Giving themselves an out

It's such a distant memory, a long-lost expression of faith, that maybe it takes a TV-time-warp moment to relive it. There it was, in the final seconds of Wednesday night's ``Lost " : footage of the Red Sox' 2004 World Series win. The ``Others" played it to Jack, to prove they were in contact with the outside world.

In the storied world of ``Lost" mythology, that little Red Sox cameo has major consequences. It tells us that the island exists in real time . (``Or does it?" says executive producer Carleton Cuse, and we should admit it: We still know nothing.) It tells us that miracles manifest in unexpected ways. (``I guess a guy getting up and walking out of a wheelchair is one thing . . ." says executive producer Damon Lindelof, a Yankees fan.)

But to the show's ever-questioning mass of fans, the biggest fallout might be this: It proves that producers aren't making this stuff up as they go along.

In other words, they always knew that the Others could watch off-island TV.

That's what Cuse and Lindelof told us yesterday, speaking by phone from California. Way back in season one, they said, they mapped out some facts of island life that would serve as a baseline plot. They knew, early on, that the Others were connected to the outside world, and that they would eventually play TV for the castaways.

The perfect clip just happened to fall into their laps.

It was accompanied, of course, by some internal strife. Cuse, who grew up in Cambridge and Watertown, is a Red Sox fan. Another writer worked, as a teenager, as a vendor at Yankee Stadium. Lindelof, as mentioned, is a Yankees die hard. They can't discuss 2004 -- or 2006, for that matter -- without sniping over the speakerphone. ``This process," Lindelof said, ``has been about, as my therapist says, expunging my demons by attacking them head on."

And so he did. The World Series win was taking place in real time as the ``Lost" writers were wrapping up the eighth episode of season one. The ``Lost" staff managed to write it into the show by episode nine. In a flashback scene, Jack's father talked offhandedly about a Red Sox World Series win, as if to say, ``when hell freezes over." In the season one finale, he repeated the line to Sawyer, who repeated the line to Jack, who thus learned that his father had spoken to Sawyer before he died.

It was a grand revelation, an emotional moment. And an early, early setup for a punch line.

``We always realized that the culmination of that moment would be that Jack would actually get to see it, and that the Others would show it to him," Lindelof said. ``It took a year and a half to get there."

The viewers were there for the payoff. Which proves one thing more: It's nice to have a hit.

JOANNA WEISS

Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie took custody of a motherless 1-year-old boy from Malawi yesterday after filing adoption papers and receiving a judge's interim approval. The boy's father said he was happy for his son, named David, and pleased with the celebrity couple who want to be his parents. Yohame Banda, the father, said he met Madonna and her filmmaker husband at the court as part of the formalities. ``They are a lovely couple," Banda said. `` Madonna promised me that as the child grows she will bring him back to visit." Madonna has yet to comment since her arrival in Malawi, though she has made several public appearances (inset) in support of projects to care for AIDS orphans.

Freddy Fender has been discharged from a hospital and was resting at his South Texas home yesterday, but family and friends said the Grammy-winning musician remained gravely ill. Fender, 69, had been getting treatment for cancer in Oklahoma but was transferred to a hospital in San Antonio last week because of a blood infection.

Farrah Fawcett has enlisted the help of her ex, Ryan O'Neal, as she begins treatment for anal cancer, O'Neal told People magazine. He accompanied Fawcett, 59, to a chemotherapy treatment, according to the magazine . Also, former ``Dynasty" star John Forsythe, 88, has been treated for colon cancer and is recovering at a Los Angeles hospital. ``He seems to be in good spirits," his spokesman, Harlan Boll, said yesterday. ``They hope to have him home this weekend."

Angelina Jolie sees Western nations as being indifferent to refugees and finds that shocking. ``It's a scandal, really, in such a rich world, that we are not even finding a way to help feed refugee families properly," the Oscar-winning actress and UN goodwill ambassador wrote in Refugees, a quarterly magazine published by the UN refugee agency.

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Burned Sienna
"I am Sienna Miller. I am a famous actress!"
Famous actress Sienna Miller after being denied entrance to Folino's tavern in Pittsburgh, where she is filming a movie