problem using backslash on brackets in regular expressions

[Daniel McClory]

Hi,

I have files which contain sentences, where some lines have extra  
information inside brackets and parentheses.  I would like to delete  
everything contained within brackets or parentheses, including the  
brackets.  I know that I am supposed to use the backslash to turn off  
the metacharacter properties of brackets and parentheses in a regular  
expression.

I am trying to use the s/// operator to remove it, by doing this:

while(<INPUT>)
  {
    $_ =~ s/\[*\]//;
    $_ =~ s/\(*\)//;
    print $_;
  }

so if the input is:
*MOT:   I'm gonna first [//] first I wanna use em all up .

then the output I'd like to get is:
*MOT:   I'm gonna first first I wanna use em all up .

but instead what I get is:
*MOT:   I'm gonna first [// first I wanna use em all up .

It only deletes the last piece, the ] bracket.  How can I erase the  
whole thing?

Thanks.

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