People

By Josh Tyrangiel

THANK GOD THEY DIDN'T SEND JOY BEHAR

Anytime a pitcher straps on his spikes, grabs the ball and steps on the rubber, sexual euphemisms are just a precocious first-grader away. With no kids credentialed as working media, MEREDITH VIEIRA, The View's go-to gal for saucy, took it upon herself to--as they say on The View--go there. For a segment on the World Series that was shot before game three at Shea Stadium, Vieira was overheard asking Mets Mike Piazza and John Franco, "Who has the biggest wood on the Mets?" Franco and Piazza ducked the question, but several female sportswriters were livid that Vieira, a former 60 Minutes correspondent, was jeopardizing their credibility. An Anaheim Angels beat reporter and a New York Daily News columnist confronted Vieira, who, they say, replied that she did not consider herself a journalist. Like Pete Rose, Vieira has been banned from major-league baseball for the foreseeable future.

PEOPLE WHO TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE

On Friday 20/20 will air a BARBARA WALTERS interview with BARBRA STREISAND in which Streisand recalls visiting a Long Island, N.Y., psychic to contact her late father. An excerpt:

Streisand: It was very frightening. I mean, because this--this table started to spell letters. It spelled M-A-N-N-Y, which was his nickname, Manny. And I--I ran into the bathroom, I got so scared.

Walters: Mm.

Streisand: You know, believe me, skeptical. I look under the table, there's no wires. There's no--there's no way this thing could move except with a vibration of some sort. And I never wanted to do it again, but he did spell out to me S-O-R-R-Y. And then he spelled S-I-N-G P-R-O-U-D.

Walters: Sing proud.

DID THEY OR DIDN'T THEY?

Once it was decided that JULIANNE MOORE would replace Jodie Foster in Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, only one question remained for fans of the Thomas Harris novel: Would the movie keep Harris' bizarre, brain-eating ending? "We're not eating anything in that picture you have, I don't think," says Moore, trying to dodge the question on a photographic technicality. True, but soon brains will be eaten, right? "I'm not gonna tell you that stuff. No! You can go see the movie in February. Sorry." Moore was worried about stepping into the role of FBI agent Clarice Starling, for which Foster won an Oscar, but working with Anthony Hopkins proved no problem. "He's a wonderful actor and a great person, and having known him before made it miles easier. I actually spent my birthday with him in Paris when we were doing Surviving Picasso...We just ate at a little bistro in Paris around the corner from our hotel. It was lovely." They totally ate brains.

PUT OUT AN APB ON O.D.B.

OL' DIRTY BASTARD released himself on his own recognizance last week. Unfortunately, the law did not. Dirty, ne Russell Jones, fled Impact House, a Pasadena, Calif., drug-treatment facility that had been his court-ordered residence since June, just before a scheduled trip to the Los Angeles Criminal Courthouse to discuss his progress and treatment with a judge. After the Wu-Tang Clan rapper failed to show, a no-bail bench warrant was issued for his arrest. Jones' police file is the stuff of legend, even by rap-star standards. What makes this latest escapade particularly sad is that Jones, according to a friend, appeared to be getting clean and had been hoping to do publicity for the release of the Wu-Tang Clan's new album in November. But if Jones is seeking safe harbor, he shouldn't look homeward. Two charges are pending against him in the State of New York too.