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Tattle: Lou Pearlman, boy-bands guru, gets 25 years

WOMEN BEHIND BARS movies have always been popular pulpy fare, so why not Boy Bands Behind Bars? Now that Lou Pearlman, the man who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, is saying bye, bye, bye for 25 years in federal prison for scamming thousands of investors out of some $300 million, his story has movie written all over it.

WOMEN BEHIND BARS movies have always been popular pulpy fare, so why not Boy Bands Behind Bars?

Now that Lou Pearlman, the man who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, is saying bye, bye, bye for 25 years in federal prison for scamming thousands of investors out of some $300 million, his story has movie written all over it.

It can be done as a musical comedy, "The Producers" meets "Jailhouse Rock" as conceived by John Waters, or as a tragedy, "Jailhouse Rock" meets "Oz."

In sentencing Lou, Judge G. Kendall Sharp noted that many victims were Lou's relatives, friends and retirees in their 70s or 80s who lost everything.

"The sympathy factor just doesn't run very high with the court," Sharp said.

However, Sharp said he would reduce Lou's sentence by one month for every $1 million returned to investors. It wasn't clear how, or if, investors would ever be compensated.

"Over the past nine months since my arrest, I've come to realize the harm that's been done," Lou said in a short courtroom statement. "I'm truly sorry and I apologize for what's happened."

So he didn't realize the harm he'd caused until he'd been arrested? That is so messed up.

You tell me that it's evolution. . .

Yoko Ono wants John Lennon's "Imagine" out of the anti-evolution movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," and she's sued producers in state and federal courts for using the song without her permission.

The film takes a lyric from the song to criticize Lennon's views on religion, and filmmakers acknowledged they didn't seek permission for the song as they presented Lennon in a bad light.

The filmmakers, who did seek permission to use other songs in the film, are fighting to keep "Imagine" in - and are urging the judge to act quickly so the movie can yet play a role in the presidential campaign this fall.

One shudders to think what role that will be.

* In other lawsuit

news, Boris Krutonog, who claims he created "Dog the Bounty Hunter," is suing the producers of the show for at least $5 million that he claims they owe him in royalties, salary and other compensation.

Boris says A&E and others failed to pay him for the fourth season of the show as its creator and co-executive producer.

The Honolulu-based show's producers also have failed to give Boris accountings of money earned from home video, TV syndication and other sources, according to his papers filed this week in Manhattan.

Boris also complains in court papers that he was the target of "abusive, violent and outrageous conduct" and "episodes of psychotic behavior by" the show's stars, Duane "Dog" Chapman and his wife, Beth.

Tattbits

* Steven Spielberg is now an offi-

cer in the French Legion of Honor.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the honor was prompted by Spielberg's work on documenting the Holocaust and his efforts to help the war-wracked Darfur region of Sudan.

Spielberg met with Sarkozy in the French presidential palace yesterday.

Should a president live in a palace? We think not.

* It's a rare thing for anybody to rip

Clint Eastwood, but that didn't stop Spike Lee.

Spike is slamming Clint over his two recent Iwo Jima movies, saying he overlooked the role of black soldiers during World War II. Spike's next film, coincidentally, is "Miracle at St. Ana," a WWII story about an all-black U.S. division in Italy.

"He did two films about Iwo Jima back-to-back and there was not one black soldier in both of those films," Spike said Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version," Spike said.

* Dylan McDermott ("The Prac-

tice") has filed for divorce from wife Shiva Rose after more than 12 years of marriage.

McDermott, 46, cited, what else, irreconcilable differences, according to court records first obtained by CelebTV.com.

The couple, who separated more than a year ago, have two daughters.

* Pink Floyd and soprano Renee Fleming were named winners of the 2008 Polar Music Prize yesterday for their contributions to their musical genres.

The rock group and Fleming will each receive a cash prize of $168,000 at an Aug. 26 awards ceremony in Stockholm, organizers said.

The Polar Music Prize was founded by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989.

* As Hollywood has es-

sentially given up on original ideas, the Hollywood Reporter says Columbia is thinking of rebooting "Flash Gordon," created as a 1930s comic strip by Alex Raymond and last filmed in 1980 with a music score by Queen.

Ironically, we also learned yesterday that area-born screenwriter Matt Holloway and his writing partner, Art Marcum ("Iron Man," "Punisher: War Zone"), have been tapped to write a new "Highlander." That film also featured a Queen score.

* On the publicity trail for his new

"Indiana Jones" movie, Harrison Ford got his chest hair waxed for a public-service announcement to raise awareness about the effect of deforestation on global warming.

Ford sits on the board of directors of the Washington-based environmental organization Conservation International.

Since so much rainforest deforestation is Brazilian, shouldn't Ford's wife, Calista Flockhart, have been the model? *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

E-mail gensleh@phillynews.com