July 5, 1999
Web posted at: 3:32 p.m. EDT (1932 GMT)

• 'Scar Tissue': Bruised Chili Peppers reunite
• Some NBC affiliates lack 'Passions'
• Stone's, Time Warner's lawyers called to court
• Rock shuns politics, laments 'comedian curse'

Kiedis

NEW YORK (CNN) -- After four years of soul-searching -- and in one case drug rehab -- there's a reconstituted Red Hot Chili Peppers on disc and on the road. The band is touring in support of its new album "Californication," just out in June, with cuts including "Scar Tissue," "Around the World" and "Parallel Universe."

"That we should make it to the same place and time together again," lead singer Anthony Kiedis tells Spin magazine, "and the fact that we didn't die or become spiritually crippled in the process of going through all these hardships means there was really something in the air that wanted this (reunion) to happen."

The Peppers formed in 1983, and scattered following weak sales of the 1995 album "One Hot Minute." Bassist Flea (real name Michael Balzary) spent time in Central America. Kiedis went on a spiritual quest in India. Drummer Chad Smith still is on board.

In 1997, former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro left the band, setting up the return of John Frusciante, who'd been with the group from 1989 to 1992. He played on the group's hit 1991 album "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" before slipping into heavy heroin use.

"I lived very close to death in the last few years, from every angle," Frusciante says. "I didn't mind dying, but the spirits that have made me do what I've done with my life up to this point didn't want me to -- and they've ended up being right."

'Passions'

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Several key NBC affiliates may lack "Passions" for the network's daytime-weepies lineup

Daily Variety reports that WDIV in Detroit and KPRC in Houston have opted against carrying the new soap opera "Passions," which replaces the canceled 35-year former afternoon mainstay "Another World."

NBC hopes to get the soap opera cleared on another station in each market. But so far, Variety reports, it has no deals in place.

Stone

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Attorneys for filmmaker Oliver Stone and Time Warner have been ordered to appear in court on July 22 in Amite City, Louisiana. They're said not to have provided information to lawyers who are suing Stone over a shooting allegedly inspired by his film "Natural Born Killers."

Attorneys for the estate of Patsy Byers have served the counsel for the media giant with requests for information as part of the discovery phase of the multimillion-dollar lawsuit. The Byers estate lawyers say they've had no replies.

Time Warner is the parent company of CNN Interactive.

Rock

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Comedian Chris Rock is distancing himself from politics, despite pressure from Rev. Jesse Jackson to get involved.

"I'm in show business," Rock tells the July 10 edition of TV Guide. "I want to hang out with Janet Jackson, not Jesse Jackson."

In the article, Rock also reflects on the deaths of comedians Chris Farley and Phil Hartman, his former colleagues on "Saturday Night Live." He calls them victims of "the comedian curse."

"We're performers," he says, "a bunch of geeks no one liked. Now, people finally like us, and we're willing to put up with a tremendous amount ... and make ourselves miserable, to maintain it. Then, you know, we explode. Our wives shoot us, we OD or whatever."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.