PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

SEEN & HEARD

Steven Bochco and his wife, actress Barbara Bosson, have reason to feel the Hill Street Blues. They have separated after 29 years of marriage, two children and several series in which they worked together. A spokesman for the Emmy-winning producer said the split was amicable and they would like to be left alone.

Oops. Strom Thurmond became Storm Thurmond after finding he'd penned the foreword to a book that says the government covered up a 1947 UFO landing at Roswell, N.M. The book was written by a former Thurmond aide and Army intelligence officer. The Senator said he thought it was to be a memoir.

SPORT, BUT NOT SPORTING

It was supposed to be a track triumph, but it ended up a tacky travesty. To prove who was the fastest, after months of sniping, DONOVAN BAILEY, who won the 100-m Olympic gold medal, raced on a 150-m track against MICHAEL JOHNSON, who won the 200-m and 400-m gold medals. Bailey won after Johnson gave up halfway with an injury. But the battle didn't stop there. "He didn't pull up," said Bailey afterward. "He's a coward." Johnson's manager then accused Bailey's team of trying to injure his prize runner. Bailey apologized for his barbs, but they seemed meaner after Johnson pulled out of the national championships because of the injury. No wonder people only care about running events once every four years.

NEED MORE DI IN YOUR DIET?

The problem the world's media have with DIANA these days is that she's too photogenic to leave alone but there's precious little new or interesting to say about her. So July's Vanity Fair has taken a unique approach: it's running a story on what it's like to photograph her. What these snaps of an unguarded, somewhat tousled Di signify, claims VF, is that the former princess is ready to slough off the old and embrace the new. Further evidence is her decision, at her son William's suggestion, to auction off some old frocks for charity on June 25. This must mean she's looking to a new post-royal life where she won't need such possessions. Alternatively, it could just mean that she has a new stylist.

A PFEIFFER PFRAME-UP?

Most of the time, it must be fun to be MICHELLE PFEIFFER. But sometimes it can be a big drag. Like now. A Michigan plastics-factory manager, Lawrence Booker, claiming to be the father of Pfeiffer's adopted daughter Claudia Rose, has filed suit for $75,000, and he asserts that Pfeiffer and husband DAVID E. KELLEY lifted portions of his script Barrio Kids for the film Dangerous Minds. Bunch of hooey, says Pfeiffer's publicist. The adoption was closed, so Pfeiffer doesn't know who the biological parents are and they don't know who got their child. At the time the script was allegedly delivered, Minds was already in the can. Pfeiffer and Kelley plan to fight the suit and have hired a private detective to look into Booker.

TAKE HIS MONEY OR HIS MIND

BEN STEIN is no Einstein, but the Nixon speechwriter, Pepperdine University law professor and eye-ointment pitchman is willing to bet his salary he knows more than most folks. Stein will star in a new TV show on Comedy Central, Win Ben Stein's Money, where contestants vie for a share of his $5,000-a-show paycheck by beating him in a general-knowledge quiz. "I've been reading the almanac over and over," says Stein. "I know a lot already, but I hope none of my family is ever a contestant." (His father Herb was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Nixon.) Stein's frequent forays into show biz and his willingness to pose for promotional photos like this one seem to indicate that although he's well versed in economic policy, it's not his first love. "To have Alex Trebek's job," he says, "would be heaven for me."

THE GOOD SON

Jennifer Lash wrote six books and bore six children. Her last novel, Blood Ties, written while she was dying of cancer, was rejected by her usual publishers and a string of others, and she died without selling it. But her children, the eldest of whom is actor RALPH FIENNES, weren't about to let it rest at that. While making The English Patient, Fiennes mentioned the book to Patient author Michael Ondaatje, who suggested the actor pitch it to his publisher, who loved it and bought it. Not content with that, half the Fiennes family (sister Sophie and brother Joseph are also in show biz) went on tour to drum up interest. Needless to say, the book got all the attention a publishing house--or a mom--could want.

COMMENCEMENT KUDOS

It's that time again: the annual rite in which allegedly wiser heads dispense advice to graduates. Here's some of it:

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT HARVARD UNIVERSITY "We will be known as the world-class ditherers who stood by while the seeds of renewed global conflict were sown, or as the generations that took strong measures to forge alliances, deter aggression and keep the peace...Ultimately, it is a matter of judgment, a question of choice."

OPRAH WINFREY WELLESLEY COLLEGE "Turn your wounds into wisdom. You will be wounded many times in your life. You'll make mistakes. Some...will call them failures, but I have learned that failure is really God's way of saying, 'Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction.'"

JOHN MC CAIN OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY "Your character is what you are to yourself, not what you pretend to be to yourself or others. We cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves...I am confident you will find honor in your choices when the hard choices arrive at your door. You need not go to war to find them."

WHOOPI GOLDBERG UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT "Make sure you remember who you are, and all the stuff that made you laugh and dance and jump around. And in the dark times when, you know, stuff ain't going right, if you have something to hold on to, which is yourself, you'll survive it."

JIMMY CARTER DUKE UNIVERSITY "How many of us know a poor family well enough to go to their house and have a cup of coffee and get to know the names of their teenaged kids? Or--God forbid--invite them to our house and maybe take them to a baseball game or a movie with our children? Very few."