Hard to Handle

TUBE NEWS From Fox came the news that the clock is ticking for ''The Tick,'' which will air its last on Jan. 24. Kiefer Sutherland and Dennis Hopper will enjoy a flashback to the 1990 movie ''Flashback'' (where Sutherland's FBI man chased a fugitive Hopper); Hopper is poised to join ''24'' as secret service man Sutherland's quarry, the mastermind behind the season-long assassination plot. And Jill Clayburgh, who'll guest-star as Calista Flockhart's mom on ''Ally McBeal,'' let slip that she may become a ''granny,'' with Ally finally getting a dancing baby of her own....

Bruce Willis is negotiating with HBO to produce and possibly star in a miniseries based on James Ellroy's novels ''American Tabloid'' and ''The Cold Six Thousand.'' HBO owns the rights to the novels, the first two of a planned trilogy that revolves around the conspiracy theories surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination. Meanwhile, Variety reports that the ''L.A. Confidential'' author is developing his own talk show, though it'll probably be hard for Ellroy to find guests who speak in alliterative, staccato sentences....

Carrie Fisher is bringing back her sporadic celebrity-interview show ''Conversations From the Edge'' to cable's Oxygen with a very special guest, the seldom-interviewed man who made her famous. Airing on Jan. 30, Fisher's hourlong conversation with George Lucas promises to be rich in ''Star Wars'' trivia, including the name of Lucas' second choice to play Princess Leia had Fisher turned down the role (it was Terri Nunn, future lead singer of ''Take My Breath Away'' band Berlin) and the origin of Leia's twin-cinnamon-bun hairdo. Future Fisher guests in 2002 will include Courtney Love and Melanie Griffith.

REEL DEALS The long-gestating ''Catch Me If You Can,'' with Steven Spielberg directing Leonardo DiCaprio as 1960s fugitive Frank Abagnale Jr., is finally expected to start shooting in February. Tom Hanks will play the FBI agent who spends years chasing DiCaprio's con man. The latest casting addition is Christopher Walken as DiCaprio's dad....

Nicole Kidman showed off her singing skills in ''Moulin Rouge,'' but her upcoming project, ''Court and Spark,'' is not a remake of the classic Joni Mitchell album. Rather, it's a movie being developed for her by Fox Searchlight, in which she would play Eleanor of Aquitaine, the 12th-century queen of both England and France. Kidman would be stepping into the shoes of Katharine Hepburn, who won an Oscar playing the queen in 1968's ''The Lion in Winter.''...