NEWS LITE : REYNOLDS' PROPERTY SOUGHT BY EDUCATORS.

Actor Burt Reynolds' ranch and movie studio will be purchased from a bankruptcy trust by the Palm Beach County School Board as a future school site.

The board voted 6-1 Wednesday to buy the 153-acre Jupiter Farms complex for $3.85 million. The original homestead on the site, in unincorporated Palm Beach County northwest of West Palm Beach, was built in 1923 by gangster Al Capone as a hide-out.

The deal takes the property out of bankruptcy limbo. It is being purchased from Reynolds' Liquidating Trust, which was formed when he filed for bankruptcy. Reynolds and his former wife, actress Loni Anderson, could have blocked the district's plans by buying it themselves but declined.

Included in the complex are production studios where Reynolds shot scenes from ``Smokey and the Bandit'' and ``B.L. Stryker,'' the chapel where he married Anderson in 1988, and a feed store.

There is enough land for an elementary, middle and high school, but no construction is planned for at least five years.

By buying now, board members hope to save money because land values are expected to escalate. They also want to pre-empt protests from neighbors such as the opposition they received earlier this year from senior citizens who objected to a school in their neighborhood in a different area of the county.

Board member Tom Lynch dissented, saying he opposed such a piecemeal approach to land banking without knowing where growth is expected and land is needed.

Prince passes his first driving test

England's future monarch is now king of the road.

Prince William passed his driving test on the first try, Buckingham Palace said Thursday, days after the 17-year-old showed off his skills for photographers.

William, the elder son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, passed the test Wednesday. The Sun said the prince jumped from the car, punched the air with his fists, and shouted, ``Yes!'' when given the result.

According to news reports, he got a VW Golf as a birthday gift from his father.

Lynn sings to help slain officer's cause

When Loretta Lynn heard of the death of an Omaha police officer, she understood the family's grief all too well.

The country music legend agreed to perform in Omaha on Thursday night in a benefit for the Jimmy Wilson Jr. Foundation, which was established after Wilson, 24, was gunned down in 1995 during a traffic stop.

``I lost a son, too, so I can relate,'' Lynn said. Her son, Jack, died in 1984 at 34 after falling from his horse into a rain-swollen river.

Banderas to direct literary TV series

Antonio Banderas is enjoying life behind the camera.

Fresh from his directorial debut with ``Crazy in Alabama,'' a film about the civil rights movement, the actor said he will direct a TV series based on six unpublished stories by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The star of ``Evita'' and ``The Mask of Zorro'' said in an interview on Spanish National Radio on Wednesday that he was inspired by the idea while having dinner with the Colombian writer.

``I didn't think the stories were developed enough for the big screen and thought the television format would make for a quality series,'' said Banderas, who with his wife, Melanie Griffith, is visiting his family in Spain.

Touring reggae star faces pot charges

Reggae artist Beenie Man and three fellow musicians face marijuana possession charges in Virginia Beach, Va., after investigators found a small amount of the drug in their motel rooms, police said.

The men were arrested early Wednesday when police acted on a tip about a marijuana smell around the band's tour bus. Police seized a small quantity of marijuana and $22,000 but later returned the money, which the band said was earnings from a show Tuesday night at a club.

Barry Taylor, an attorney for the men, said the search was illegal because police did not get a warrant. Police said the men consented to the search.

Beenie Man, whose real name is Moses Davis, is from Jamaica. The 25-year-old Grammy-nominated star is on a nationwide tour.

Rapper to be tried for wearing armor

Rap star ODB was ordered to stand trial in Los Angeles under a new law prohibiting felons from wearing bulletproof vests.

ODB, whose real name is Russell Tyrone Jones, was then jailed for a bail violation in a separate case. The rapper was taken into custody Wednesday in court after a representative from the company that guaranteed his $115,000 bail revealed Jones was having problems making payments.

Jones is awaiting trial for allegedly threatening security personnel last November at the House of Blues club on the Sunset Strip.

The 30-year-old rapper was also arrested Feb. 16 in a bulletproof vest, police said.

Queen may make Fergie offer to renounce title

Queen Elizabeth is so angry with the Duchess of York for peddling her royal image to sell diet products and talking to Jay Leno on TV about her sex life that she is contemplating paying her off to renounce her duchessness, reports MSNBC.

The amount being bandied about is said to be around $1.6 million, which may be small potatoes (about a hundred calories each) for Fergie's losing the right to call herself a royal.

As to other evidence of the queen's pique, the duchess was not invited to the recent wedding of her former brother-in-law; and Beatrice and Eugenie, her two daughters, will lose their ``princess'' prefixes when they turn 18.

News Lite is compiled by Karen Duffy from Daily News staff and wire reports

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Britain's Prince William, 17, gets out of his car after a quick jaunt around his father's Highgrove estate near Tetbury, England.

Dave Caulkin/Associated Press

(2) Tugging for fun

William McKinney, left, Mackenzie Warrenbury, Danielle Doty and Mackinsey Yoes near tug-of-war victory Thursday at the Texas International Fishing Tournament Playday on South Padre Island.

Ric Vasquez/Valley Morning Star