Cash and Carey

LEGAL BRIEF The war of words between Elizabeth Hurley and producer Steve Bing over whether or not he is the father of the child she is expecting has inflicted some collateral damage on British tabloid The Mirror. The paper printed Bing's business phone number and urged readers to call him and tell him what they thought of his behavior. Yesterday, Bing filed a suit against the publisher, editor, and reporters behind the story for $10 million, accusing them of libel, invasion of privacy, and causing emotional distress. ''He got death threats,'' said Bing's lawyer. ''It was a very reckless thing to do.''

HEALTH WATCH Clint Eastwood rushed to Vancouver on Christmas to be at the bedside of eight-year-old daughter Francesca Eastwood, who was being treated at Lion's Gate Hospital for smoke inhalation after surviving a fire that gutted her house. Francesca and her mother, Eastwood ex-girlfriend Frances Fisher, had been living in Vancouver while Fisher was shooting the upcoming WB series ''Glory Days.'' It's not clear how the fire started, but before it destroyed the house Christmas morning, the girl jumped to safety, climbing out her second-story window onto the garage roof and dropping 15 feet into the arms of a neighbor. Fisher, best known for playing Kate Winslet's mother in ''Titanic'' and for her appearances in her ex's movies (both she and Francesca appeared in Clint's ''True Crime''), suffered a severe burn on her hand....

Playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer, 66, was in fair condition yesterday, five days after undergoing a liver transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Doctors said that Kramer, the author of such plays as ''The Normal Heart'' and ''The Destiny of Me,'' was up and walking a bit, and that his recovery was progressing as expected. A founder of AIDS activist group ACT UP and of Gay Men's Health Crisis, a services provider for people with AIDS, Kramer is one of only a handful of HIV-positive people to receive liver transplants; the Pittsburgh hospital is one of the few places that will perform the surgery on such patients.

COIF MEDICINE On ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'' Sarah Michelle Gellar has proven herself handy with sharp implements, but we'll see how well she does with a scissors on the Jan. 8 episode when, according to a UPN press release, ''in a moment of panic over her relationship with Spike, Buffy chops off her hair.'' Attempting to avert fears of a ''Felicity''-like disaster, a spokeswoman for the show's producers insists, ''It's not Keri Russell short.'' When the episode was shot in November, Gellar ''cut barely five inches -- it's to her shoulders,'' the Fox Television rep says. ''It looks like her hair did in the second season.''...

Not only did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan win the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but he also proved a movie coiffure trendsetter. Danny Glover says he copied the diplomat's white hair and goatee to play courtly accountant Henry Sherman in ''The Royal Tenenbaums.'' Glover introduced ''Tenenbaums'' director Wes Anderson to Annan at a UN event, and that Anderson later told the actor, ''Man, that's the look I want for you to have in the movie.''