Journalist Howard Blum just made a six-figure deal with HarperCollins for his World War II account, "The Brigade." And sources say Tom Cruise is negotiating to land the film rights, with an eye toward starring as one of the Jewish soldiers who were recruited from Palestine to fight the Nazis in the last days of the war. "It's one of the few untold stories of World War II," says HarperCollins executive editor David Hirshey, who plans to publish "The Brigade" in fall 2000. Meanwhile, John Travolta is preparing to star in the biopic "Standing Room Only," based on Farrar Straus' recent "Making the Wiseguys Weep: The Jimmy Roselli Story," by David Evanier, about the other legendary singer from Hoboken.