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DREAM WEAVER: Billy Joel immortalized Christie Brinkley in his 1983 song and video ''Uptown Girl.'' Now it's her turn. Brinkley has painted the album cover for Joel's River of Dreams, out this July. ''To me, River of Dreams meant stream of consciousness, so I painted Billy surrounded by his dreams,'' says Brinkley, who studied art in Paris before taking up supermodeling. Joel describes his wife's technique as ''a mixture-some expressionism, some impressionism. It's naive. It's, well, original.'' Guess that's what they mean by abstract art? -Melina Gerosa HIGH STEAKS: Richard Lewis' obsession with all things black seems to know no bounds. Already famous for his ebony wardrobe, the former Anything but Love star amazed the staff at Hollywood's Columbia Bar & Grill recently by ordering the same lunch every day for a week: blackened steak. No potatoes. No vegetables. Just blackened steak. ''I needed all the strength I could muster in order to deal with Don Rickles,'' says Lewis, who was in the midst of shooting the pilot for his upcoming Fox series, Daddy Dearest, costarring Rickles. ''Blackened steak is actually an anti-Rickles vaccine.'' -Frank Spotnitz
A CRYING SHAME: In case you missed the Gap ad with actor Jaye Davidson, Hot Shots! Part Deux finally ends our long national nightmare about the secret of The Crying Game. A line in the movie's joke-filled closing credits reads: ''Secret of The Crying Game She's a Guy.'' Director Jim Abrahams says, ''It's in perfect keeping with the spirit of Hot Shots!'' But is he worried about spilling the beans? ''Oh, sure. I'm terrified that all those people who haven't been able to find the right night to see the movie in eights months will band together and stone me.'' -Bronwen Hruska FAN FARE: On the Chicago set of the New Line thriller Blink, Aidan Quinn (Benny & Joon) was too distracted to finish a big love scene with comely costar Madeleine Stowe (The Last of the Mohicans). What was more enticing than Stowe? Baseball. ''We were filming on a roof overlooking Wrigley Field,'' says Quinn, a Windy City native and a Cubs fan. ''Every time the crowd roared I wanted to watch the game.'' The actor finally rallied, much to the relief of director Michael Apted (Thunderheart), who was using the ballpark lights to illuminate the scene. -Cindy Pearlman
CHANGING PARTNERS: The verdict is still out for the cast of NBC's revamped L.A. Law. New executive producer Bill Finkelstein (Civil Wars) may ax junior partners A Martinez and Lisa Zane to make room for Debi Mazar and Alan Rosenberg-who, sources say, will switch shows and networks but still play the same characters they did on ABC's Civil Wars. Finkelstein is also reportedly trying to woo back Susan Dey now that she's turned in her chef's hat on Love & War. Meanwhile, insiders say Law regular Corbin Bernsen is being courted by CBS for a show of his own. -FS
FIELD OF GREENS: Kevin Costner-currently filming Warner Bros.' A Perfect World with Clint Eastwood in Texas-is sinking some of his Bodyguard profits into a 450-seat Pasadena restaurant scheduled to open this fall. The star's office would neither confirm nor deny his participation in the Twin Palms restaurant, located not far from Costner's home, but staffers at Pasadena's Departments of Planning, Zoning, and Health are already referring to it as ''Kevin's place.'' The menu is being created by famed L.A. chef Michael Roberts (Trumps), who'll mix French West Indian and French country cuisine. This won't be Costner's first foray into the service industry: He and brother Dan Costner own the Midnight Star Casino and its two restaurants in Deadwood, S.D., just a few miles from where Dances With Wolves was filmed. -Bill Higgins
