Paramount

TELEVISION 1.CSI: Miami, CBS 2.Two and a Half Men, CBS 3.So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox 4.CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS 5.America's Got Talent, NBC FILMS 1.Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Sony 2.Step Up, Disney 3.World Trade Center, Paramount 4.Barnyard, Paramount 5.Pulse, Weinstein Co. SINGLES 1.London Bridge, Fergie 2.Crazy, Gnarls Barkley 3.Promiscuous, Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland 4.Me & U, Cassie...

Paramount Pictures Corp. has filed a federal suit against a Parkville man, saying he violated copyright laws by sharing the Samuel L. Jackson movie Coach Carter over the Internet. The suit against Tze Ting Ng of the 8000 block of Kings Ridge Road is one of hundreds that Hollywood studios have filed since November against people it says use file-sharing software to swap movies for free. Though each movie shared might not amount to much of a financial loss to the companies, they estimate that the cumulative losses from pirated and counterfeit goods cost the U.S. economy $250 billion a year.

RIVERDALE - With dirty-blond hair and hazel eyes, Oscar Bonilla is called guero - Spanish for "blond" or "fair-skinned" - by customers at La Central music and video store. But his race is less easily defined. "I look white, completely white," says Bonilla, 21, who was born in El Salvador but raised in nearby Montgomery County. "But the first thing I would call myself is Hispanic. My race? I don't really think about it." Like nearly 15 million Latinos in 2000, Bonilla would identify himself as "some other race" on the U.S. Census.

HOLLYWOOD - Sherry Lansing, a Hollywood pioneer who for three decades has been one of the most powerful figures in the movie business, plans to step down as chairwoman of Paramount Pictures when her contract expires at the end of next year. According to a source familiar with the situation, Lansing will stay long enough to help choose her successor and to aid in the transition. But after 12 years in one of the most high-pressure jobs in the business, Lansing has made it known that she does not plan to seek another entertainment industry job. Lansing's decision comes as she finds herself having to prove to her new boss, Viacom Inc. co-President Tom Freston, that she can reverse the fortunes of the struggling studio.

A check of court records two years ago might have saved Baltimore taxpayers millions of dollars on the city's sweeping west-side renewal effort. City officials agreed in late 2002 to pay $8.7 million for the Paramount Hotel, at 8 N. Howard St., which the city seized through eminent domain to make way for luxury apartments. That price - almost three times the $3 million the Paramount sold for in 1999 after it was targeted for condemnation - was based on appraisals that relied on the faulty assumption that the owner was getting a valuable Comfort Inn franchise he never got because he never finished renovations demanded by the hotel chain.

Top films at the box office over the weekend, with distributor, weekend gross, total gross, number of weeks in release: 1 Bringing Down... Disney $22.1 million $61.3 million 2 2 ...Cody Banks MGM $14.1 million $14.1 million 1 3 The Hunted Paramount $13.5 million $13.5 million 1 4 Tears of Sun Sony $8.7 million $30.7 million 2 5 Chicago Miramax $7.1 million $124.8 million 12 6 Old School DreamWorks $6.7 million $60.8 million 4 7 How to Lose... Paramount $4.7 million $93.7 million 6 8 Willard New Line $4 million $4 million 1 9 Daredevil Fox $3.03 million $96 million 5 10 Cradle 2 Grave Warner Bros.

HOLLYWOOD - So who will play Ralph Kramden? James Gandolfini? John Goodman? Eddie Murphy? Eddie Murphy? After more than a year of negotiations, Paramount Pictures is planning to make a feature film based on The Honeymooners, the classic 1950s TV comedy series. The immediate question of casting - who will play Ralph Kramden, the portly New York City bus driver, and his best friend, Ed Norton, who lives upstairs - is engaging Paramount and the film's producer, David Friendly, though they say it's too early to discuss it publicly.

NEW YORK - As actor-director Ed Burns speaks on screen, you squint and blink and rub your eyes. But the image is still there - the two slender towers that Americans have watched crumble and disappear repeatedly on news programs since Sept. 11. It's at once chilling, sad, and yet reassuringly normal to see the World Trade Center towers on screen. It's also seemingly apt, considering Burns' Sidewalks of New York is the latest movie from a Long Island-bred filmmaker who has made it his mission to document the real New York: joy, pain and hardships.

A monthslong debate over what the city should pay for Baltimore's oldest hotel - which has seen its price tag more than double since the city targeted it for condemnation - is holding up the construction of a key part of downtown's west-side urban renewal project. The city's development agency has been weighing whether to pay about $6.6 million for the 120-room Paramount Hotel at 8 N. Howard St., which is what one city estimate says the 96-year-old building might be worth. But other appraisals have been all over the board, with the owner's figures showing the hotel might be worth more than $12 million because of millions of dollars he says he has invested in recent months performing a "complete renovation."