By Belinda Luscombe

OUR NAME ON THAT? NO, THANKS

A faux-Mexican fast-food chain can take only so much agita. After watching the first of DANA CARVEY's comedy shows, the folks at Taco Bell, a division of Pepsi, decided not to sponsor any more. On The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show, dancing tacos hailed Carvey as "our whore," and Princess Di was called a slut (twice). Hardly shocking for Carvey's regular audience, but this was prime time. Pizza Hut, another unit of Pepsi in line for top billing, also got cold feet. But the show drew big ratings, and ABC said it would be reined in a tad. So other Pepsi kin are staying put and, happily, there will be a Mug Root Beer Dana Carvey Show.

WHITHER STALLONE?

Maybe it's because he's expecting. Maybe the 20th anniversary of Rocky made him nostalgic for working for less than $20 million. Or maybe a workday filled with explosions, guns and car chases just isn't the blast it used to be. SYLVESTER STALLONE will star in a (gasp!) small movie. "I've gotten as far as I can get in a certain genre," says Stallone. "Now it's time to come back to something I feel a real kinship for." He adds, "There are only so many catastrophes you can do before they start to look the same." In case you can't guess, he wants to try acting. In Copland, he'll play a partly deaf cop who's caught in a moral dilemma. "It's a role that makes me nervous, and the fear makes me excited," says Stallone. No explosions in Copland, although guns will be fired. (You were expecting Swan Lake?)

SEEN & HEARD

Director Franco Zeffirelli, whose views mirror the Pope's on most issues, isn't enamored of the artistic taste of the Vatican. When it named 45 films with worthy religious content, none were his. He fumed, "My films have brought about many more conversions than all those cited in this absurd list."

Oops! After the Alanis Morissette song You Oughta Know won a Grammy, the Mississippi house of representatives passed a resolution honoring the native son who wrote it, Glen Ballard. Then lawmakers read the lyrics. Shortly after they came across the F word, they rescinded the honor.

IT'S JUST PLAIN CURTISY

It's safe to say KELLY CURTIS' career isn't much like that of her famous relatives. Her dad Tony dressed in drag, her mother Janet Leigh got it in a shower, and her kid sister JAMIE LEE was dragged by a helicopter; but none was ever raped by a big stork. "I think I'm the only actress ever to have been violated by a marabou," Curtis says proudly. That act behind her (in straight-to-video, The Devil's Daughter), Curtis plays a forensics expert on UPN's new series The Sentinel. Being a Curtis has its downside: "If I compared my career to theirs, I'd be dead." But some things are passed on. "[Mom and I] sit in my trailer and play gin," says Curtis. "Just like we used to when it was her trailer."