Flashes

INJURED PARTYER:
The Scene: Revlon/UCLA's annual Fire & Ice Ball, a benefit for women's cancer research being held, in part, on the Batman & Robin set. The Costars: former Riddler Jim Carrey with wife Lauren Holly, Winona Ryder with Little Women pal Claire Danes, and Chris O'Donnell. The Leading Man: the Caped Crusader himself, George Clooney, who shows up with a bandage under his bushy left brow. The Script: Clooney, locked in a tete-a-tete of famous friends, including Carrey and Batman costar O'Donnell, points to the offending wound and says, ''I got a basketball in the face.'' The Rewrite: Later, Clooney tells reporters, ''I got hit with a car door.'' The Spin Control: ''George told me it was a car door,'' says the actor's spokeswoman, Lisa Reeder. ''So I believe it. And that's what you should report.'' Done.
— David Poland

STRANGE BREW:
Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes, and that the most inane sitcoms will become movies. Next up: a Laverne and Shirley feature from producer-director Garry Marshall. ''We have a finished script called Laverne and Shirley Meet the Royals,'' says Marshall, the series' creator. ''Laverne has gotten married, but she gets together with Shirley, and they go meet the royalty of Palm Beach, where they don't fit in.'' Marshall insists his sister Penny, who's spent the last 13 years living down the character and becoming a respected director, is into it. ''Penny wants to do it. Cindy Williams wants to do it,'' he says. When asked about the possibility of acting again, a spokesperson for Penny replied, ''She's not doing anything now except editing The Preacher's Wife [due in December].'' But it sounds like Garry will have no problem rustling up the rest of the cast — once they hear about it. ''There's really a movie?'' asked a spokeswoman for Michael McKean and David L. Lander, a.k.a. Lenny and Squiggy. ''Are you serious? Michael and David love Lenny and Squiggy. But who knows until you're approached?''
— Cindy Pearlman

OUT OF PLACE:
We know viewers have a hard time keeping track of Kimberly's personalities and the nasty things Amanda does. But now even the producers of Melrose Place seem confused. A recent print ad for the ''Can You See Yourself on Melrose Place?'' sweepstakes (cosponsored by Dep hair gel), in which contestants can win a walk-on appearance on the Fox soap, features an extremely old lineup. The photo displays Daphne Zuniga (Jo), who left the series last season, but no Laura Leighton (Sydney), who still wreaks havoc weekly. Did someone slip up? ''It's absolutely intentional,'' says Spelling TV's Lisa Berlin. ''Laura Leighton just doesn't like to be in our licensed promotions. Who knows why?'' Well, at least Amy Locane wasn't in it.
— Jessica Shaw

GRAVE YARN:
The answer to the question ''Does Jim Morrison live?'' may be answered by the caretakers of Paris' Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Officials at the famed graveyard, where Morrison was interred in 1971 and where plots are leased rather than sold, may oust the Lizard King when his 30-year lease expires in 2001. The problem? Doors fans flock to his grave, scattering bottles and defacing the tomb of Oscar Wilde with poetic remarks like ''Val Kilmer will die, but you will live forever, Jim.'' Cemetery representative Janine Vidal admits the matter is under discussion, but ''it's not been settled.'' For at least one fan, Kerry Humpherys of the fanzine The Doors Collector's Magazine, Morrison's exhumation could finally put to rest rumors that he staged his own death. ''To transport a body into the U.S. they'd have to check it for infectious disease,'' reasons Humpherys, ''which means they'd have to do tissue samples.'' C'est la mort.
— Adam St. James and Tiarra Mukherjee