December 9, 2002

Jennifer Lopez, singer and star of forthcoming film Maid in Manhattan, and men guiding her career are working to prevent overexposure and to see that she does not spread herself too thin as she branches out from her hip-hop roots; Thomas D Mottola, chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment, Benny Medina, Lopez's agent, and Lopez confer on all matters, from which tracks to put on album to movie scripts and ways to tweak her image; photos (M)

America Online's plan to create add-on services to sell to subscribers to make up for sagging advertising revenue assumes that users will be willing to pay for information and entertainment they now receive free, but other online publishers do not see their businesses changing as fast and as far as AOL does; industry experts agree that subscription services are becoming more popular, but they warn that opportunities may be more specialized and selective than AOL envisions (M)

Pres Bush is expected to name John W Snow to replace Paul H O'Neill as Treasury secretary; Snow, economist and lawyer, is chairman of CSX Corp; he served in variety of posts in Ford administration and is former chairman of Business Roundtable; he has been outspoken in calling for improved business ethics in corporations, important consideration for administration that has come under intense pressure to deal with fallout from scandals involving Enron and other big companies; others Bush has considered to replace O'Neill include Commerce Sec Donald I Evans and Gerald L Parsky, assistant Treasury secretary in Ford administration; Bush is also close to naming replacement for Lawrence B Lindsey as chairman of White House's National Economic Council; he reportedly will name Stephen Friedman, former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs whom friends describe as consensus builder and strong manager; photo (M)

IBM's plan to acquire Rational Software, leading supplier of software tools, continues IBM's aggressive drive to build its prowess in software based on Internet standards, thus positioning itself as main challenger to Microsoft and its dominance of software industry; IBM believes that networked computing world is more technologically diverse than Microsoft's model can handle and that benefits to companies and consumers will come more quickly by using open-technology standards, like Linux and Java, that are not controlled by one company; Bill Gates argues that IBM offers only a patchwork of programming, not as coherent or as integrated as Microsoft's products; disputes notion that using Linux is ultimately cheaper than Windows; photos (M)

Bowl Championship Series final ranking is released and bowl matchups are decided; Oklahoma University will face Washington State University in Rose Bowl; Georgia University will face Florida State University in Sugar Bowl; Iowa University will face Southern California University in Orange Bowl; Ohio State University will face Miami University in Fiesta Bowl; photos (M)