REEL DEALS Stand-up gal Margaret Cho returns to movie theaters this July with another concert film, ''Notorious C.H.O.'' It's being distributed by Wellspring Media, which enjoyed an indie-sized theatrical and home video hit two years ago with Cho's last comedy performance, ''I'm the One That I Want.''...
Now that Dolph Lundgren is retiring, guess it's safe to remake ''The Punisher.'' The character is one of several Marvel Comics characters (including Thor and Captain America) to which Artisan Entertainment owns the film rights. Action scribe Jonathan Hensleigh (''Die Hard With a Vengeance,'' ''The Saint'') will write and make his directing debut with the story of the Punisher, the heavily-armed, crime-fighting vigilante played so memorably by Lundgren in a low-budget 1990 -- wait, you didn't see it? Oh....
Book 'em, Danno -- the plane tickets to Honolulu, that is. DreamWorks is going to Hawaii. The studio has bought a script for a film version of ''Hawaii Five-O,'' the cop show that ran for 12 years on CBS based on little more than a catchphrase (see above), the perpetual grimace of star Jack Lord, an uncatchable villain (crime kingpin Wo Fat), and that unforgettable surf-jazz theme song. No word on who DreamWorks might book to play Lord's role, Steve McGarrett...
Ethan Allen was more than just the most famous American (besides Elvis Presley) to have a line of bedroom furniture named after him. He was a Revolutionary War hero whose ''Green Mountain Boys'' in Vermont played a decisive role early in the struggle for independence. He'll be played by Jim Caviezel (''High Crimes'') in ''Rebels,'' a movie shooting in July.
HEALTH WATCH Jason Priestley escaped injury Sunday when his racing boat collided with another during the Fountain Miami Super Boat Grand Prix. No one in the other boat was hurt either, but the actor's throttleman, Dan Campbell, suffered several cracked ribs. ''It wasn't scary at all,'' said the former ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' star, who was piloting the craft. ''When it became clear we were going to make contact, my job was to avoid flipping over.'' Let's hope he handles racing cars better than racing boats; he's planning to drive in July for the Kelley Racing team in the Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series....
Let's also hope Nick Carter was paying attention. He's got a new 43-foot power racing boat, which is entered in the American Power Boat Association's Super Vee race in Daytona Beach, Fla. this Sunday. At least the Backstreet Boy isn't quitting his day job; his dad, Bob Carter, will pilot the boat, and Nick will sing the national anthem before the race.
PASSING NOTES Linda Boreman, who starred in what is probably the most successful X-rated film of all time, 1972's ''Deep Throat,'' under her nom de porn Linda Lovelace, died Monday in a Denver hospital of injuries suffered in a car crash. The crash occurred on April 3, and the 53-year-old Boreman had been comatose until the decision was made yesterday to take her off life support. As Linda Lovelace, she starred in a porn film so popular that even curious suburbanites didn't mind being seen in public going to X-rated moviehouses to watch it. (Of course, the movie also served as the source of the nickname for the anonymous Watergate scandal informant whose identity reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have kept secret to this day.) In the years after ''Deep Throat'' made her famous, she became an anti-porn crusader, claiming in her memoir ''Ordeal'' (published under her married name, Linda Marchiano) that she had received no money for the movie and that her first husband, Chuck Traynor, had forced her to perform in it at gunpoint. She divorced him in 1973 and wed Larry Marchiano, to whom she was married for 22 years. They divorced in 1996 but remained close; he and their two adult children were at her side when she died.
