PEOPLE

By NADYA LABI

DENZEL DOWN LOW

Even the N.B.A.'s off season can't sideline basketball's mouthiest trash talker. Spike Lee is calling the shots on the set of He Got Game. DENZEL WASHINGTON had to adapt his style to Spike's X's and 0's. Denzel's screen personas usually range from the inhumanly brave to the downright angelic, but in Game he plays the ultimate deadbeat dad. His character, Jake Shuttlesworth, is doing time for killing his wife. Freedom beckons, in the form of a Governor's pardon, if he can persuade his estranged son Jesus, a high school basketball star played by Milwaukee Bucks guard Ray Allen, to sign with an agent. The movie, produced by Swishin' an' Dishin', has not yet been sold for distribution, and Lee expects to wrap up filming on Coney Island early in October. In time for the season's first tip-off.

TO SIN OR NOT TO SIN, ASKS JOHN

An editor's work is never done. Or so it seems in the September issue of George, in which JOHN F. KENNEDY JR. goes to great lengths to boost his magazine's circulation. To complement the cover photo of a nude Kate Moss as Eve, Kennedy sits bare-chested and bare-kneed in dark shadow, gazing pensively at an apple. In the editor's letter, he ruminates on the nature of temptation--"I'm playing Hamlet with my willpower (Should I or shouldn't I?)." The literary reference must suffice to convey his torment because he coyly declines to reveal the snakes in his Garden. Instead, he breaks the Kennedy-clan mantra of loyalty no matter what the crime by observing that cousin Joseph, who tried to annul his first marriage, and cousin Michael, who dallied with the baby-sitter, had become the "poster boys for bad behavior." Being just a poster boy, after all, is so much seemlier.

BUT WILL SHE WEAR WHITE?

All it took was a few fuzzy photos for Britain to go bananas over its favorite fractured fairy-tale princess. After printing grainy shots of PRINCESS DIANA cozying up to playboy DODI FAYED, the Sunday Mirror declared authoritatively, "The whole world can see it's a book of love." The tabloids were busy reading the little black book of Dodi's past paramours (Brooke Shields, Winona Ryder et al.) when jilted model Kelly Fisher held a press conference, claiming Dodi as her betrothed and flashing a sapphire ring and a $440,000 breach-of-contract and fraud suit. Diana's future wedded abode was hotly debated: Would it be Julie Andrews' former Malibu home, reportedly just purchased by Dodi, or the Paris love nest of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, now owned by the father-in-law-to-be? No word yet on a honeymoon site.

SEEN & HEARD

Sitting ringside at the Tyson-Holyfield bout in June apparently gave Christian Slater all the wrong ideas. The toothsome actor turned downright mean at an L.A. party, allegedly punching his girlfriend and biting a man who tried to come to her aid. Facing possible charges of assault, Slater later issued a statement expressing regret about the incident.

Marli Brianna Hughes wants to be like Mikey. Remember the freckle-faced kid who decides oats aren't so bad after all? Well, Mikey grew up, and Life cereal boxes needed a new mug. Out of 35,000 entrants, Marli, 4, will be coming to a supermarket near you. She likes Life but cautions, "It gets boring to eat the same thing every day."

BLOW LIKE ME

Finishing first is getting to be a habit for Pulitzer prizewinner and Grammy glutton WYNTON MARSALIS. Now he's going for the bronze. The town fathers of Marciac, France, have just unveiled a life-size likeness of the trumpeter. Every year Marsalis and jazzophiles the world over converge on this hamlet in southwestern France, inflating its 1,200 population to 125,000 for a festival in August. Marsalis explains the appeal: "The people are soulful and humble." To prove his affection, he's composed the 90-minute Marciac Suite. Mayor Jean-Louis Guilhaumon certainly proved his. Artist Daphne du Barry's $80,000 tribute now occupies pride of place in front of a former Augustine cloister.

BEWARE SCORNED BODYGUARDS

For 11 years he kept Boris Yeltsin in his sights. But now the President's former bodyguard and top adviser, ALEXANDER KORZHAKOV is taking aim at his ex-boss. In Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk, he depicts Yeltsin as a vodka-swilling wreck of a man. (He's even selling off the family album--his snapshots of Yeltsin hanging out in Sochi.) One unsubstantiated secret he claims: when Yeltsin sent in tanks against his foes in Russia's White House in 1993, he celebrated before the battle was won in what Korzhakov says was his usual fashion: by getting thoroughly soused.

THERE'S A WHOLE LOTTA CELEBRITY COOKING GOING ON

Someone in the publishing industry has sauteed up an ingenious scheme: spear a celebrity for a book deal, cut ghostwriter costs by churning out recipes instead of paragraphs and voila!, instant profit. Riverhead editor Mary South puts it in gentler terms: "Cookbooks are a great way for celebrities to do a biography without having to do a tell-all." South will help Patti LaBelle, who was been known to rustle up a mean meal on the road, dish out her culinary secrets next year. Even a reed-thin celebrity who was never seen in an apron will do. Or at least her cook will. Scribner's most recent deal is with Jackie Onassis' chef of 25 years, Marta Sgubin, whose book will also be coming out next year. One celeb with a full menu is Sarah Ferguson, whose cookbook will reach stores in January. But don't bother salivating over such dishes as Pear-Port Quickbread, Roast Chicken and Chutney Tea Sandwiches and the Little Princess Birthday Cake. The trim Weight Watchers spokeswoman has renounced her claim to the title Duchess of Pork. The meals are all resolutely low fat.