Girl, Incarcerated

TROPHY TIME The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), the first major critics' group to announce its year-end awards, named David Lynch's ''Mullholland Drive'' best picture. The association of 38 New York-based newspaper and magazine movie critics gave ''In The Bedroom'' three awards, for best actress and actor (Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson) and best first film (for actor-turned-director Todd Field). Upcoming murder mystery ''Gosford Park'' also picked up three awards, for best director (Robert Altman), best screenplay (Julian Fellowes), and best supporting actress (Helen Mirren).

Steve Buscemi won best supporting actor as the cranky record collector in ''Ghost World.'' Best animated feature was Richard Linklater's experimental ''Waking Life,'' edging out ''Shrek'' by two votes. Hong Kong-based Wong Kar-Wai's ''In the Mood for Love'' won best foreign film and best cinematography (Christopher Doyle and Pin Bing Lee). Best nonfiction film was French director Agnes Varda's ''The Gleaners and I.'' Honorees can pick up their prizes next month at a dinner at New York's Russian Tea Room.

Although the group's picks generally did not help oddsmakers establish a consensus by echoing those from last week's list by the National Board of Review (which picked ''Moulin Rouge'' as best picture), both organizations did avoid Hollywood studio films almost entirely, instead favoring independent films or those from the quasi-independent wings of major studios (like USA Films, which earned five awards, or Fox Searchlight or Disney's Miramax). ''I think that everyone is of the considered opinion that it was a dismal year overall, especially for films that came from Hollywood,'' said Newsday critic and NYFCC chairman John Anderson. ''The winning films were really all art-division films. I think that sort of says it all.''

TUBE TALK ''Malcolm in the Middle'' will do the traditional thing with its coveted post-Super Bowl slot in February and air an episode full of seemingly random star cameos, including one obligatory supermodel. The episode will take place at Hal's company picnic, where Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) tussles with another couple, played by Bradley Whitford (Kaczmarek's real-life husband) and Susan Sarandon. Also guest starring will be Heidi Klum, Tom Green, and Christina Ricci....

He's a future sitcom star, and you're not. Chevy Chase is reteaming with his onetime boss, ''Saturday Night Live'' producer Lorne Michaels, to star in an NBC sitcom, where he'd play a dad with three daughters. In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead....

Getting advertisers to buy commercial time on network television has been so difficult this year that it's driven NBC to drink. Starting this weekend, NBC will be the first network to lift a 50-year, self-imposed ban on hard liquor ads. Some local and cable stations have been airing booze spots for a couple of years, but no major network has yet been willing to air such ads and risk alienating media watchdogs -- or the beer industry. (And no other network plans to do so -- not yet, anyway.) To placate spirit-spiting viewers, NBC will insist that distillers air four months of ''social responsibility'' commercials before they get to show ads that simply promote their products, and even then, 20 percent of their spots will have to have a drink-responsibly theme. Ads will air only after 9 p.m., including on NBC's late-night shows. Other conditions include: no professional athletes in the ads, no actors under age 30, and no one actually putting glass to lips and being shown drinking. NBC already has a deal in place with Diageo, British distributor of Tanqueray gin, Johnnie Walker whiskies, and Smirnoff vodka, which will air its first ad on tomorrow's ''Saturday Night Live.''