PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

A POCKETFUL OF POSEY

Here's a quick way to tell you're watching a mid-1990s independent film: PARKER POSEY is in it. The poised but perky 28-year-old was the toast of last week's Sundance Film Festival, appearing in three films, one of which Miramax bought for $2 million. Posey's characters range from a wisecracking temp to a chain-smoking music publicist to a mentally ill woman with a Jackie O. fixation. Having been in at least 15 independent films since she left As the World Turns four years ago, Posey is something of an expert on the genre. "I'm not crazy about the way controversy is so important for independent films," she says. "This year it's lesbian punk rockers and heroin needles." But still, she's happy not to go Hollywood--yet. "First-time directors are much more thoughtful about their work," she says. "And first features happen only once."

SEEN & HEARD

Martina Hingis is living up to her namesake (Navratilova, that is). When the 16-year-old Swiss miss beat Mary Pierce to win the Australian Open, she became the youngest female to earn a Grand Slam title in 110 years. Hingis also claimed the doubles crown. "Next time I have to play mixed doubles so I can win that too," she told the crowd.

Kevin Costner doesn't just play water heroes in costly movies. He has sent $700,000 worth of liquid-separating equipment from Costner Industries Nevada Corp. to help clear up an oil spill in Japan. The firm also wants to show off the technology. "We can't get to use it here," says Dan Costner, Kevin's big brother, who runs the biz.

THE $600 MILLION MAN

O.K., there's no Santa Claus, but it turns out there is that other much-wished-for bringer of good cheer, the anonymous benefactor. Over the past 15 years, CHARLES FEENEY has secretly given away $600 million and put an additional $3.5 billion into his two charities so that it can be proffered later. Only now has he confessed to his good deeds. He did it because he's sold the chain of duty-free shops that made all the money, and is facing a lawsuit in which his munificence would be revealed anyway. So furtive has Feeney been about his philanthropy that few photos of him are available and most of his beneficiaries, which include such diverse entities as Cornell University, Operation Smile International and Sinn Fein, didn't know the source of the donations. "I simply decided I had enough money," Feeney (who doesn't own a car or a house) told the New York Times. Don't worry, he's not broke. He kept $5 million--about one-tenth of 1% of what he gave away.

AL'S GAL AT THE GALA

KARENNA GORE is sick of being the Secret Service's Smurfette. The eldest daughter of Al and Tipper reveals her code name (and the fact that Chuck Berry stepped on her toes four years ago) in the first-person Inaugural Insider column she composed for the online magazine Slate, on which she's an editorial assistant. Her duties usually run to fact checking and headline writing, but given the vantage point she had for the festivities, it's not surprising that boss Michael Kinsley gave her a few screen inches. Gore, 23. seems to enjoy being a Second Daughter: she makes fun of her waving styles. And she wisely defers to the experience of the candidate whose Inaugural this wasn't. "I used to fear falling off the stage," she writes, "but that has become pretty commonplace."