By Belinda Luscombe

DIVING INTO THE DEEP END

Nobody disputes the power of OPRAH WINFREY to move merchandise. But is Oprah powerful enough to get people to turn off their TVs and read? She may be. The talk-show host recently announced that her show would conduct "the biggest book club in the whole world," and that Jacquelyn Mitchard's The Deep End of the Ocean would be her first discussion subject. That alone sent the novel to the top of bestseller lists around the country. And even though her semiannual book shows get low ratings, Oprah told the Washington Post, "I always feel if you do right, right will follow."

SEEN & HEARD

Somebody is going to have to mind Kelsey Grammer's five dogs, two birds, turtle and frog, because the Frasier star, who beat a cocaine addiction in the '80s, checked into the Betty Ford Center after an accident in his Dodge Viper sports car. He has one DUI conviction from his Cheers days and may face another.

There are four Batmans and two Supermans, so can there be more than one cute Home Alone kid? The producers of Home Alone III think so and will proceed without Macaulay Culkin, who's 16 and reportedly living alone. One benefit: they don't have to choose which of Culkin's feuding parents to deal with.

AND GOD CREATED TELL-ALLS

Noted animal lover and even more noted man lover BRIGITTE BARDOT, 62, has written a breathless memoir. It might almost be a best seller if one copy were bought by each ex-amour named in it. Many of them, however, won't much like what they read. It's not just her dissatisfaction with men. Initiales B.B. has plenty of Bardot's far-right, anti-immigration politics too. But as she is being sued by a leading French antiracism organization for "provoking racial hatred" in recent interviews, maybe she should take the advice of one newspaper headline: B.B., SHUT UP!

BEARABLE OCCASION

In the cutthroat world of celebrity teddy-bear auctioning, a lot depends on who's wielding the hammer. More people probably want to cuddle up to Elle Macpherson than to ROSIE O'DONNELL, but at an auction for the Children's Safety Project at New York City's Greenwich House, which O'Donnell co-gaveled with KEVIN SPACEY, the talk-show host's bears sold for $5,800, more than 20 times what the model's fetched. (Rosie threw in a guest spot on her show.) Singer Natalie Merchant's personally made bears garnered less than Muhammad Ali's or Al Pacino's. The top ursine, from Sesame Street, got snapped up for $6,000.

HAVE DIVORCE, WILL DAZZLE

Who cares if she's not Her Royal Highness anymore, just so long as she's Her Royal Hereness? PRINCESS DIANA was greeted warmly by a mixture of Madison Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue types on her first major international engagement since the royal divorce, an eating, dancing and shopping spree that raised money for breast-cancer research in Washington. Diana, who called the disease "a great dark enemy stalking women," charmed everyone from diva designer Isaac Mizrahi, who said,"Charles really blew it when he dumped her," to solid soldier Colin Powell, who, after scoring the first dance, opined, "She's a lot of fun." Earlier in the day, Diana shared an egg, tomato and crab Napoleon breakfast with HILLARY CLINTON, Washington Post doyenne KATHARINE GRAHAM and about 120 others. "This is one of the nicest British invasions of the White House," said Mrs. Clinton, before departing early. After lunch with George Stephanopoulos, among others, Diana slipped into an ivory lace, beaded backless number--like ELIZABETH DOLE's frock, but with more va-va-va-voom--for the ball. She also danced with OSCAR DE LA RENTA and Calvin Klein. "They decided only married men could dance with the princess, and they had to be taller than she," said designer Bill Blass, who, along with event organizer Ralph Lauren, didn't qualify. As the Princess left, the band played I Will Survive.

NOW IT'S QUASIMANDY

Following after Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Hopkins and a cartoon isn't easy. Neither is wearing a prosthetic hump for 17 hours a day, but when Turner Network Television offered MANDY PATINKIN The Hunchback (of Notre Dame), he jumped at it. "I don't know how you call yourself an actor if you turn down Quasimodo," says Patinkin. The actor thinks only one of his predecessors really counts. "Laughton, not Victor Hugo, wrote this part," he says. "I'm just playing his notes."

PTL: PLEASE TALK LESS?

Disgraced televangelist JIM BAKKER, he of the PTL ministry, has teared up on TV plenty of times, so an interview with BARBARA WALTERS was probably no big deal. Bakker, who's on parole after serving five years of an eight-year fraud conviction (chief duty: cleaning halls and toilets), says he now realizes it was wrong for a man of God to be paid such a high salary. He learned this, he says, from the Bible, a book he was apparently not so familiar with before his prison stint. He also tells Walters that a fellow inmate tried to rape him twice, but he never snitched. If that revelation isn't enough, he says it led him to realize he was molested as a child by a man in his church. A doctor, he confided, has assured him he's not gay. And people say there's no quality TV.