Rue Mcclanahan

Rue McClanahan says she was "flattered and honored and thrilled" to be asked to read the audio version of "Leading with My Heart," the autobiography of Virginia Kelley, the flamboyant mother of President Clinton. McClanahan, known for her role as Blanche in the NBC series "Golden Girls" and "Golden Palace," said she also was "hoping very much to be able to acquire the rights to doing her story, because I'd love to play her. " Rumor has swirled for months that Clinton himself suggested that McClanahan read the audio version of Kelley's autobiography (written with James Morgan; Simon & Schuster / $22.50)

Tonight's TV offerings include two items made when their off-again, on- again stars were much more "off" than "on. " One is a late-night movie starring Sonny and Cher, made after their AM record success but before their hit TV series; the other is a dreadful 1983 special hosted by Bill Cosby - the year before The Cosby Show turned him into a megastar. EVENING HIGHLIGHTS HOLLYWOOD'S PRIVATE HOME MOVIES (8 p.m., Ch. 6) - In 1983, Bill Cosby was best known, outside of Las Vegas and the comedy record racks, as the pitchman for Jell-O.

Wall-to-wall baseball and the return of Saturday Night Live are the biggest special events today and have two other things in common: They're live and their quality can't be established in advance. DAYTIME HIGHLIGHT NATIONAL LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYOFF (Noon, Ch. 6) - Tied at 1-1, the New York Mets and Houston Astros resume their best-of-seven series in New York. ABC. EVENING HIGHLIGHTS FAME (6 p.m., Ch. 29) - This series, still alive and kicking in first-run syndication, has had its share of talented "students" come and go, including Janet Jackson, who is now only a few notches beneath her older brother Michael on the pop-phenomenon scale.

'Wild' man gets time served, probation Joe Francis, the entrepreneur behind the tasteless Girls Gone Wild vid series, was sentenced yesterday to 301 days already served and a year of probation for filing false income tax returns and bribing Nevada jail workers for better treatment behind bars. The sentence is part of a plea deal prosecutors struck after learning a key witness had withheld information from them. Francis, who admitted to omitting more than $500,000 of interest income on his '03 tax returns, also must pay $250,000 to the IRS. "I think we won that one," he said.

Sorting through piles of new DVDs lately has been a strange and winding trip down the road of my '80s sitcom youth. February alone brought Growing Pains, Night Court, and Charles in Charge among the many releases that will spur visions of OP shirts, Girbaud jeans, and black-and-red Air Jordans. The top pick this month by far, however, is the often-overlooked NBC production of Gimme a Break! The first season, which began in October 1981, is out on DVD. For collectors interested in that era or fans of the late Nell Carter, it's essential.

There are no fisticuffs between aging members of a famous Motown vocal group in The Fighting Temptations, although several of the original O'Jays do show up to belt a few rousing gospel numbers. A woefully thin and pointless musical comedy boasting the no-chemistry coupling of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonc? Knowles, The Fighting Temptations is about a church choir in the small-town South making its way to a national gospel music competition under the questionable leadership of a jive, fast-talkin' former native son. That would be Gooding's character, Darrin Hill, who loses his job as a midlevel executive at a New York advertising agency and returns home to Monte Carlo, Ga., to claim his inheritance from a recently deceased aunt.

Courteney Cox has officially added Arquette to her name. "It's for real. It's on my Social Security card, everything. No hyphen," the Friends TV star said last week. "It feels, like, 'Wow, I'm changing my identity.' It was scary. It feels good, like I'm really committed. It feels better than not doing it. And it made him happy. " Cox married David Arquette on June 12. "Eventually I'll just go by Courteney Arquette," she said. "The reason why is because it was really important for David.

Some of the merchandise bears celebrity names: Joan Collins jewelry, Rue McClanahan negligees, Diane von Furstenberg blouses. Other items have exotic origins: Russian enameled spoons, Italian silver icons, Thai golden goddesses. Then there are special-interest collectibles: Williamsburg dolls, Goebels crystal, Lladro figures. There are also things that are just plain practical: white bath towels, Teflon frying pans and screwdrivers. All year long, Christmas items from the exquisite, Irish Dresden ornaments, to the kitschy, such as lighted plastic angels, show up. Those are some of the things that QVC sells in Frazer at its outlet store in the Lincoln Court Shopping Center on Route 30. There are odd lots - little and big - left over when the on-air push is over, as well as returned merchandise, out-of-season items, and a few samples.

HOT IN CLEVELAND. 10 tonight, TV Land. PERHAPS NOT even Drew Carey could have predicted it, but one of the hottest shows of the season is set in Ohio. It is not, alas, TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland. " Not even Betty White, the 88-year-old actress who's lately done everything short of leap a tall building in a single bound - or sing on Fox's Ohio show, "Glee" - could push this cheesy dish past warm. And yet the "Golden Girls" alum has pretty decent company in a show written by "Frasier" vet Suzanne Martin and produced by Tony host (and "Will & Grace" star)

'Wild' man gets time served, probation Joe Francis, the entrepreneur behind the tasteless Girls Gone Wild vid series, was sentenced yesterday to 301 days already served and a year of probation for filing false income tax returns and bribing Nevada jail workers for better treatment behind bars. The sentence is part of a plea deal prosecutors struck after learning a key witness had withheld information from them. Francis, who admitted to omitting more than $500,000 of interest income on his '03 tax returns, also must pay $250,000 to the IRS. "I think we won that one," he said.

Sorting through piles of new DVDs lately has been a strange and winding trip down the road of my '80s sitcom youth. February alone brought Growing Pains, Night Court, and Charles in Charge among the many releases that will spur visions of OP shirts, Girbaud jeans, and black-and-red Air Jordans. The top pick this month by far, however, is the often-overlooked NBC production of Gimme a Break! The first season, which began in October 1981, is out on DVD. For collectors interested in that era or fans of the late Nell Carter, it's essential.

There are no fisticuffs between aging members of a famous Motown vocal group in The Fighting Temptations, although several of the original O'Jays do show up to belt a few rousing gospel numbers. A woefully thin and pointless musical comedy boasting the no-chemistry coupling of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonc? Knowles, The Fighting Temptations is about a church choir in the small-town South making its way to a national gospel music competition under the questionable leadership of a jive, fast-talkin' former native son. That would be Gooding's character, Darrin Hill, who loses his job as a midlevel executive at a New York advertising agency and returns home to Monte Carlo, Ga., to claim his inheritance from a recently deceased aunt.

Courteney Cox has officially added Arquette to her name. "It's for real. It's on my Social Security card, everything. No hyphen," the Friends TV star said last week. "It feels, like, 'Wow, I'm changing my identity.' It was scary. It feels good, like I'm really committed. It feels better than not doing it. And it made him happy. " Cox married David Arquette on June 12. "Eventually I'll just go by Courteney Arquette," she said. "The reason why is because it was really important for David.

You know there's something rotten in the state of California when TV actors who appear to be in their early 20s won't reveal their ages for fear of appearing too old for this year's bumper crop of high school shows. But even if the smell of Clearasil hangs heavy over this particular fall season, not all the women's roles are going to 22-year-olds who can play 16. Otherwise, there wouldn't be two shows competing for the services of Dixie Carter. Six years after the "Designing Women" star left series television, she found herself in May with an embarrassment of riches: Both the pilots she'd made had been picked up by CBS for its Monday night schedule and only one might get to keep her. Carter, whose contracts commit her first to playing a down-and-dirty divorce lawyer on CBS's "Family Law," may also retain at least a recurring role in CBS's "Ladies Man," in which she was to portray a glamorous grandmother who gives her grandchildren cell phones.

Is it me, or has holiday television programming targeted toward children and family viewing gotten much more serious over the years? Much of the happy holly jolly seems to have been replaced by shows a bit more grown-up in nature, as evidenced by three shows airing this weekend. With underlying themes of loneliness, alienation, fear of failure, acceptance, parental loss and mortality - just to name a few - it's programming that will give kids a lot more to worry about. This weekend's best is "Smudge," airing on TNT at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

Thomas S. Foley will become a partner in the Washington law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., it was announced Thursday. The firm said the former House speaker would focus mainly on international affairs and advising clients on legal and corporate strategy including corporate governance, dispute resolution and negotiations. Before entering Congress 30 years ago, Foley, 65, was a prosecutor and law school instructor. A NEW NATION A consortium headed by actor Paul Newman, novelist E.L. Doctorow and editor Victor Navasky has purchased The Nation, a liberal weekly founded 130 years ago by abolitionists.

We knew Rose Kennedy as the stalwart matriarch. Lillian Carter was a Peace Corps volunteer. Later came President Clinton's mother, Virginia Kelley, who wrote that she was known "for my weird hair, my heavy makeup, my loud colors and my penchant for playing the horses. " Kelley, who died Jan. 6, left us a warm, earthy, endearing memoir in Leading With My Heart, written with Little Rock journalist James Morgan and narrated on audio by the actress Rue McClanahan (Simon & Schuster, 3 hours, $17)

Rue McClanahan says she was "flattered and honored and thrilled" to be asked to read the audio version of "Leading with My Heart," the autobiography of Virginia Kelley, the flamboyant mother of President Clinton. McClanahan, known for her role as Blanche in the NBC series "Golden Girls" and "Golden Palace," said she also was "hoping very much to be able to acquire the rights to doing her story, because I'd love to play her. " Rumor has swirled for months that Clinton himself suggested that McClanahan read the audio version of Kelley's autobiography (written with James Morgan; Simon & Schuster / $22.50)