Stunt Man

Dazzling and delirious, The Fall is a celebration of cinema, of old-fashioned storytelling and globe-hopping spectacle. The long-in-the-making (15 years!) passion project of the mono-monikered Tarsem (full-name: Tarsem Singh; day job: commercials director), this dark fairy tale is steeped in the spirit of early Hollywood - the shoot-'em-ups, the cliffhangers, the romance and the corn - and goes out of its way not to use CGI. For fans who have grumbled that Steven Spielberg sold out in the latest Indiana Jones by opting for computer-generated effects over old-school sets, props and locales, The Fall provides a rousing alternative.

Hideki Irabu will rejoin the New York Yankees and may start Wednesday's game at Oakland. "His role will be determined by the manager," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said yesterday. "It would be my hope he would start Wednesday. " Irabu departed Tampa, Fla., to rejoin the Yankees in Los Angeles after several meetings and a one-hour workout at the Yankees' minor-league facility. One day after Steinbrenner called the Japanese pitcher a "fat . . . toad," the Yankees said Friday that Ramiro Mendoza would start in place of Irabu at Oakland on Wednesday.

If local fans of the television show Magnum, P.I. watch closely, they may be able to spot a familiar logo on a baseball cap worn by one of the show's stars - the logo of the Cinnaminson Police Department. Roger Mosley, who plays "T.C.," Thomas Magnum's helicopter-flying buddy, on the CBS series, has worn the regulation black Cinnaminson police cap, with its triangular gold insignia, on two episodes so far this season. How the cap got onto Mosley's head was really the tale of two friends and their different careers.

They're wild and wacky, yet subtle and sleek. They're the latest addition in the explosive watchwear industry: watches designed by Peter Max. Max, whose art typified the creative Spirit of the '60s, has given style to a simple product that has suffered recently in the hands of some over-zealous designers. Some of the manufacturers of inexpensive watches have gone a tad overboard in making the point that a watch doesn't have to be black and white and boring. Let's face it, a watch still has to tell time, and with some of the newer designs - bull's eyes, arrows, geometrics - the original function seems to have become little more than an annoying afterthought.

In "The Cowboy Way," Woody Harrelson gives us some indication of how he came by that first name. The specifics cannot be discussed in a family newspaper. Or even the Daily News. It's enough to say that in one particular scene, John Wayne Bobbitt could not have performed as Harrelson's stunt double. No indeed. Nor would there be any way to substitute a stunt man for Harrelson in the scene in question, since Harrelson is wearing nothing but a cowboy hat. He manages to suspend the hat above the ground without using any of the usual extremities.

Do celebrities mean what they say? You watch "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. " You read People magazine. You saw the Academy Awards show. Of course they don't mean what they say. They can't. Even celebrities aren't that fatuous. But what do they mean? A team of dedicated researchers at last has succeeded in unlocking the code of celeb-speak. Herewith a few examples: "At last I get to play a character with real dimension. " (I think I'm in over my head.) "I try to avoid the Hollywood rat race.

Clint Eastwood won the election but lost his effort to be sworn in as mayor at a "personal and private" ceremony yesterday in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., as about 1,000 residents and tourists showed up for the event, forced it outside and caused streets to be blocked off around City Hall. "He wanted it inside, as is traditional," said an Eastwood aide. "But there just wasn't enough room. He didn't want a lot of fanfare. " No way with 150 media types there, too. The city council chamber holds just 98 people.

You'll never hear Mark Harmon, Sean Connery's co-star in the suspense thriller "The Presidio," which opened Friday, characterize Connery as a loser. As Harmon tells it, he had to fight the charismatic veteran for every scene they shared. "I'm highly competitive, that's without question," the bearded, bald-and- proud-of-it Connery explained over a satellite link from Spain, where he maintains a home and is currently working in Steven Spielberg's third "Indiana Jones" adventure, portraying Indy's long-lost father.

Even when you stand up to your neck in water at the bottom of the towering and majestic Iguazu Falls in Argentina, it's difficult to go with the flow. Water, Roland Joffe reports with the authority of a filmmaker who has immersed himself in the subject, is the most exasperating and elusive thing to catch on film. "It changes course so quickly," said the director of The Mission. "You can be looking at it rush past a rock, and it will go from one side to the other. You never know what it's going to do, and when you think you've got it right, the clouds roll in and the light changes.

Mel Gibson is letting loose ungodly squealing sounds and cracking himself up. Sitting in his trailer on a spring afternoon, wearing black jeans and a plaid shirt, he is gesturing madly, widening his eyes for effect and doubling over in simulated pain. He's describing how his laugh sounded following his emergency appendectomy, which kept him off the set of Ransom, the Ron Howard film that opens Friday, for several weeks. His scenes in the psychological thriller about a child's kidnapping were postponed while he recuperated.

Dazzling and delirious, The Fall is a celebration of cinema, of old-fashioned storytelling and globe-hopping spectacle. The long-in-the-making (15 years!) passion project of the mono-monikered Tarsem (full-name: Tarsem Singh; day job: commercials director), this dark fairy tale is steeped in the spirit of early Hollywood - the shoot-'em-ups, the cliffhangers, the romance and the corn - and goes out of its way not to use CGI. For fans who have grumbled that Steven Spielberg sold out in the latest Indiana Jones by opting for computer-generated effects over old-school sets, props and locales, The Fall provides a rousing alternative.

If you catch an interview this summer with a big-ticket action hero - Will Smith, say, talking up I, Robot, or Brad Pitt, selling his $200 million sword-and-sandals saga, Troy - and they start talking about how they did their own stunt work, well . . . listen to Tobey Maguire. "You hear people saying that," gripes the star of Spider-Man 2, which opens June 30. "Then I watch these films and I can tell that they're lying. Sure, some people do some stunts, but there are certain things that, first of all, most people cannot do, where you need a professional stuntman/gymnast.

Hideki Irabu will rejoin the New York Yankees and may start Wednesday's game at Oakland. "His role will be determined by the manager," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said yesterday. "It would be my hope he would start Wednesday. " Irabu departed Tampa, Fla., to rejoin the Yankees in Los Angeles after several meetings and a one-hour workout at the Yankees' minor-league facility. One day after Steinbrenner called the Japanese pitcher a "fat . . . toad," the Yankees said Friday that Ramiro Mendoza would start in place of Irabu at Oakland on Wednesday.

Mel Gibson is letting loose ungodly squealing sounds and cracking himself up. Sitting in his trailer on a spring afternoon, wearing black jeans and a plaid shirt, he is gesturing madly, widening his eyes for effect and doubling over in simulated pain. He's describing how his laugh sounded following his emergency appendectomy, which kept him off the set of Ransom, the Ron Howard film that opens Friday, for several weeks. His scenes in the psychological thriller about a child's kidnapping were postponed while he recuperated.

In "The Cowboy Way," Woody Harrelson gives us some indication of how he came by that first name. The specifics cannot be discussed in a family newspaper. Or even the Daily News. It's enough to say that in one particular scene, John Wayne Bobbitt could not have performed as Harrelson's stunt double. No indeed. Nor would there be any way to substitute a stunt man for Harrelson in the scene in question, since Harrelson is wearing nothing but a cowboy hat. He manages to suspend the hat above the ground without using any of the usual extremities.

You'll never hear Mark Harmon, Sean Connery's co-star in the suspense thriller "The Presidio," which opened Friday, characterize Connery as a loser. As Harmon tells it, he had to fight the charismatic veteran for every scene they shared. "I'm highly competitive, that's without question," the bearded, bald-and- proud-of-it Connery explained over a satellite link from Spain, where he maintains a home and is currently working in Steven Spielberg's third "Indiana Jones" adventure, portraying Indy's long-lost father.

Do celebrities mean what they say? You watch "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. " You read People magazine. You saw the Academy Awards show. Of course they don't mean what they say. They can't. Even celebrities aren't that fatuous. But what do they mean? A team of dedicated researchers at last has succeeded in unlocking the code of celeb-speak. Herewith a few examples: "At last I get to play a character with real dimension. " (I think I'm in over my head.) "I try to avoid the Hollywood rat race.

They're wild and wacky, yet subtle and sleek. They're the latest addition in the explosive watchwear industry: watches designed by Peter Max. Max, whose art typified the creative Spirit of the '60s, has given style to a simple product that has suffered recently in the hands of some over-zealous designers. Some of the manufacturers of inexpensive watches have gone a tad overboard in making the point that a watch doesn't have to be black and white and boring. Let's face it, a watch still has to tell time, and with some of the newer designs - bull's eyes, arrows, geometrics - the original function seems to have become little more than an annoying afterthought.

Even when you stand up to your neck in water at the bottom of the towering and majestic Iguazu Falls in Argentina, it's difficult to go with the flow. Water, Roland Joffe reports with the authority of a filmmaker who has immersed himself in the subject, is the most exasperating and elusive thing to catch on film. "It changes course so quickly," said the director of The Mission. "You can be looking at it rush past a rock, and it will go from one side to the other. You never know what it's going to do, and when you think you've got it right, the clouds roll in and the light changes.

If local fans of the television show Magnum, P.I. watch closely, they may be able to spot a familiar logo on a baseball cap worn by one of the show's stars - the logo of the Cinnaminson Police Department. Roger Mosley, who plays "T.C.," Thomas Magnum's helicopter-flying buddy, on the CBS series, has worn the regulation black Cinnaminson police cap, with its triangular gold insignia, on two episodes so far this season. How the cap got onto Mosley's head was really the tale of two friends and their different careers.