Tattle: Jeffrey Deaver to pen latest Bond novel

TWO of Tattle's favorite

entertainments - James Bond and Jeffery Deaver - are going to be shaken (not stirred).

A new novel featuring the world's most famous secret agent is set to be published next year, the family company of Bond creator Ian Fleming said, and it will be written by Deaver, the suspense novelist best known for his plot-twisting thrillers featuring forensic genius Lincoln Rhyme ("The Bone Collector" was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie).

It's scheduled to be published May 28, which would have been Fleming's 103rd birthday. It comes nearly 60 years after publication of "Casino Royale," the first novel to feature 007.

Deaver said Fleming's work was important to him, "both literarily and personally."

"I learned, through osmosis as well as design, much technique from Mr. Fleming's work: compactness, attention to detail, heroic though flawed characters, fast-pacing, concrete imagery and straightforward prose," he said in a statement.

Starr searched

Kenneth Starr, the financial adviser to celebrities including Wesley Snipes and Sylvester Stallone and not the former government special prosecutor, was arrested in NYC yesterday on charges that he carried out a $30 million fraud on his clients, using some of their money to purchase a lavish, $7.6 million Manhattan apartment featuring a 32-foot granite lap pool and a 1,500- square-foot garden.

Hey, if you're going to allegedly steal money, you're not going to buy a roach-infested efficiency overlooking the el.

There's no indication that Snipes or Stallone were victims of Starr, and a lack of bruising on Starr's body would support that, but a criminal complaint filed by the IRS said the cheated clients included a woman who was a former hedge-fund manager and well-known philanthropist, an actress who considered herself a longtime close friend of Starr's, a former talent agency executive and his wife, an elderly heiress, and a prominent jeweler with a flagship store in Manhattan. They were not identified.

Feel free to guess.

Tattbits

* Conrad Murray, the doctor

charged with anesthetizing Michael Jackson for good, lost a bid yesterday in a California court to resolve a child-support issue that threatens his Nevada medical license.

John Schroeder, Santa Clara County Superior Court commissioner, denied Murray's request for a court order relieving him of an obligation to pay about $16,000 in back child support to the mother of his 12-year-old son.

Because Murray didn't get the relief he sought, he may lose his medical license, which, according to his lawyer, puts his "ability to pay future child support at risk."

* TMZ.com reports that departing "American Idol" bandleader Rickey Minor was steamed that in all the hoopla and fawning over the departing Simon Cowell, he didn't even get a mention for his six years of service.

Minor is leaving to head up Jay Leno's band on "The Tonight Show."

Also leaving "Idol" was Crystal Bowersox's boyfriend, Tony.

The two parted ways the day of the

finale.

* Four lion cubs

freed under Bolivia's circus-animal ban took off for California yesterday, heading to a new life in a refuge built with the help of Bob Barker.

The cubs were rescued under a Bolivian law set to take effect in July that prohibits circuses from having any animals - including pets - making it the world's most comprehensive ban.

A circus without animals? That's Cirque du Soleil.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

E-mail gensleh@phillynews.com.