New & Noteworthy: She’s no lady, she’s my . . .

By Eileen Murphy

They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but "they" obviously haven’t met up with an ex-wife who’s been edited out of a best-selling memoir.

We hear that Frank McCourt’s second wife, psychotherapist Cheryl Floyd, whose marriage to McCourt lasted from 1984 to 1994, is fuming over her non-appearance in her ex-hubby’s new book, "Tis."

"The book ends in 1985 – the year after we married," she fumed to the Sunday World. "He is obviously bent on rewriting history."

Floyd says that she plans to write her own book about their relationship. "He will almost certainly write a book about his experiences with me during our marriage," she said. "I want to write my own book so people will know what he was really like," she added, mysteriously.

One can only speculate what the union was like, given the couple’s two-decade age difference (she’s 50 years old to his 69) and obviously different personalities. We were intrigued by Floyd’s rather revealing comments.

"It didn’t bother me at all that he was just a schoolteacher," she said magnanimously. But she was annoyed by McCourt’s attitude toward her. "He was extremely condescending," she said. Which, to us, sounds a little like the pot calling the kettle black.

Boyz to men

Nobody’s coming right out and saying it, but Boyzone’s Irish gigs (as opposed to jigs) in January may just be the group’s swan song.

The guys, who’ve grown from boyz to men before our teary eyes, are scrambling to find outside projects to keep them busy: Ronan’s already charted twice without the other lads, and has been named the host for this year’s MTV Europe Video Music Awards Show. Keith Duffy’s a TV presenter, Stephen Gately’s teaming up with Andrew Lloyd Webber, and so on.

Now we hear that Mikey Graham, one of the quieter Boyz, is planning to follow in the footsteps of the band’s manager, Louis Walsh. In addition to working on a solo album, Mikey is starting his own management company with the Flintstonesque name "Stoneage Management Ltd." He’s looking for a few acts.

Mikey feels that he’s filling a void.

"Apart from Louis Walsh, no one else in this country is providing this service to our home-grown talent," he said. Someone, quick: tell him about that U2 guy. You know, whatsisname . . . Mc, McGuinn . . . Oh, yeah, Paul McGuinness.

Busy Bono

Bono is quite the busy pop star-cum-statesman these days.

In addition to hanging out with the pope, cutting a single with ex-Fugee Wyclef Jean and addressing the general assembly of the United Nations, Bono’s been spending time in the recording studio. He’s been helping producers complete the unfinished solo album by the late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

Album producer Andy Gill sent some of the unfinished tracks to Bono, who chose to work on a song called "Slide Away." He added some lines to the song, which Gill calls "very moving."

Just a reminder (as if you needed reminding): Bono, Wyclef, Counting Crows, Cheryl Crow and Sting, among others, will be performing at the NetAid concert, which takes place this Saturday, Oct. 9, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Tickets are still available, but if you can’t make it to the scenic swamp called the Meadowlands, you can catch the concert live on the internet at www.netaid.org, or live on MTV, VH1 and local radio stations.

Corr-blimey

The Corrs – that quartet of sweet-voiced, photogenic siblings – will make history of sorts this fall, when they become the first Irish act to film an episode of "MTV Unplugged." The darlings of Dundalk will be playing the gee-tar on the em-tee-vee in early November. Filming will take place in Dublin, at the Ardmore studios in Bray.

Speaking of the Corrs, we should note that youngest sister, Andrea, was auctioned off last week. And, lest you think she was sold like chattel to one of those girl groups like B*Witched or All Saints or whatever, relax: it’s temporary, it’s for dinner, and it’s for charity.

Andrea took part in a fund-raiser for Paul Newman’s Barretstown Camp charity for sick children. A promoter, Denis Desmond, made the winning bid of £6,200 for a date with the youngest Corr sister.

Briefings

Irish singer Christy Moore has just released a new album, "Traveller." This is his first record since 1996’s dark and beautiful "Graffiti Tongue." It features collaborations with Donal Lunney, Liam O’Flynn and The Edge.

Hollywood types cry, ‘Gimme shelter!’

It seems that you can’t swing a cat in Ireland these days without smacking some rich celebrity or millionaire developer square on the gob. At least, that’s what the planning commissions seem to think.

The Examiner newspaper reports that a couple of extremely famous Hollywood celebrities – oh, for fun, let’s call them "Tom Cruise" and "Nicole Kidman" – were interested in building a house in the veree exclusive Mount Juliet golf resort in Kilkenny. (Just for comparison, houses in the exclusive resort start at £500,000 and increase sharply if you demand frou-frou amenities like roofs or running water.)

According to the report, the couple were bunking with a friend – also a Hollywood heavyweight – who was staying at a house in Mount Juliet. The friend – oh, for a giggle, let’s call him "Brad Pitt" – wanted to build a house in the resort, but was turned down. So Brad moved to another, friendlier part of the country – for fun, let’s call it "Waterford."

Well, when "Tom" and "Nicole" saw all the bother that "Brad" had gone through, they skeedaddled right out of Kilkenny.

Of course, almost immediately afterward, the commission agreed to approve the addition of six houses to the development. But alas, for "Tom" and "Nicole," it was a case of too little, too late. Which is a shame, since the county is not really known as a celebrity magnet, if you catch our drift.