Flashes

WRITER'S JOCK:
Playing a journalist on ABC's Lois & Clark must have rubbed off on Teri Hatcher. The April 28 show, about a surreal high school reunion, features a script penned by the actress. ''Writing was very freeing,'' says Hatcher, who spent a month working on the episode. ''It gave me lots of energy.'' Good thing, because Hatcher got busy making casting decisions, too. Her story included a part for her idol, San Francisco 49er football star Steve Young. Too nervous to call, Hatcher sent him a letter. ''I ended up saying 'Hi, my name is Teri Hatcher, and I play Lois.' It was so silly. But I didn't know how else to do it,'' she says. Young, it turns out, was flustered by the invite. Says Hatcher: ''He told me, 'I got your letter and called all my buddies and told them I have Teri Hatcher's number. What do I do with it?''' Equally phone shy, Young opted to call Lois & Clark's casting director instead, who drafted the quarterback to play an old flame.
— Casey Davidson

DRIVE, THEY SAID:
This summer, Bon Jovi and Fahrvergnugen will be one and the same. Volkswagen, in addition to sponsoring the band's 22-show European tour, will manufacture three special ''Bon Jovi'' Golf models to be sold only in Europe. The autos, which start at 26,500 deutsche marks (about $40,000), offer Bon Jovi-monogrammed key rings, floor mats, and leather gearshifts. What is it about them that inspires such auto engineering? According to Volkswagen, it was being named best rock band at MTV Europe's music awards, though they did have one other selling point. ''Bon Jovi's the most attractive band for our target group — young people,'' says Otto F. Wachs, a Volkswagen spokesman. ''Bon Jovi fans are our potential customers. And car driving and listening to music are intimately connected.'' Call it Autobahn Jovi.
— Heidi Siegmund Cuda

PSYCHED OUT:
Ghostbusting has been very, very good to Dan Aykroyd, which explains why he's hosting Psi Factor, a syndicated TV series that wants to do for the supernatural what Unsolved Mysteries did for crime. ''We'll take a supernatural event and break it down to find out whether it's a hoax,'' says Aykroyd. ''The dramatizations will be quite vivid, and we'll have actors playing people who've had psychic experiences.'' Among the show's more enigmatic topics: revenge-seeking snakes and man-eating fleas the size of a chow dog. Though many Psi cases will be culled from the Office of Scientific Investigation and Research — a Northern California-based organization studying paranormal phenomena — Aykroyd has been besieged by tipsters, including one journalist who told him about vampire goat killers. ''She told me I better do it before The X-Files finds out. It's not a bad idea,'' he adds. ''We could call it Goatbusters.''