News In Brief

KEEP YOUR HEDGE TO YOURSELF

Writing about his New England farm, poet Robert Frost observed, "Good fences make good neighbors." Over in Britain, it seems, this saying has taken on new life. Three thousand people have written the government complaining of overgrown hedges in their neighbors' yards. And nothing short of legislation is being considered to address the issue. "We recognize that overgrown garden hedges have caused distress to thousands of people," said Environment Minister Michael Meacher, "and we take these problems very seriously."

POLLY WANT A TICKET?

A pet shop owner in the Greek town of Patras didn't appreciate it that the police never cited nearby illegally parked cars. So when a cop gave one of his parrots, who was perched on a stand outside the shop, a ticket for obstructing the sidewalk, he was doubly mad. But the bird, Coco, took some of the edge off the incident when it tore the ticket to shreds.

'Romeo Must Die' tops chart of video rentals

For the week ended Aug. 6, Americans spent $133.66 million on video rentals, the Video Software Dealers Association reports. The hottest movie, it said, was "Romeo Must Die," which had just been released. The organization's list of the 10 biggest video rentals for that week:

1. Romeo Must Die

2. The Whole Nine Yards

3. The Beach

4. The Green Mile

5. The Ninth Gate

6. The Hurricane

7. Drowning Mona

8. Magnolia

9. The Talented Mr. Ripley

10. Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

- Entertainment Wire

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