Notebook

By Kathleen Adams, M.M. Buechner, Daniel Eisenberg, Tam Gray, Anita Hamilton, Glenn Kaplan, Jodie Morse, Michele Orecklin, Alain Sanders, Hiroko Tashiro, Susan Veitch

WINNERS & LOSERS

WHAT I DID FOR LOVE

[WINNERS]

KATHARINE GRAHAM Novice writer wins Pulitzer; fitting accolade for one who doubted she could run a newspaper

MICHAEL OVITZ Back from limbo and on Broadway, where he'll give his regards to ex-boss Michael Eisner

ARETHA FRANKLIN Divas? Try Diva and the Divettes. Hail, Queen of Soul!

[LOSERS]

BABE RUTH Rubble in the House He Built paves the way for the House New York Will Build for Steinbrenner

AL GORE $353 for charity? Doesn't he know he can claim $500 before the IRS gets suspicious?

THE LOVE BOAT New series copies old formula, but this cheese won't float

ANNALS OF TELEVISION

URICH: FOR HIRE His is the face that has launched 13 series. And now, actor Robert Urich has once again found gainful employment, starring as Captain Jim Kennedy III un UPN's Love Boat: The Next Wave. Herewith a compendium of the sturdy actor's small-screen shows:

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (ABC) S.W.A.T. (ABC) Soap (ABC) Tabitha (ABC) Vega$ (ABC) Gavilan (NBC) Spenser: For Hire (ABC) American Dreamer (NBC) Crossroads (ABC) It Had to Be You (CBS) The Lazarus Man Vital Signs (ABC) Love Boat: The Next Wave (UPN)

SHE (R.-N.Y.) SAID, HE (R.-GA.) SAID

Newt Gingrich and Susan Molinari have both written new memoirs. The common experience of the House Speaker and the former Congresswoman seems to end there:

Newt: "Christmas is a slow news time, and this story [of the settlement of his ethics case] dominated the media...the story cycled through CNN virtually every half hour for three or four days."

Susan: "That settlement was made public just as Americans were caught up in their final frenzy of Christmas shopping, so the announcement made a remarkably light impression on voters."

Newt: "I was thinking about long-range planning when what I should have been doing was making sure we could get through the summer of 1997."

Susan: "By the time we reached summer 1997...[he] was still trying to micromanage even the minutiae of House life."

Newt: "I...was essentially a political leader of a grass-roots movement seeking to do nothing less than reshape the federal government along with the political culture of the nation."

Susan: "Finally, Newt's face began to quiver...'It's so hard being at the center of a worldwide movement.'"

REALITY CHECK

DOWNSIZED BY THE DIRECTOR In his documentary The Big One, anti-corporate crusader Michael Moore visits Nike CEO Phil Knight to challenge the shoe company's use of cheap Indonesian labor. In the film Knight seems evasive, edgy and ultimately tripped up by Moore's relentless interrogation. But did the filmmaker unfairly tailor Knight's appearance? In an effort to wipe the treadmarks off his reputation, Knight has put outtakes on Nike's Website www.nikebiz.com) There Moore, who comes off as an attack dog in the film, is heard purring to Knight, "I honestly think you're the good guy."

READ ME

PROSE BEAUS AND BELLES O.K. So you can't judge a book by the cover. But perhaps there's another way. Maybe you can judge the author by the cover or, more precisely, the lack thereof. Take a peek at some recent book authors without jackets: Isabel Allende (Aphrodite), Douglas Coupland (Girlfriend in a Coma) and Elizabeth Wurtzel (Bitch).

NUMBERS

2,052 Number of animals, including crickets, fish, mice, rats and snails, launched into space last Friday aboard the space shuttle Columbia

37 Approximate number of years, at the current rate of yearly shuttle launches, before 2,052 humans will have flown in space

93 Percentage of sixth-graders who could explain what a modem does

23 Percentage of FORTUNE 1000 executives who could explain what a modem does

61 Percentage of programs on broadcast and cable television last year that contained violence

45 Percentage of programs that featured "bad" characters who went unpunished

23 Number of quarterbacks in the NFL Hall of Fame

1 Number of quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame who were the first pick in the NFL draft

Sources: NASA, Volchok Consulting Inc., National Cable Television Association, ESPN Sports Almanac

SIXTY SECOND SYMPOSIUM

QUESTION Now that the Volkswagen Beetle has been resurrected, what other automobile would you like to see brought back?

JOHN DE LOREAN, maker of a 1980s short-lived, luxury, gull-winged car: Much of the Mercedes mystique is a product of their great engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut. His greatest accomplishment was the 300 SL Gullwing--the car I'd like to see revived--a car so advanced that nearly 50 years later, some of its features, like direct gasoline injection, are just appearing in the marketplace.

TOM AND RAY MAGLIOZZI, hosts of Car Talk on National Public Radio: We'd vote to bring back the Peugeot. Because we love it? Non, non, non! Since it has been pulled out of the U.S. market--along with the Renault, the Fiat, the Alfa Romeo and the Yugo--there's just no one left to really make fun of on our show... [T]he arrogance of the French makes them such a delightful target.

JERRY VAN DYKE, star of the 1960s sitcom My Mother the Car, featuring a 1928 Porter: I'd like to have my mother resurrected because I miss her. That's not possible. So what I want is a '55 Thunderbird, my first car when I got out of the service. I got it on a used-car lot before they knew how good they were. Now I drive an '84 Rolls. But I'd still rather have that Thunderbird.