February 26, 2004

Mel Gibson's career may be harmed because many of Hollywood's most prominant figures, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are uncomfortable over his new film, The Passion of the Christ, as well as his reluctance to distance himself from his father, Hutton Gibson, who calls Holocaust mostly fiction; DreamWorks principals Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen reportedly have privately expressed anger over film and chairmen of two other major studios say they would avoid working with Gibson (M)

Medicare's plan to compare effectiveness of Amgen's cancer drugs Aranesp with Johnson & Johnson's cheaper Procrit has been rendered pointless because drug industry persuaded Congress last fall to include provision in Medicare legislation forbidding program to use evidence that two drugs have 'functional equivalence' in its payment decisions; industry argued that such balancing act would discourage makers from developing drugs; tortured history of Procrit-Aranesp trial helps explain why comparative testing may not be cure for rising drug costs that its advocates contend; such tests not only become bogged down in politics, but black-and-white conclusions are hard to come by; chart; photo (M)

Shares of Softbank Corp tumble on news that Japanese police arrest four men on suspicion that they tried to extort money from company after obtaining personal data for as many as 4.6 million subscribers to its Yahoo BB broadband Internet service; graph (S)

New York Yankees infielders Enrique Wilson, Miguel Cairo and Homer Bush are candidates for starting job at second base (M)

Article on forthcoming Broadway revival of 1964 Bock and Harnick musical Fiddler on the Roof, starring Alfred Molina; it is getting its first serious makeover under direction of David Leveaux; photo (M)