BUY ME A DRINK SAILOR?

Liquor giant Allied Domecq, makers of Courvoisier, and Diageo—who are partnering with Pernod Ricard for their offer—are the last two companies remaining as bidding for Seagram's $7 billion liquor unit goes into a second round.

Each company will get to look at the books next week, with final offers due by the end of October. A decision is expected sometime in November as to who will be buying the drinks.

In other Seagram news, the European Commission has until Oct. 13 to decide if it is going to subject the Vivendi-Seagram-Canal Plus deal to an extended four-month probe. Geez, that sure sounds like fun to us. Wonder what they're going to use.

The EC could fast-track the merger by approving it on Oct. 13, but we're sure European Union Competition boss Mario Monti—whom we now refer to affectionately as "The Commish"—will offer a statement every day until then.

EC watchers (and you know who you are) are looking to its handling of the AOL-TW-EMI mergers to see how it will deal with the Vivendi-Seagram pact. Vivendi-Seagram has reportedly offered concessions, including pledges to leave their pipelines open to other music companies. No one checked to see if they had their fingers crossed behind their backs when they made those promises, however.