Friend-er Bender

REEL DEALS Psst -- wanna buy a studio? Rumors that MGM was putting itself on the block and had enlisted Goldman Sachs to solicit bids sent the studio's stock up 12 percent yesterday. That still puts it about $1.7 billion shy of majority stockholder Kirk Kerkorian's reported $7 billion asking price. Kerkorian, who has bought the studio three times and sold it twice since 1969, owns 80 percent of the stock. Despite such hits last year as ''Hannibal'' and ''Legally Blonde'' and the continuing success of its James Bond franchise, MGM has only a tiny fraction of the production capacity and market share of the other major Hollywood studios, most of which are owned by multimedia conglomerates that are all possible buyers of MGM. But the studio does have a tremendous asset in its library of 4,100 movies, the industry's largest, even though the core of the collection (including ''Gone With the Wind'') was sold to Ted Turner years ago.

Why Kerkorian might want to sell again now isn't clear, although last week, he was sued for child support by his ex-wife, former tennis pro Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, who's asking for $320,000 a month to raise their 3-year-old daughter, Kira. Lisa Kerkorian's lawyer said that the child had grown accustomed to that level of support, only to see her father pay less and less in recent months, while his lawyer said that Kerkorian had been making the payments voluntarily, since his ex-wife waived the right to spousal support before a marriage that was little more than a formality. Kerkorian, 84, had a relationship with Lisa, 36, for seven years and married her for only a month in 1998 to legitimize the child. If Lisa Kerkorian is granted the level of support she's asking for, it would be the highest child support award in California history.

SOUND BITES As if it weren't enough for the Super Bowl to have U2 performing the halftime show, Mariah Carey singing the national anthem, and Mary J. Blige and Marc Anthony singing ''America the Beautiful,'' the contest has also added Paul McCartney to the lineup. ''As a sports fan, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be involved in the Super Bowl, and as a musician, I am honored to add my voice to the message of tribute that this year's Super Bowl will carry,'' he said in a statement. He'll be singing his post-Sept. 11 anthem ''Freedom,'' accompanied by a chorus of 500 young people representing the 180 countries televising the Feb. 3 event (and the estimated 1 billion couch potatoes who'll be watching worldwide). Also, in between all the singing, there'll be a football game.