Carrying a Torch

HOUSEWARMING PARTY Lisa ''Left Eye'' Lopes and Andre Rison, whose burning passion for each other could not be quenched even by her setting their house ablaze, are getting married. The former Atlanta Falcons wide receiver told Atlanta hip-hop station WHTA-FM that he and the TLC singer will wed July 5 amid the hothouses of the city's Botanical Garden.

In 1994, following a fight with Rison, Lopes had torched their $1.3 million Alpharetta, Georgia mansion, later pleading guilty to arson and undergoing two stays in alcohol rehab. Last fall, she missed a TLC press conference and was declared missing by family and friends, only to turn up days later with then-boyfriend Sean Newman, reportedly shopping for wedding rings.

But at last year's Grammys, she said of her old flame, ''You know, me and Andre just have a bond that no one will understand. Sometimes, even I don't.'' Lopes was in Honduras as Rison made his announcement Wednesday, resting up for promotional duties for her upcoming solo album, ''Supernova,'' due out August 14. As for the honeymoon, Rison told WHTA they're planning to go on a ''hot tour and speak in schools across America.'' Kids, don't do drugs, don't go chasing waterfalls, and make sure your home has smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

BAD ADS Still reeling from the scandal regarding imaginary critic David Manning, Sony Pictures was revealed to have used two of its own employees in person-on-the-street testimonial commercials for last year's ''The Patriot.'' Variety reported that Sony marketing employees Tamaya Petteway and Anthony Jefferson appeared in the ad, with Petteway calling the film a ''perfect date movie.'' The gory Revolutionary War flick, which Spike Lee and other observers criticized for its dubious portrayal of colonial slavery, was said to be a tough sell for black audiences, and Petteway and Jefferson were two of only three African-Americans among the 32 moviegoers shown in the commercial.

SCALP ITCH Who do you have to sleep with to get Madonna tickets? If you want to see her concert next week in Berlin, you may be able to get them by having sex with a reporter from German website Thema1. (Will they use those new Madonna condoms?) Only 22 readers have responded to the offers from the online magazine's staffers -- including a straight woman, three straight men, and a gay man -- who volunteered to swap their tickets for sex, proving once again how little sex appeal reporters have. ''I didn't know reporters were so hard up for sex that they have to give away their Madonna tickets,'' said a spokesperson for the singer. At least this means there's a sleazier entertainment journalist out there than David Manning.

FLIGHT CRUDE Nelly isn't the only rapper who complains of being treated like a second-class citizen when flying first class. ''I don't know whether it's in the job application for flight attendants to be rude to certain people,'' Method Man said yesterday, echoing a discrimination complaint Nelly filed this week against TWA. ''I didn't win my ticket on a game show.''

Method Man made his comments at an MTV press conference, accompanied by Destiny's Child and the Dave Matthews Band, announcing a scholarship program to promote civil rights efforts. Each of the three acts, along with Mena Suvari and Muhammad Ali, will choose a student involved in anti-bias activism to win a $50,000 stipend. Winners of the five ''Fight For Your Rights Leadership Scholarships'' will be named on October 24.

HOMER'S ODYSSEY He may be a couple Duffs short of a six pack, but Homer Simpson has been recognized by the scholars who compile the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED, which traces the coining of words, credits Homer with popularizing, if not inventing, his trademark ''d'oh!'', which the dictionary defines as ''expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned or that one has just said or done something foolish. Also implying that another person has said or done something foolish.'' The ''d'oh!'' definition is one of 1,250 new entries added yesterday to the online edition, along with another phrase made famous by flabby, blue-collar entertainers: ''full monty.''

GRAND LARSON-Y Spike Lee is negotiating to direct the film version of the long-running Broadway rock musical ''Rent.'' A Miramax spokesperson confirmed the talks in the New York Post, noting that Lee is a fan of the late playwright/composer Jonathan Larson, and has seen ''Rent'' several times. Lee attended Wednesday's premiere of Larson's pre-''Rent'' musical, ''tick, tick...BOOM!'' Miramax bought the film rights to ''Rent'' in 1996, but agreed to hold off making a movie for five years so as not to sap the earning potential of touring productions.

ANGER WAT Cambodians are upset about the way they're portrayed in ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,'' which opens today. The Cambodian government gave producers rare permission to film at the religious shrine Angkor Wat, and while the film held to stipulations that no fighting or gunfire occur there, the Cambodian extras who appear in footage shot there are wearing black pajamas and pointy hats, traditional garb of the Vietnamese, who invaded Cambodia in 1979. Cambodian officials complain that such costumes are as inappropriate as sombreros in Los Angeles or kilts in New York. At least the filmmakers repaired a road destroyed by Pol Pot and spared the Cambodians any creepy PDA between Angelina Jolie and her brother.

CREATURE COMFORTERS Harvard law students, come on down! You're the next scholarship winners on ''The Price Is Right!'' Pearson Television, owner of the long-running game show, has donated $500,000 in the name of its animal-rights activist host to establish the Bob Barker Endowment Fund for the Study of Animal Rights. The fund will invite visiting legal scholars in the field of animal rights to teach at Harvard Law School and perhaps win some lovely kitchen appliances.

PASSING NOTES Jerry Sterner, who wrote ''Other People's Money,'' the hit Off Broadway play that became a 1991 Danny DeVito movie, died Monday at 62 of a heart attack at his home in Brooklyn. He began writing plays during long hours he spent in a token booth as a subway clerk, rose to become a successful real estate mogul and stock investor, then quit in the mid-'80s to become a full-time playwright. The Stamford Center for the Arts in Connecticut is staging the premiere of his ''Crossing the Double White Line'' this fall.

BOX OFFICE PREVIEW Angelina Jolie will use her feminine wiles (and her big guns) to help ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' topple the boys of ''Shrek,'' ''Pearl Harbor,'' and ''Swordfish'' in this weekend's box office. Read the complete story here.