Jim Morrison

Finding the Mona Lisa was easy. Jim Morrison was another story altogether. I grabbed Andrea's arm and dragged her down yet another jagged row of graves and tombstones, past stone angels and lines of wilting flowers. "Remember to look at the names!" I cried. We were college students studying in France on our first trip to Paris, combing our way through Montparnasse Cemetery. My friend and I had been in the cemetery for nearly an hour, searching for the grave of Morrison, lead singer and lyricist of the seminal rock band the Doors, who died in 1971 at age 27. We had picked up a map at the entrance gate, but Morrison's name was nowhere to be found.

IN ONE OF the best-known deaths in the history of rock, Doors frontman Jim Morrison died of heart failure in his bathtub. Well, maybe not. In "The End: Jim Morrison," Bernett says he believes two drug dealers brought Morrison's body back to his apartment. Pestered for years by reporters investigating Morrison's death, Bernett kept quiet until his wife suggested writing a book last year. "For me it's a very bad [memory]," he told the Associated Press. Don't expect Paris prosecutors to reopen the case due to the statute of limitations.

Ben Franklin was the only one wearing a coat yesterday outside College Hall at Penn. Out studying in the unseasonably warm weather were sophomores Michael Biercuk (left) and Jim Morrison.

Two ninth-inning runs by Pawtucket got the Red Sox past the Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, 5-4, last night in an International League game. Don Florence picked up his fifth victory of the season for Pawtucket. Bob Gaddy lost his first decision of the year for the Red Barons. NEW BRITAIN 6, READING 0 READING - New Britain's Jim Crowley, Boo Moore and Jim Morrison hit bases- empty home runs in consecutive innings as the Red Sox beat the Phillies in an Eastern League game.

Devotees of Jim Morrison and the Doors probably already know this, but here's one of the goofier revelations to emerge from Tom DiCillo's terrific documentary, When You're Strange: "Mr. Mojo Risin," a line repeated over and over in the hit "L.A. Woman," was an anagram for . . . Jim Morrison. Whoa. Heavy, dude. The Doors and Morrison, alias Mr. Mojo Risin, alias the Lizard King, were together just 54 months - less than five years. The band, formed in 1965, sold more than 80 million albums.

Say what you like about Los Angeles. Sneer at its superficiality, its climate, its worship of beauty. Admit, though, that it did spawn at least two rockers who overcompensated for the city's perceived shallowness in performing what seemed, by 1960s standards at least, like deep-dish music. While other local rock-and-rollers warbled about groovy waves, bushy blond hairdos and first kisses, these guys confronted the big ones, Sex and Death. Being in L.A., naturally, they also wanted to direct.

PARIS - The walls of the Paris bar are plastered with images of Jim Morrison and the Doors, and a bust of the lead singer presides over the beer tap - all reflective of the owner's lifelong passion. But an attorney for the group doesn't love it madly. Christophe Maillet said he received a letter from a lawyer in Beverly Hills, Calif., warning that "The Doors do not want to be seen as having approved of your establishment and also the consumption of alcohol. " The April 21 letter - signed by Anthony Keats, the Doors' intellectual-property lawyer, and shown Friday to the Associated Press - urged Maillet to remove images of the group within three months.

If you're scoring at home, here's the latest on the Doors reunion tour (officially billed as the "21st Century Doors") hitting the Tower Theatre Saturday night. Jim Morrison - currently playing that Great Gig in the Sky - won't be there, but he's been replaced by the ably-voiced and similarly-shamanistic Ian Astbury of the Cult. Original drummer John Densmore (who suffers from the hearing affliction tinnitus) is out and is suing his former bandmates over his exclusion and their tour.

Fans of American rock singer Jim Morrison battered down the gates of the Paris cemetery where he is buried early yesterday after commemorating the 20th anniversary of his death. Police said 21 people were detained, one car was destroyed by fire and four cars were damaged during rioting by mostly British, Dutch and German youths who had spent the day drinking heavily near his grave in Pere Lachaise cemetery. Trouble began after they were ushered out of the cemetery when it closed at nightfall.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Donell Nixon became the fourth player in major league history to be caught stealing twice in one inning yesterday. Still, the Giants were victorious, managing their second straight shutout of the visiting Chicago Cubs, 2-0. In the sixth inning, Nixon led off with a single but was apparently picked off when pitcher Jamie Moyer threw behind him to first baseman Mark Grace. Nixon, who stole 144 bases at Bakersfield in 1983, broke for second and was safe when Grace's throw was dropped by second baseman Ryne Sandberg for an error.

When the headline "Amy Winehouse found dead at 27" came barging into our Saturday afternoon, the word dead felt like a long-promised punch to the gut. It may not have surprised anyone, but it still hurt like hell. And then there was the "27" - rock-and-roll's most dangerous number. It's the age that took Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and now a singer whose battles with drugs, drink, and depression were nightmarishly publicized in a mediascape her forebears never could have imagined.

Some famous musicians died at age 27, and the recent antics of English singer-songwriter-rehabber Amy Winehouse have observers worried if she could be the next. Radio yakker Danny Bonaduce raised the grim fear on his CBS3 commentary this morning, following news about problems on her concert tour. On Saturday she was booed in Serbia for staggering, mumbling, looking lost, forgetting lyrics and disappearing from the stage, then on Sunday, without further explanation, she canceled dates this week in Istanbul and Athens.

PARIS - The walls of the Paris bar are plastered with images of Jim Morrison and the Doors, and a bust of the lead singer presides over the beer tap - all reflective of the owner's lifelong passion. But an attorney for the group doesn't love it madly. Christophe Maillet said he received a letter from a lawyer in Beverly Hills, Calif., warning that "The Doors do not want to be seen as having approved of your establishment and also the consumption of alcohol. " The April 21 letter - signed by Anthony Keats, the Doors' intellectual-property lawyer, and shown Friday to the Associated Press - urged Maillet to remove images of the group within three months.

Miley Cyrus , only 18, appears in a video taking bong hits of salvia at her L.A.-region crib. She acts all stoned and that. Salvia is an herb legal in California, takes less than 30 secs to get you high, and is called a cross between pot and LSD, very un-similar drugs, so we're confused. Most horrifying: In the background, "Take It Easy" by the Eagles . A hers and hers year It was a big year, says the Daily Beast, for celesbians, those who play lesbians, those who have fun with supposedly lesbian behavior, and those who, like me, say they are not lesbians.

SIRIUS FINALLY got serious. Howard Stern , who's perhaps more responsible than anyone else for the continued existence of satellite radio, said on his morning show yesterday that he had signed a five-year deal that will keep him with Sirius XM. By that time Stern will be almost ready to start collecting Social Security - not that he's going to need it. His last five-year deal with Sirius was worth $100 million a year. This deal's dollars were undisclosed. Stern's announcement drove Sirius XM stock up about 20 percent in early-morning trading.

WHILE HER FRIENDS Smokey Robinson and the Rev. Jesse Jackson have called Aretha Franklin 's recent surgery a success, with the Queen of Soul recovering nicely, there has been no official explanation of either Aretha's condition or prognosis. And when there's nothing official, the unofficial starts. An unnamed source told the Detroit News yesterday that Aretha is suffering from pancreatic cancer. The National Enquirer - which unfortunately makes diagnostic calls as accurately as Dr. House - broke a similar story first.

Devotees of Jim Morrison and the Doors probably already know this, but here's one of the goofier revelations to emerge from Tom DiCillo's terrific documentary, When You're Strange: "Mr. Mojo Risin," a line repeated over and over in the hit "L.A. Woman," was an anagram for . . . Jim Morrison. Whoa. Heavy, dude. The Doors and Morrison, alias Mr. Mojo Risin, alias the Lizard King, were together just 54 months - less than five years. The band, formed in 1965, sold more than 80 million albums.

FOR AN ARTIST like Michael Jackson, death represents the ultimate career move. Granted, that's harsh to say. But it's also true. As happened with prior pop legends like Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, the sad passing of the man finally allows us to put aside all the notions of "freakiness" that took our eyes off the prize for at least the last decade of his life. We'll finally be able to forgive and eventually forget the sagas of Michael's alleged moral transgressions, his reputation for insane indulgence and plastic surgery, his peculiar child/man/motherly identity crises.

Jim Morrison recalls the Christmases of his youth as a magical time. The season commenced the day after Thanksgiving, when the entire family rode an early-morning bus from Haddonfield to Philadelphia, where they joined the crowds on the sidewalks awaiting the unveiling of the stores' Christmas window displays. "I knew exactly what Santa's elves looked like because I saw them at work in those windows," Morrison says. The kid-size monorail and giant tree at Wanamakers, the miniature train set-ups in hardware stores, the department-store Santas who gave out clear toy lollipops - Morrison remembers it all as if it were yesterday.

IN ONE OF the best-known deaths in the history of rock, Doors frontman Jim Morrison died of heart failure in his bathtub. Well, maybe not. In "The End: Jim Morrison," Bernett says he believes two drug dealers brought Morrison's body back to his apartment. Pestered for years by reporters investigating Morrison's death, Bernett kept quiet until his wife suggested writing a book last year. "For me it's a very bad [memory]," he told the Associated Press. Don't expect Paris prosecutors to reopen the case due to the statute of limitations.