Names and faces

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Billy Bob Thornton said he and Halle Berry got through their intense, explicit love scene in the movie "Monster's Ball" because they both have stable personal lives off-camera.

Thornton plays a death row prison guard who falls in love with Berry's character, the wife of a man who's recently been executed.

"I know who Halle is in real life. Halle is a woman who has a great marriage and has a great husband, who I know, and she's a stepmom. She's real focused on her life and real focused on her family," Thornton said.

"I'm in exactly the same situation. I'm in a family that has a stepmom, and I'm a father, and our life is very important to us."

Thornton is married to actress Angelina Jolie; Berry is married to singer Eric Benet.

Mary Richards sculpture on hold

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Mary Richards won't be tossing her hat in downtown Minneapolis until spring.

The cable channel TV Land commissioned a $55,000 bronze sculpture by Milwaukee artist Gwendolyn Gillen showing Mary Tyler Moore -- as her TV news producer character, Mary Richards -- tossing her hat in the air in downtown Minneapolis, as depicted in the opening credits of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

TV Land shows reruns of the 1970s sitcom.

Originally, the sculpture was to have been installed this fall, but TV Land asked for a postponement after business slowed at its New York offices following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The sculpture now will be installed in April, said Mary Altman, spokeswoman for the city's Office of Cultural Affairs.

While some artists object to the statue, which they consider a promotional gimmick, Minneapolis sculptor Jane Frees-Kluth said she thinks Mary Richards is appropriate art subject for the city.

"She's part of the mythos of Minneapolis, probably more so for people from elsewhere than from around here," Frees-Kluth told The New York Times for Wednesday's editions.

Steps breaking up

LONDON (AP) -- After five years of chart-topping success and more than 12 million records sold, the British pop group Steps announced that it is breaking up.

"After five incredible years, we have decided it's time to move on to new challenges," Faye, Claire, Lisa, H and Lee said in a joint statement Wednesday. "We have always said that when the time came, we would leave as good friends and go out while we were on top."

Steps shot to fame as a line-dancing novelty act. Their bubbly image, Abba-esque melodies and the skills of producer Pete Waterman helped establish them as one of Britain's most successful pop bands.

Their biggest hit was "Tragedy," which sold 1.2 million copies.