Johnny Carson plays poker, learns Swahili

NEW YORK -- Since his final goodbye on "The Tonight Show," Johnny Carson has kept busy: Playing poker with pals like Chevy Chase and Steve Martin. Learning to speak Swahili. And cruising in his custom-built, triple-decker, 130-foot boat.

But Carson has mostly avoided public attention since his May 22, 1992, farewell -- although he sat down for a rare, exclusive interview with Esquire magazine to discuss life since stepping away from his desk.

"I think I left at the right time," the 76-year-old says in the June issue. "You've got to know when to get the hell off the stage, and the timing was right for me."

Carson still plays in a semi-regular poker game with Hollywood friends, and learned to speak Swahili for his vacations in Tanzania. "It's a sweet language," he says. "It flows and it's relatively easy."

The king of late night television is unimpressed with the current spate of reality shows, such as "Survivor" or "Fear Factor."

"These people are in just about as much jeopardy as I am having dinner. People forget that there's a crew there. There's a catering service," Carson says. "It's not like they are going to die out there in the jungle. These silly people will do anything the director suggests because they want to be on television!"

Hundreds arrested at Widespread Panic show

PELHAM, Ala. -- About 200 people were arrested on drug charges during a three-night undercover crackdown at a series of rock concerts in which one person died of an apparent overdose.

About half the arrests at Widespread Panic's outdoor shows were felony drug cases. The rest involved misdemeanor drug and underage drinking charges.

The crackdown, called Operation Don't Panic, was conducted Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the Oak Mountain Amphitheatre by agents of the state alcoholic beverage control board and Pelham police.

Some 30,000 fans attended the group's sold-out concerts at the amphitheater south of Birmingham.

Pelham police Capt. E.A. Thomas Jr. said Erica Robins Young, 29, of Chattanooga, Tenn., died of an apparent overdose of the drug Ecstasy that had been purchased for $20.

The Birmingham News, which reported the death Monday, said Young collapsed about 10 p.m. Saturday, with people continuing to dance around her before she was dragged from the stands and given cardiopulmonary resuscitation. She died about an hour later.

Versace book banned by Australian court

SYDNEY, Australia -- A court on Monday banned the publication of a book about Italy's Versace fashion family by an Australian man who claimed to have worked as a bodyguard for Gianni Versace, who was murdered in 1997.

Justice Brian Tamberlin said Frank Monte's manuscript, "The Spying Game," lacks "any credibility whatsoever." He said the writer acted out of malice and had tried to "procure maximum publicity" from the case.

The judge said Monte, a Sydney investigator and former policeman, had lied about his connections with Gianni Versace and defamed the fashion family by alleging it had Mafia links.

The book was released in Australia last year and sold 800 copies, but was withdrawn following legal action.

Tamberlin ordered Monte to pay the Versace family's legal costs. On Friday, the judge will set a date to begin hearings to decide the level of damages to award.

Versace, 50, was shot twice in the head by Andrew Cunanan on July 15, 1997, as he walked up the steps of his Miami home. Cunanan, who was also wanted for four other murders, killed himself nine days later.

'Early Show' star would like Letterman as host

RADNOR, Pa. -- Jane Clayson, a co-host on CBS's "The Early Show," has a suggestion for who should replace the departing Bryant Gumbel: late-night television host David Letterman.

"He's on at 11:30 p.m. He could stick around for a couple more hours," Clayson told TV Guide for its May 4 issue. "He'd be fun."

Clayson said Gumbel called her into his office before his surprise announcement.

"He said he's moving into a new phase in his life," she told the magazine. "He's getting married. He's tired of waking up early. Tired of doing this."

As for the uncertainty surrounding Gumbel's replacement, Clayson said she's not fretting.

"I'm very confident and calm about the whole thing," she said. "I am looking forward to taking on more responsibility."

Fame a mystery to filmmaker Woody Allen

RADNOR, Pa. -- Woody Allen says he just has no idea why his biggest fans tend to be from overseas, rather than in the United States.

"It's one of those inexplicable things," Allen told TV Guide for its May 4 issue. "People always like imported things better. We think that imported cheese, imported wine is better by virtue of the fact that it's imported."

He'll present his new movie, "Hollywood Ending," at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival next month in France.

The 66-year-old director and star of such films as "Bananas," "Annie Hall" and "Mighty Aphrodite" said he has no plans to stop writing anytime soon.

"I don't see myself running out of ideas," he said. "Films have been what I've done most of my life, but primarily I'm a writer."

-- From wire reports