Forget that signed photograph of Julia Roberts or 98 Degrees for the moment, or the autographed baseball from New York Yankees star Derek Jeter. 
The anthrax scare has some movie studios, sports teams and record companies holding back the fan mail they receive on behalf of the stars. 
There have even been reports of one Hollywood talent agency refusing to open letters addressed to stars and dumping the missives straight in the garbage. 
No one would admit that Wednesday, but an informal Reuters survey showed there is concern and that precautions are being taken to shield the stars. 
At the Sony studios in Los Angeles, unopened fan mail is piling up on the lot and is going nowhere until the extent of the anthrax scare becomes clearer. 
One studio source told Reuters that Sony was neither opening the mail nor passing it on to the stars. But neither was it being put in the "return to sender" box. 
Sony was receiving lots of mail addressed to Drew Barrymore, who stars in the hit movie "Riding in Cars with Boys." Ironically, Barrymore was in New York two weeks ago when anthrax was discovered in the NBC building and she reportedly had to be persuaded to stay in the city for the rest of the week before hosting "Saturday Night Live." 
During her monologue, she made it clear she was not happy being there and her husband Tom Green appeared on the screen jokingly wearing a gas mask during the show. 
Sony also is getting mail for Will Smith, who stars in "Ali" later this year and in "Men in Black II" next year, and the studio has been handling requests from fans for Julia Roberts, who appeared in this year's "America's Sweethearts." 
A spokeswoman at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. in Santa Monica said the James Bond studio was still passing on mail to the star's publicist or agent. "(But) Everything is scanned beforehand, we are very diligent about security," she said. 
The studio, which features the movie "Bandits" with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton, said it has hired extra security staff with training to handle suspicious packages before passing them on to the likes of 007 actor Pierce Brosnan. 
Asked if Hollywood studios were destroying mail sent by fans, the MGM spokeswoman said: "They may have started doing that, but I have not heard of it." 
PMK/HBH, the huge Hollywood agency that handles Billy Crystal and Johnny Depp among others, said it is negotiating with its clients to see how they want their fan mail handled. 
"Some clients have chosen not to have it sent to them directly," said Tracy Shaffer, a managing director of the agency. "We are exploring with clients now trying to find out the best way to handle this." 
She said she had heard reports of fan mail being dumped, but "I don't know that to be true." 
Shaffer said normally the agency sends on mail either to the actor or to a mail handling service. "We are proceeding with caution as we always do, since fan mail comes from unknown entities." Staff were now washing their hands after sorting the mail. 
"All actors get strange things from fans -- everything from baked goods to underwear." she said. 
Universal Records in New York gets sacks of mail every week for recording artists like 98 Degrees, Elton John and Godsmack. 
An employee said the company was taking extra precautions in the mailroom and was holding back anything that looked suspicious. 
Even the World Series-bound New York Yankees were not immune to the anthrax scare. 
"All I can say is that we are holding all fan mail. It is not being distributed to the players," said spokesman Rick Cerone. "Normally it would be put in their lockers, but not now." 
For the time being, letters from kids asking for autographed baseball cards or from dads inviting players to their son's birthday party or bar mitzvah will be piling up at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. 
By Steve James