She's coming! She's coming! One of the biggest stars in the PC entertainment world is finally going to make her debut appearance on the Mac side of the fence. That's right-- Lara Croft, star of the fabulously popular Tomb Raider series, is bringing her particularly Baywatchian brand of adventure and violence to the Mac platform, as Tomb Raider II is prepared for store shelves. The game went "golden master" just a couple of days ago, and is now being duplicated furiously in anticipation of record Mac OS sales.

Tomb Raider II, originally produced by Eidos Interactive and now being brought to the Mac by Aspyr Media and Westlake Interactive, will first appear in the form of a downloadable demo. In a major coup, MacAddict has secured exclusive rights to distribute this demo, which they say will be available from their web site for forty-eight hours starting sometime on Friday. Warm up those modems and prepare to bask in the unique and brilliant star quality of Lara.

As with any big celebrity in this business, there are nefarious parties who try to sully the reputation of Ms. Croft by doctoring photos of her to make it appear as though she's posed nude. According to her PR people, however, she has never posed or performed unclothed, as she's never been offered a role in which nudity was "artistically valid." No, we're not going to point you toward any sites where you can view the fake photos, but if you really want to find them, we're quite certain you'll know where to look. Oh, grow up.

How many of you out there in TV Land like your news to be boring and unsurprising? Because the "Redmond Justice" trial may be postponed once again, which fact we consider to be about as stunning as if we heard that "some people are having trouble with some new Microsoft software." The season premiere of everyone's favorite courtroom drama was originally slated for an early-season broadcast on September 8th, but "various factors" delayed it first to September 23, and then to October 15th. The latest word is that now requests have been filed to push the premiere back just a bit further, to October 19th. A NewsBytes article has the details.

There is a bit of a twist to this rather pedestrian news, however. This time, the proposed delay isn't just Microsoft trying to stall for time. Instead, apparently it's the Justice Department filing for the extension-- though several sources report that the delay is being sought by both parties. Microsoft is trying to wrestle information from several companies such as Oracle and Sun to bolster their "if everyone does it, it can't be illegal" defense, and the Justice Department is trying to extract more sales information from Microsoft, who is reporting clinging to it like grim death. So basically, nobody's really ready to hit the courtroom yet.

Now, there's no guarantee that this delay will actually be granted; although it's only a four-day extension (and two of those days are the weekend), Judge Jackson has to approve it. And according to an Associated Press article, only days ago he stated quite clearly that "there will be no further delays." Apparently he's anxious to get the show on the road, before everybody stops caring completely. Given that attitude, we'd have to guess that even if her grants the four-day delay, there certainly wont be any rescheduling after that. The trial approaches! Get out your scorecards and sharpen your pencils.

Okay, Apple seems to have gotten their "issues" straightened out with regard to the upcoming Mac OS 8.5 Demo Days, for which they're looking for volunteers. A new site has been set up where interested parties can sign up to don a snappy free Mac OS 8.5 polo shirt and head on down to the local CompUSA to demonstrate Apple's latest and greatest operating system release during its premiere weekend.

According to MacCentral, there are even a few paid positions available, so there's a possibility of actual material gain, in addition to the warm, tingly feeling you'll have from the knowledge of a job well done. But if you want in, you'd better hustle; slots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis and the definitive deadline for volunteering is this Friday.

So if you've got some free time during the weekends of October 17th and October 24th, and you'd like to help Apple sell its new product, sign up. You'll have to answer a short questionnaire about your knowledge and experience, and of course there's no guarantee you'll be picked, but even though CompUSA's made some progress in getting Apple-savvy salespeople into their stores, nothing beats a rabid volunteer.