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TUBE TALK Also up for TV biopic treatment is former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Five Mile River Films, makers of such Biblical epics for TNT as ''Joseph'' and ''Abraham,'' has optioned ''Emperor of the City: The Story of America's Mayor,'' the Giuliani biography written by Andrew Kirtzman, political reporter for the Big Apple's New York 1 cable news channel. The 2000 book was a warts-and-all portrayal of the popular but often combative and heavy-handed mayor, but the TV movie will presumably include the reassessment by Kirtzman (and everyone else) of Giuliani after his statesmanlike performance in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
REEL DEALS Jim Caviezel, whose starring role in ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' finally hits screens this week, asserts that he'll never display the full Monte onscreen. ''You're never gonna see my butt on film unless I'm in the Holocaust, walking around,'' the devout Catholic tells the New York Post. If he does appear in a love scene, he wants even his partner to remain clothed, as was the case when he starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in last year's ''Angel Eyes.'' ''I just said, 'Look, put a top on her,''' he said. '''I'm gonna keep my shorts on, she's gonna keep hers on. Get the camera and shoot around it.' And that's out of devotion, love and respect to my wife.'' (Caviezel, 33, is married to a schoolteacher named Kerri.) Not that moviegoers or filmmakers are necessarily screaming to see more of Caviezel's flesh. As ''Monte Cristo'' love interest Dagmara Dominczyk told the Post, ''Jim took me aside and said, 'You know, I'm married and very faithful.' ''And I said, 'Jim, it's a Disney movie. I'm not gonna grab your crotch!'''...
After four years on his back burner, Steven Spielberg has decided not to direct ''Memories of a Geisha,'' the adaptation of the 1997 bestselling novel by Arthur Golden. He has a full plate, wrapping up ''Minority Report'' with Tom Cruise and is about to start ''Catch Me if You Can'' with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. But he's apparently not too busy to produce ''Geisha,'' once Sony Pictures finds a new director....
You probably weren't screaming for a sequel to last fall's teen horror sleeper ''Jeepers Creepers,'' but you're going to get one. The movie grossed $50 million worldwide and debuted on video last week with a $7.5 million take, so it was only a matter of time before United Artists greenlit ''Like a Bat Out of Hell: Jeepers Creepers 2.'' This time, the villainous Creeper attacks a busload of high school jocks and cheerleaders. It'll creep into theaters in 2003.
PASSING NOTES Torch singer Peggy Lee, whose six-decade career included such hits as ''Fever'' and the Grammy-winning ''Is That All There Is,'' died last night of a heart attack at her Bel Air, Calif. home. The sultry-voiced singer was 81. Besides her many compositions and dozens of albums, she also was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as a jazz singer in 1956's ''Pete Kelly's Blues.'' She wrote and sang several songs in Disney's ''Lady and the Tramp,'' and years later, she won a landmark lawsuit against the studio over video royalties, even though the film was made decades before home video existed. Just last week, she reached a tentative settlement in another royalty-underpayment lawsuit, a class-action complaint against Universal Music in which she was the lead plaintiff among 300 artists, including the late Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.
