Industry Standard sues advertisers to get paid
Feeling the pinch from the advertising slowdown, the Industry Standard is calling in its debts. The internet business newsweekly has filed 20 lawsuits with the aim of collecting more than $1.5 million from delinquent advertisers, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Not surprisingly, many of the 100 or so ads for which money is owed were taken out by virtually unheard of dot.coms. One company, Internet Domain Registrars, owes as much as $341,000 for more than 25 ads, according to the report in the Chronicle. The suit alleges that Internet Domain Registrars stiffed the magazine for one group of ads, then continued to buy more pages under a new name. It’s been a rough year for the Industry Standard and parent company Standard Media International. In the last two months, the company has laid off over 100 employees.

'Friends' Jen and Winona in March smoocheroo
Hope Brad doesn't get jealous. Looking to put the hex on "Survivor," "Friends" is preparing to take a page from "Ally McBeal" with a pair of girl-on-girl kisses. In a March guest appearance, actress Winona Ryder will share smooches with both Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow, according to one online report. Ryder will play Melissa, an old college friend of Aniston’s with whom she did some boozy necking back in their sorority days. "Friends" played the lesbian-kiss card before, when, in the 1997-98 season finale, the characters played by Aniston and Courteney Cox agreed to go at it in exchange for swapping apartments with their male neighbors. On "Ally," it was Calista Flockhart and Lucy Liu who did a little experimentin’ last year in a much-promoted episode.

'All My Children' star busted for selling coke
Soap star Michael Nader is in trouble again. The 56-year-old actor, who plays Count Dimitri Marick on "All My Children," was arrested over the weekend and charged with selling a $20 bag of cocaine to an undercover police office, according to published reports. The bust took place at Barber Shop, a late-night hotspot in Manhattan’s East Village. Following the arrest, Nader was taken to a nearby hospital; police did not say why. In 1997, Nader was arrested on Long Island after getting into a fight with police officers who pulled him over on suspicion of drunk driving with his young daughter in the car.

Wellesley to Rolling Stone: We're not sex-starved
Students at a Massachusetts women’s college are angry over a Rolling Stone article that they say portrays them as a bunch of man-starved sexual carnivores. The story, "The Highly Charged Erotic Life of the Wellesley Girl," appears in the current issue of the Wenner-owned magazine. It describes sexual encounters between students and professors, cafeteria workers and campus cops at Wellesley College, near Boston. "I am confident that readers of this deplorable article will recognize it for the immature and offensive piece of reckless journalism that it is," said College President Diana Chapman Walsh in a statement. ''Whether it is or it isn't true, it's a slap at women's colleges,'' one Wellesley senior told the Boston Globe. Others criticized the report for playing up the angle of lesbianism on campus. "It implies the women here are all gay because we have no men around,'' another senior told the Boston Herald.

Animal group claims guilt in 'Survivor' vandalism
Did they or didn’t they? Members of an animal rights group calling itself "Media Butcher Boys Beware" say they threw red paint at the entrance to CBS's studios on West 57th Street last week to protest the killing of a pig on the network’s smash hit reality show "Survivor," according to a report in the New York Post. However, "Survivor" spokesman Chris Ender says the paint attack never took place. "I've checked with security and they have no record of the incident," he told the paper. "Media Butcher Boys Beware," which has been in existence for about a year, regularly protests real and staged animal cruelty on television and in the movies. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society are among other groups that have protested the show, which has featured players eating rats, cow brains and insects.

Cartoon Network gets set with four new shows 
The Cartoon Network unveiled four new original shows last week, scheduled to appear on the cable network over the next year. "Time Squad," a half-hour comedy which takes place in the year 100 million, will premiere in June. "Samurai Jack," a half-hour action-adventure series, follows a warrior sent into the future by an evil wizard. The cartoon is set to begin in August. "Grim & Evil," a half-hour comedy, actually consists of two shows: "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy," a cartoon about two children who become friends with the Grim Reaper; and "Evil Con Carne," a program about (according to a Cartoon Network press release) "a criminally insane brain, the bear he is attached to, and his disembodied stomach." "Grim and Evil" will debut in October. "Justice League," an hour-long action-adventure show based on the DC Comics series, premieres in November. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman will star in the cartoon, marking the first time the superheroes have come together in a television series since "Super Friends" in 1985.

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