Musical licks

"Timbre," the musical term for the specific quality of instrumental or vocal sound, is also the French word for "stamp." That dual meaning is coming in handy this week.

On Wednesday the US Postal Service released a first-class stamp honoring Ella Fitzgerald. The image of Fitzgerald is based on a portrait from 1956. That was the year Fitzgerald recorded what many consider her masterpiece, "The Cole Porter Songbook."

In Britain, Royal Mail offices are having a hard time meeting the demand for six new postage stamps issued on Tuesday. Each bears the image of a Beatles album cover: "With the Beatles" (that's "Meet the Beatles " to us Yanks), "Help!, " "Revolver," "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, " "Abbey Road ," and "Let It Be."

Superimposed on the image of each album is the price or class of the stamp and a silhouette of Queen Elizabeth. Her presence has a certain comical/creepy resonance for "Abbey Road." The album's last track is called "Her Majesty," and it was Paul McCartney's appearance on the cover barefoot and wearing a dark suit (like an embalmed body, supposedly) that helped set off the "Paul is Dead" furor. The queen's ghostly profile makes it look as if she's gazing down from the Great Beyond -- and getting ready to welcome Paul?

MARK FEENEY

Rosie O'Donnell has a powerful ally in her feud with Donald Trump: her close friend Madonna. "People are giving Rosie a hard time," Madonna, who starred with O'Donnell in 1992's "A League of Their Own," said yesterday on NBC's "Today" show. "I wish they'd stop. I don't think it's fair." The pop star told "Today" co host Meredith Vieira that she'd first heard about the flare-up between O'Donnell and Trump while vacationing "in the middle of the Indian Ocean" and quickly e-mailed O'Donnell. "Basically, I mean, she's a stand-up comic," Madonna said. "I think all stand-up comics talk about provocative things in their monologues before shows, and I think that's a commonplace thing." The Rosie-Donald feud began last month after Trump announced that Miss USA Tara Conner would keep her title, which had been in jeopardy because of underage drinking.

The CEO of a theater chain said he won't show a film about black college fraternities at any of his Springfield, Ill., theaters this week out of fear it could trigger the kind of gang violence that erupted during another movie last month. The decision drew criticism from the president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, who said it hurts black audiences, particularly black families that would be attracted to what he says is an uplifting film. The movie, "Stomp the Yard," is about a dance competition between black college fraternities. Tony Kerasotes of Kerasotes Theatres, a Midwest chain, said he did not make his decision based on race but out of concern that the film would attract gang members. He said he feared a repeat of a fight and shooting that occurred during a Christmas Day screening of "Black Christmas," a horror film that did not depict the black community, at Parkway Pointe theater in Springfield. "

Meryl Streep (inset) will star in the adaptation of the popular ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!" The story revolves around a bride-to-be and her formerly rebellious mom who raised her on a Greek island and never disclosed the identity of her father. The bride locates three men who might be her father and invites them to her wedding. Streep will play the mom . The part marks her first attempt at a musical .

FROM WIRE REPORTS