PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

LITTLE SISTER, BIG SUCCESS

Even by Versace standards, the celebrity quotient at last week's spring ready-to-wear show in Milan was high. Demi Moore, Anjelica Huston, Peter Gabriel, Boy George and Cher all showed up. Linda Evangelista and NAOMI CAMPBELL made rare runway appearances. Even other designers, including Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Donna Karan and Miuccia Prada, came to offer support and perhaps to see what DONATELLA VERSACE, who has taken over design duties at the label since her brother's death, could do with a needle and thread. No one seemed disappointed--though it's hard to imagine anyone's being critical in such an environment. At the end of the show, Donatella emerged alone and acknowledged the standing ovation with eyes full of tears. Beforehand, she had said she felt both pressure and sorrow. "I'm scared. I miss my brother...I hope he will be proud of me."

BEWARE THE NEW MCCARTHYISM

Of all the bad things one can say about JENNY MCCARTHY--the words trashy, vacuous and semitalented come swiftly to mind--one certainly can't accuse her of taking herself too seriously or being coy. In her new book, Jen-X (for which she was reportedly paid more than $1 million), McCarthy confesses with unstarlike candor that she wet her bed until she was seven, spread a rumor that a girl at her school was a lesbian and peed in a guy's bed after a drunken date. Also that her breasts are fake and she dropped out of college after a petty theft. And, scariest of all, that she had crushes on Mr. Rogers and Erik Estrada in her youth. For many, this will be more information than they ever wanted to know about anyone, let alone a former Playboy Playmate of the Year and star of three cheesy TV shows. Others will glory in the fact that she hates that other blond bimbo and Playboy alum Pamela Lee, because of some catty remarks Lee made in Cannes while promoting Barb Wire. Isn't it amazing how much one woman can squeeze into 24 years?

DOING D-DAY

For TOM SIZEMORE, getting the part of Sarge in Saving Private Ryan was a big break. He got to act opposite TOM HANKS and be directed by Steven Spielberg. But first he had to get through boot camp. "They took us to the forest somewhere in England," says Sizemore. "All we had was World War II blankets and rations. It was so hard." All the actors got up at 4:30 a.m., and neither he nor Hanks (who plays a captain) got star treatment during the exercises. "Tom and I had to run in the front," says Sizemore. "I threw up all down my shirt the first day." Yet the actor knows it would be churlish to complain, since he wanted a break from playing creeps like Detective Scagnetti in Natural Born Killers. "I get lots of letters from people who really like that guy," he says. "It's alarming."

SEEN & HEARD

In the spring Ellen DeGeneres told everyone she was gay. Now it's fall and she's telling everyone she's not happy. ABC put an onscreen parental advisory on last week's episode of her show, saying it may be unsuitable for children under 14, because Ellen has a lengthy, although jokey, kiss with her co-star. DeGeneres, who feels the advisory sends a message to kids that there's something wrong with being gay, is said to be threatening to walk off the show.

Another unhappy citizen of TV land is Della Reese. The co-star of Touched by an Angel held a press conference to convey her dismay at the size of her raise compared with her co-stars'. She asked fans to contact CBS president Leslie Moonves--"Write him, call him, catch him by his car." CBS says it's "puzzled by her comments" and notes that it reduced her work hours at her request. Incidentally, Reese's book, Angels Along the Way, is out this week.