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By Lynette Rice

Lynette Rice

Whoa, Nellie!

Glenn Close knew it was a bit of a stretch for her to play Nellie Forbush, the lovestruck nurse who falls for an older French plantation owner (a role typically played by an ingenue), in ABC's upcoming South Pacific adaptation. ''It was the hardest thing to get over -- I'm not an ingenue,'' says the 53-year-old actress, who decided to make the issue moot by taking the emphasis off of physical features. ''I had this little revelation that my Nellie [wouldn't] really spend a lot of time on what she looks like. That freed me to be who I am.'' It seemed to work: Nobody so much as flinched over at the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization upon seeing the final cut. According to the group's spokesman Bert Fink, ''Mary Rodgers [Richard Rodgers' daughter]says this is the best-acted South Pacific she's ever seen.'' As for some of those youthful songs, such as ''A Cockeyed Optimist'' and ''I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,'' Close says, ''I think you can be a cockeyed optimist no matter what your age. It doesn't mean you're stupid. Nellie makes a decision not to be skeptical about life. She's moved by nature and she keeps herself open to that kind of thing. I thought I could do that.'' Close wasn't so confident about playing another musical legend: She gave a thumbs- down to an offer to tackle the starring role in ABC's upcoming production of Mame. Besides, it was tough enough getting South Pacific (which costars Harry Connick Jr. and Robert Pastorelli) produced. ABC was nervous about committing to the musical, which received a greenlight before 1997's Cinderella became a network hit. ''South Pacific was more expensive than usual,'' says Close of the rumored $14 million budget. ''When you ask people to spend that much money they get nervous. But I must say we've gotten a thousand percent support from them.'' Now, we'll see if the ratings make for an enchanted evening.

Ball and Chain?

Here's a new challenge for Vince McMahon: keeping people interested in his crazy cast of XFL characters. The fledgling football league has lost an astounding 75 percent of its audience since debuting on NBC Feb. 3 -- declining from 15.7 million viewers to 3.9 million on Feb. 24. (UPN, which airs the XFL on Sunday, has also suffered huge declines.) NBC -- which invested $50 mil in the joint venture with McMahon -- has committed to two seasons, so the XFL has a little breathing room for now. ''All the nets have trouble attracting audiences of any size on Saturday,'' points out NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa. Besides, the XFL still has a few desperate tricks up its sleeve: It's looking to recruit talented high schoolers whose lousy grades prevent them from playing football in college, and it'll be taking cameras inside the cheerleaders' locker room beginning March 10. Plus, Sassa has an idea of his own. ''The way to build this league up is by building personalities like He Hate Me [Rod Smart of the Las Vegas Outlaws] or the placekicker who kicked three field goals in one game [Jose Cortez on Los Angeles Xtreme]. He was a roofer before this!'' If those ratings don't improve, he may be one again real soon.

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