Jeers Lucy

Ellen DeGeneres
THE PROJECT ''Mr. Wrong'' (1996)
THE COMMENT ''I see her as the next Lucy,'' says Joe Roth, chairman of Disney, which produced the film (Ladies Home Journal, May 1995).
''WAAAH!''T HAPPENED Yep, it's bad. Final gross: $12.8 million

Jenna Elfman
THE PROJECT ''Krippendorf's Tribe'' (1998)
THE COMMENT ''She is the first person in 20 years I can honestly compare to Lucille Ball,'' says costar Richard Dreyfuss (Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 22).
''WAAAH!''T HAPPENED Anthropologists hope future generations don't judge us by it; grossed $7.5 million

Téa Leoni
THE PROJECT ABC's and NBC's ''The Naked Truth'' (1995)
THE COMMENT ''I really think Téa is the Lucille Ball of the '90s,'' says Mary Tyler Moore, her costar in ''Flirting with Disaster'' (Toronto Sun, April 2, 1996).
''WAAAH!''T HAPPENED After three struggling seasons with constantly rotating casts and one network switch, this sitcom was officially declared a baba- loser

Kirstie Alley
THE PROJECT ''Sibling Rivalry'' (1990)
THE COMMENT ''Kirstie Alley doesn't mind [director] Carl Reiner's comparisons, certainly not when they put her in the same category as... Lucille Ball'' (Toronto Star, July 22, 1990).
''WAAAH!''T HAPPENED Makes ''Veronica's Closet'' look like the golden age of Alley; final gross: $17.7 million

Shelley Long
THE PROJECT CBS' ''Good Advice'' (1993)
THE COMMENT ''Shelley's something else.... She's a seasoned comedienne, another Lucille Ball,'' says Danny Jacobson, writer/ producer of the sitcom (Toronto Star, July 19, 1992).
''WAAAH!''T HAPPENED Better advice would have been to stay on ''Cheers''; show lasted 16 episodes

Sandra Bullock
THE PROJECT ''Miss Congeniality'' (in theaters Dec. 22)
THE COMMENT ''Sandy's got a lot of Lucille Ball in her,'' says the movie's coexecutive producer and screenwriter Marc Lawrence (EW, Aug. 18, 2000).
''WAAAH!''T HAPPENED Remains to be seen. But the trailer doesn't exactly make you say, ''But I wanna go to the show, Ricky!''