Names and faces

NEW YORK (AP) -- A woman accused of stalking Richard Gere avoided jail Thursday when she pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment, agreed to return home to Germany, and promised to leave the actor alone.

Ursula Reichert-Habbishaw, 51, of Kassell, Germany, a divorced mother of four children ages 16 to 22, allegedly called or faxed Gere as many as 1,000 times and appeared at his Greenwich Village office at least six times during the past 14 months.

Gere's personal assistant, Karen Klose, repeatedly told the woman to stop calling, the complaint said. Police arrested her April 30.

He wasn't born to run

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Bruce Springsteen decided he wasn't born to run for political office after all.

Doug Friedline, a consultant who helped professional wrestler Jesse Ventura win the Minnesota governor's race in 1998, had hoped to recruit Springsteen to run as an independent in November's U.S. Senate race. The Boss would have faced off against incumbent Sen. Robert Torricelli, a Democrat, and whichever Republican emerges from the June 4 primary.

However, a spokeswoman for the 52-year-old singer told the Asbury Park Press of Neptune on Wednesday that he had no desire to seek office.

Gumbel cites divorce

NEW YORK (AP) -- Exiting anchor Bryant Gumbel of CBS' "The Early Show" isn't sure how much his bitter divorce proceedings might have hurt him with the predominantly female morning audience.

"I'm sure for some women it was a very big deal," Gumbel said in an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. "I'm sure for others it was just a passing thing. But there was no way I could change that. We live a public life and we live a private life. And if they collide, they collide."

Gumbel, whose last day on "The Early Show" is Friday, was involved in a bitter divorce from his ex-wife, June, that ended last summer.