People

By Belinda Luscombe

CREATIVITY + EGO + MONEY = HOLLYWOOD BUNFIGHT

A man provocative enough to hire a homeless woman to walk around the Getty Center in Los Angeles with a sign saying LORRAINE BY TONY KAYE and call it art isn't going to take the re-editing of his first film, American History X, lightly. And indeed, Kaye, a British commercials director, is waging a bitter but colorful battle against New Line Cinema, taking out cryptically worded full-page ads in trade magazines imploring, among others, stars ED NORTON and EDDIE FURLONG to help him. Kaye's beef: despite the fact that he has spent more than $1 million of his own money on his new vision for the film, the studio won't let him complete it. Instead it's releasing a version that Norton helped edit. Over at New Line, president Mike De Luca says he gave Kaye three chances to finish the film, spent an extra $1.5 million and endured meetings to which Kaye brought a Tibetan lama, a rabbi and a monk. Kaye's latest salvo: he wants the credits to say the film was directed by Humpty Dumpty.

AS TV, IT WAS GOOD RADIO

One hopes Magic Johnson is enjoying a nice chilled glass of schadenfreude as he reads the reviews of HOWARD STERN's new television show. Stern, who was merciless to the basketballer while Johnson had a talk show, got slapped with the most dire content warning (TV-MA), lower national Nielsen ratings than a nonlive version of rival Saturday Night Live and a DD cup's worth of critical bile for his debut network effort. The show, which featured Stern abusing a female body builder and several guests who were hoping to win free cosmetic surgery, was called "the smelly underpants of late-night television" by the L.A. Times, "the dregs of the dregs" by the Washington Post and, probably most hurtful of all, considering Stern's huge fan base in Utah, "sheer torture to watch" by the Deseret News. Even his hometown paper, the New York Post, called him nasty. Cheers, Magic.

HANNAH AND HER TWISTEDNESS

DARYL HANNAH and ooky are not usually words that belong in the same sentence (unless perhaps ooky is part of kooky). But Morticia Addams, even in the straight-to-video Addams Family Reunion, is actually a natural role for the nonnatural brunette: both are insomniacs, both have a wispy, wise innocence about them, and Hannah says she always identified with Morticia as a child. "She was such a graceful, sick, twisted and sexy mother." Of course, Morticia never lived in a tepee--which is where Hannah, who spells it tipi, spends a lot of time between movies. Those of you who bemoan the loss of Hannah's golden tresses can take comfort in the thought that at least she didn't take the part of Uncle Fester.

PAGING AYN RAND

Some people feel one needs to be a saint to put up with architects, but the Archbishop of Barcelona begs to differ. He thinks we should beatify one. Ricard Maria Cardinal Carles' candidate is Antonio Gaudi, who could perhaps become the patron saint of highly decorative unfinished projects because although he died in 1926, his most famous work, Barcelona's CHURCH OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA, is not complete. The archbishop believes that Gaudi had a deep spiritual life. Since architects have long had an image problem, His Eminence may be on to something. How does St. Frank Gehry sound?

WHAT'S MORE, SHE'S REAL

It's appropriate that LESLEY VISSER should end up on a show that goes head to head with Ally McBeal. She's the Anti-Ally--frank, confident, sporty, not awash with self-doubt. She's the first woman to be admitted into what is generally considered Y-chromosome ground zero: Monday Night Football. Not bad for a reporter who once had a footballer sign her notebook, assuming she was a fan. And who was told she got her first TV gig because she had the experience and was "cosmetically correct." (Did Marv Albert sit that test?) "I try to make every at bat a quality at bat," Visser says. Can't imagine Ally saying that.