NEW YORK — Choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham was hailed yesterday as a revolutionary artist who remade the very definition of dance.

Cunningham — who was still working as he marked his 90th birthday just 3 1/2 months ago — died on Sunday of natural causes at his Manhattan home, said a spokeswoman for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Cunningham was credited with remaking modern dance by creating works of pure movement divorced from storytelling and musical accompaniment.

FINANCIAL GUARDIAN ORDERED FOR OCTUPLETS

ORANGE, Calif. — A California judge appointed a lawyer yesterday to oversee the estate of Nadya Suleman's octuplets, saying he wanted to ensure they weren't exploited by reality television shows, tabloid photos or other paid ventures.

The judge dismissed arguments for family privacy and ruled that an independent party should be appointed to scrutinize the finances of Suleman's octuplets. The petition was filed on behalf of Paul Peterson, a former child star who is an advocate for the fair treatment of kids in entertainment.

A reality show is slated to start filming Suleman and her 14 children, all under age 8, on Sept. 1.

NO PAROLE FOR KILLER OF GRAMMER'S SISTER

DENVER — A man convicted of killing the sister of Kelsey Grammer and two other people more than three decades ago was denied parole yesterday after the prison board heard a written statement from Grammer calling the man a butcher and a monster.

The Colorado Parole Board also heard from other relatives of the victims and from detectives before deciding not to release 52-year-old Freddie Glenn.

"This is a monster," said the statement from the star of "Frasier." "I can never accept the notion that he can pay for the nightmare with anything less than his life."

Glenn is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Karen Grammer in 1975 when she was 18. She was abducted outside a Colorado Springs restaurant, raped and stabbed on July 1.

MAN CHARGED IN DEATH OF 'IDOL' HOPEFUL

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — Daniel Bark has been charged with drunken driving following a New Jersey shore car accident that killed an "American Idol" contestant whose rejection rant became an Internet sensation.

Alexis Cohen, 24, of Allentown, Pa., was struck by a vehicle Saturday in Seaside Heights.