NAMES & FACES

He'll Take Manhattan

Will real estate mogul Donald Trump 's next acquisition be the New York governor's mansion? New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno last week said he spoke with the star of "The Apprentice" about making a bid this year on the Republican ticket for the office being vacated by George Pataki . Trump would take on State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer , the only Democrat who has thrown his hat in the ring so far. Spitzer made a name for himself by vigorously prosecuting Wall Street's white-collar criminals.

The Donald has dabbled in politics before; in 1999 he briefly considered running for president on the Reform Party ticket. But Trump adviser Roger Stone told the New York Post his boss wasn't interested in the governorship, partly because he would have to give up his TV show.

Pro Bono

U2 frontman Bono says he needs to be careful about getting too political on stage, and not because of the audience.

"When I do my rant on making poverty history, I have got Larry Mullen , our drummer, behind me looking at his watch, timing me," the singer told BBC radio on Saturday. His band mates "are hugely supportive spiritually and financially of the work I do, but they are in a rock-and-roll band, and the first job of a rock-and-roll band is not to be dull, so we have to be very careful about just letting me go too far."

Bono was one of the leaders of last year's international Make Poverty History campaign and Live 8 concert, and he frequently sounds off about global poverty during U2 concerts.

He noted that concertgoers are a bit more patient. "I thought we would wear our audience out, but it hasn't happened," he said. "People are smart out there. They know what you are doing, they know the compromises you are making, they get it."

The group grossed $138.9 million in North American ticket sales last year, second only to the Rolling Stones , who set a new Pollstar record with $162 million.

Tom and Again

The Tom Cruise -inspired phrase "jump the couch" was named Slang of the Year by editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. The phrase was defined as meaning "strange or frenetic behavior."

In other Cruise news, British film fans surveyed by Empire magazine voted the "War of the Worlds" star Hollywood's "most irritating actor," beating out the likes of Jennifer Lopez , Julia Roberts and Jim Carrey in a survey of 10,000 moviegoers. However, the same survey also named him the biggest movie star of all time, ahead of Robert De Niro , Al Pacino and Marilyn Monroe .

End Notes

Look out, Starbucks, there's a new cup o' joe in town: Judge Alito 's Bold Justice. A Newark, N.J., coffee shop, T.M. Ward Coffee Co., created the brew five years ago as a birthday gift for the judge and current Supreme Court nominee. "We've been selling a lot more ever since he got nominated," Vera Barbosa , a T.M. Ward clerk, told the Newark Star-Ledger last week. The brew is a mix of espresso and Papua New Guinea, Celebes Kalossi, Java and Italian Roast beans.

Alito likes it, too. According to Barbosa, he bought 44 pounds of the $7.95-a-pound blend just before Christmas . . .

Liza Minnelli heated up New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg 's inauguration Sunday with a fist-pumping rendition of "New York, New York." The singer, wearing a red coat and black pants, received a standing ovation from the 5,000-strong crowd, which joined in a singalong at the outdoor City Hall ceremony. Bloomberg, who was sworn in for a second term, treated spectators to hot cider and wool blankets.

-- Compiled by Michael Cotterman from Web and wire reports