Cooke. If this doesn't put you in a back-slapping mood, what will?Let's see: An 81-year-old godzillionaire with a Jurassic ego gets to build a football stadium in Laurel, abandoning the District of Columbia, tearing up open space and creating a potential suburban nightmare for years to come. (When a consultant's report predicts two hours of stop-and-go traffic before and after each game, you can count on four hours, and you can count on the state spending millions more in road construction to solve the problem.

Erik H. Erikson, the psychoanalyst who profoundly reshaped views of human development, died yesterday at the Rosewood Manor Nursing Home in Harwich, Mass. He was 91.He had a brief illness, said his daughter, Sue Erikson Bloland of Manhattan.A friend and disciple of Sigmund Freud, Dr. Erikson was a thinker whose ideas had effects far beyond psychoanalysis, shaping the emerging fields of child development and life-span studies and reaching into the humanities.He was best known for the theory that each stage of life, from infancy and early childhood on, is associated with a specific psychological struggle that contributes to a major aspect of personality.

SUNDAY 'EDGAR ALLAN POE: A BALTIMORE ICON': The master of the macabre might have inspired future suspense writers for generations, but he also inspired many visual artists. This exhibit of 30 prints and 35 illustrated books includes works by Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet and Rene Magritte. The free show opens at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, at 11 a.m. Sunday and runs through Jan. 17. Call 443-573-1700 or go to artbma.org. TOUR DU PORT: Be part of the solution by opting to walk, bike or use mass transit, even if it's just for one day. One Less Car's annual fundraiser allows thousands of bicyclists to take to the streets of many of Baltimore's historic neighborhoods to support the alternate transportation movement.

All I can say about this movie is, pay attention! All will be revealed." Those were Guy Ritchie's opening remarks before the screening of his long-languishing twisty noir thriller, Revolver, at the Tribeca Grand Screening Room on Sunday. When the lights came up, Guy stood again and said, "Thank you all for your support and applause. And you know what - this is the first time I've understood the movie!" Guy Ritchie is a fascinating man, part "larky" bloke out for a good time at the pub with his pals, part (the bigger part)

Is there any chance that Brian Billick will give up play-calling duties this year? Andrew There is a greater chance of this franchise moving back to Cleveland than Billick giving up the play-calling duties. To give up the play-calling would admit he was at fault for all of the offensive failures for nine years, and that's not going to happen. To do that would undermine him in front of his players. But guess what? I wouldn't care. Owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Ozzie Newsome's main priority is to win football games, not worry about a coach getting his ego hurt.

In the role of playwright Eric Weiss, actor Paul Morella hides immense rage, fear and pain behind an affable smile. Those emotions are telegraphed by the amused, downward glance, the wry upward tilt of Morella's lips. In an instant, the people in Weiss' life who have been pummeling his ego - the playwright's withholding father, his estranged wife - are dispatched to a safe remove. Morella watches them flail away silently, as if they were under water. If you go Brooklyn Boy runs at the Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, through Aug. 5. Show times are 7:45 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, with matinees at 1:45 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

HOLLYWOOD -- Before Tony Shalhoub broke through as the obsessive-compulsive detective Monk, the Lebanese-American actor had compiled a long list of supporting characters with widely diverse names: Haddad (The Siege), Kwan (Galaxy Quest), Scarpacci (Wings), Reyes (Primary Colors) and Riedenschneider (The Man Who Wasn't There). This year, he has again been nominated for a Golden Globe, and he won his third Emmy for Monk, USA Network's highest-rated show, which on Jan. 19 will launch Season 5 1/2 . Lately, Shalhoub, 53, has been adding to his resume, not only as an actor but also as a producer and advocate, reaching back to his Arab-American roots.

Angelos' meddling hinders Orioles Let's be honest, Jay Payton never has been, is not and never will be an RBI machine. Will he be a positive addition to a team that obviously has a hard time attracting marquee-type players? Only time will tell. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when free agents discuss their options with their agents. Baltimore has developed a long-term losing tradition, thanks in no small part to the ownership. I wonder what is said behind closed doors to discourage ballplayers from signing with this organization.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- They seem an unlikely pair -- the courtly Richmond lawyer who can stretch his vowels into next week and the Bronx native who bottles up New York intensity in a voice often so flat and low that the judge reminds him to speak up. These two, who met in January when a Virginia judge teamed them, are the lead defense lawyers for Lee Boyd Malvo, who is suspected of acting as the teen-age half of another seemingly unlikely duo -- the sniper...

BOSTON -- And so we find the woman standing at the newsstand. In her right hand there's a copy of Newsweek with a headline: "Martha's Mess." In her left hand, there's a copy of Martha Stewart Living with a labor-intensive red, white and blue berry tart on the cover. Carefully, the woman tucks them into the collection of stories in her briefcase, each one of which bears a similar headline: "Martha in Hell's Kitchen"; "Come Clean"; "Scandal Leaves Untidy Stain"; "Insider Trading Is Not a Good Thing."

Digital picture frame allows variety of art, personal touches When Bill Gates was building his multi-gazillion-dollar high-tech dream house (for a guy who allegedly doesn't know how to program his VCR), one feature that got a lot of media attention was the proliferation of digital picture frames. Giant LCD screens throughout the house display art that can change to suit the mood of the rooms' occupants. You can have a modest slice of this technology with the Ceiva digital picture frame ($249, plus $3 a month for a dial-up connection)

I'LL ADMIT IT, I fell victim to the hype. On the day "The Early Show," made its debut I got up earlier than usual and walked the dog. Then I rushed home and planted myself in front of the TV.When the clock struck 7, I expected to see Bryant Gumbel go head-to-head against "Good Morning America" and his former colleagues, Matt Lauer and Katie Couric on the "Today" show. At first, I wasn't too concerned when Don Scott and Marty Bass hung around past 7; I thought they'd eventually fade away. They didn't.