The Lies of David Gale

By Barbara Kiviat

If all the world's a stage, then is there such a thing as lying, or is it just acting? Let's ask KEVIN SPACEY, the Oscar winner who told London police he had been "mugged" in a park while walking his dog at 4:30 a.m. Spacey later confessed that the culprit was a con man who had tricked him into handing over his cell phone. The bump on his head? Self-inflicted, as the thespian gave chase, tripped over his dog and fell. Spacey later jokingly implied that David Beckham had bribed him to do something stupid enough to move the soccer star off the front pages of the British tabs. O.K., now that we believe.