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LEGAL BRIEFS Bruce Springsteen says he was not born to run for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey. A group of activists had launched a petition drive this week to draft Springsteen as an independent candidate. Guiding them was Doug Friedline, a political consultant who had helped another celebrity, Jesse Ventura, win the governorship of Minnesota, But the Boss has issued a statement, quoting a similar refusal by General William Tecumseh Sherman to seek the presidency in 1884. ''If nominated, I will not run,'' said Springsteen. ''If elected, I will not serve.'' Friedline, however, was undeterred, telling the New York Daily News, ''Just because [Springsteen] posted this quote that's 140 years old doesn't mean it's over. I have some people behind the scenes that know the Boss, and we believe it's not dead yet.'' Because everything that dies someday comes back....

Hope the police read ''Sex and the City'''s Cynthia Nixon her Miranda rights. She was arrested in New York Tuesday at a City Hall demonstration against proposed cuts of $350 million from the city's school budget. Among the 75 protesters present at the sit-in, Nixon and 11 others were arrested for disorderly conduct and taken into custody; she was released shortly thereafter with a summons to appear in court on June 19. Nixon, who has testified against the cuts before legislators, said her 5-year-old daughter's Manhattan public school has already felt the effects of the budget crunch, with the assistant teachers who help supervise the elementary school kids having been dismissed. In fact, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that he'll probably veto the proposed cuts. Maybe Nixon can reward him with a cameo.

The German woman accused of stalking Richard Gere pleaded guilty in a Manhattan court to aggravated harassment charges on Thursday and was subsequently deported. Ursula Reichert-Habbishaw, 51, avoided a one-year jail term but will be barred from re-entering the United States. Over the last 15 months, she had allegedly phoned Gere between 100 and 1,000 times and had visited his New York office six times in the hopes of meeting the ''Unfaithful'' star. Now she must abide by a three-year order of protection not to contact Gere or his assistant by mail, fax, phone, or e-mail.

Producer Steve Bing is involved in another nasty paternity dispute. The man who said he doubted he was the father of Elizabeth Hurley's newborn (DNA tests are currently under way) has been fingered as the father of another child, the 4-year-old daughter of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, ex-wife of MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian. The 84-year-old mogul, who's fighting his ex over child support (Lisa wants $320,000 a month), claims that he's sterile and the girl is actually Bing's daughter. Bing has acknowledged dating Lisa, but didn't want to get involved in the support battle, so Kerkorian apparently hired a private eye to sift through Bing's garbage and found a strand of dental floss to use to obtain a DNA sample. Now Bing is suing Kerkorian for $5 million for invasion of privacy. Sounds like the fate of all parties hangs by a thread.


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