Matrix

WHAT'S GOING ON is this, Tattlers - "Ali" starlet Nona Gaye, daughter of slain Motown legend Marvin Gaye, has been tapped to co-star in "The Matrix" sequels, a role that was to have been played by the late singer-actress Aaliyah. Gaye will portray Zee, a part set to be introduced in the second film, "The Matrix Reloaded," and then expands substantially in the third flick, "The Matrix Revolutions. " She begins shooting in Sydney, Australia, next week. Gaye, a recording artist herself, made her film debut opposite Will Smith in "Ali" as Belinda Ali, the champ's second wife.

The field of candidates on the primary ballot for the township's Government Study Commission is a hodgepodge of former and current Lower Makefield supervisors, Matrix development opponents, and community activists. The candidates with Better Government for 2002, the group with ties to Residents Against Matrix, say they seek changes in township government to make it more responsive to residents' needs. Those running under the Citizens for Responsible Government banner say that Lower Makefield works and that the commission should represent the interests of the entire community, not just those of Residents Against Matrix.

A group of residents has filed a petition with the Bucks County Board of Elections seeking a ballot referendum that would establish a commission to study the township's government. The 48-page referendum petition was filed last month by Better Government for 2002. The petition alleges that Lower Makefield's Board of Supervisors acted improperly when it approved the Matrix Development Group Inc.'s plan to build the $200 million Octagon Center, a 185-acre hotel-retail-office complex, in December 2000.

The under-21 dance club Matrix, the scene of repeated problems in recent months, was denied a renewal of its operating license last night. In a 6-0 vote, the Township Council voted to turn down the club's application for a public-amusement license, based on the opinion of Police Chief Brian Malloy. After the vote, Malloy said that he could not "in good conscience" recommend the approval of the license for Matrix. The latest disturbance to bring police to the Cuthbert Boulevard club occurred early Sunday morning, when several fights erupted inside Matrix and spilled out into the parking lot. Police from surrounding areas had to be called in to lend assistance.

Wes Colley has to be one of the smarter guys in sports. He has a Ph. D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton, has helped develop software to calculate the general relativistic effects of gravity on light rays, and led a team that developed software for object detection and correlation analysis. Colley has coded software for NASA, taught Harvard students mathematical skills for measuring light gathered from telescopes, and now works for MIT on an Air Force missile-defense research project.

TURNS OUT THAT Dude wants to spread the love. "Matrix" mega-star Keanu Reeves is handing over some valuable profit-sharing points from the upcoming two sequels to the production's special-effects and costume-design team, the Wall Street Journal reported. Has Dude lost his senses or is he just, like, the most generous hunka-hunka on earth? Discuss! "He felt that they were the ones who made the movie and that they should participate," an unnamed movie exec told the Journal. Well, it's not the first time that Keanu has shared his movie moola.

A month after Residents Against Matrix filed an appeal to stop the development of the Octagon Center, the group is preparing for a fight, the developer is preparing to build, and Supervisor Scott Fegley feels that township officials are caught in the middle. "This was never an easy decision. This was not something I voted for because I wanted the type of development they were proposing. But it's legally permitted," he said. "I believed we could have ended up with a worse proposal," Scott said.

Police from 23 municipalities and two state police barracks were dispatched early Sunday to quell fights outside Club Matrix on Cuthbert Boulevard. The fights began in the back parking lot at 12:45 a.m. when about 800 people were leaving the under-21 club, Capt. Earl P. Coxson said. The Cherry Hill police officers who arrived first were "overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the combatants" and were unable to disperse them, Coxson said. Police have not determined what led to the fights.

A long dormant plan to turn a vacant 180-acre parcel spanning Middletown and Lower Makefield Townships into a commercial behemoth has been resurrected. Matrix Development Corp., a developer based in Cranbury, N.J., is proposing is to build a complex that would include hotels, retail stores and office space in the two townships. But they have yet to buy the land or secure commitments from tenants. The lot, which straddles Big Oak Road between Route 1, Interstate 95 and Oxford Valley Road, is owned by the Bellemead Development Corp.

In The Matrix, everybody - save Keanu Reeves and a band of renegades in way-cool sunglasses - walks around in a simulated universe, oblivious to the fact that humankind is being manipulated by an evil artificial intelligence. The question "What is real?" is asked more than once. In eXistenZ, people plug into fleshy gamepods that transport their consciousness to another realm - one that looks very much like the realm they just left. After a while it becomes difficult for the players, whose nervous systems are jacked directly into the game, to tell the difference.