When In Love, It’s Liz, But To Be Free Is Divine

It appears that Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley truly belong together.

Well, they have been an item for eight years now - in spite of having their dirty laundry revealed to the whole world when Grant was picked up on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip for soliciting a woman named Divine Brown for sex.

“Elizabeth is the only woman in the world who knows what I like,” Grant told the British magazine Hello!. “She knows me inside out.”

That doesn’t mean marriage, though. “It’s not that I’m scared of growing up,” said the 34-year-old actor. “It’s more that I don’t want to lose my freedom.”

And what does he call freedom? “To fly to Paris, stay at the Ritz, dine at little bistros, go to fashion shows in Milan - that’s what I call enjoying myself.”

Loose Talk

Howard Stern on family relations: “My 12-year-old daughter has no idea who I am. She thinks I’m a Harvard professor.” He won’t attend a party that would honor him as a member

Woody Allen turns 60 today.

When breaking up isn’t so very hard to do

Janice Dickinson failed to establish Sylvester Stallone as the father of her daughter (he failed the paternity tests). But the model-turned-photographer scored by splitting up with her husband, real-estate developer Albert Gersten. She was awarded $60,000 in cash and allowed to keep her 23-carat diamond ring (worth: $180,000). When she returned her leased Mercedes, she drove away in a new BMW.

Think maybe he can set us up with Debra Winger?

At least one reader, Ken Martin of Spokane, and a couple of Spokesman-Review staffers have pointed out that Lance Cpl. Zachary Mayo, who was rescued after falling off his ship in the Arabian Sea, bears the same name as the character played by Richard Gere in the 1983 movie “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

Meanwhile, Nancy Kerrigan is off somewhere smirking

Yes, ex-Olympic skater Tonya Harding is planning to marry one Michael Smith. And this is despite the report by “Inside Edition” that he’s been married three times, is the father of five kids and has been accused of being a batterer, liar and financial incompetent. “I don’t care what people think,” Harding says. “I love him and he loves me.”

Even as a TV dad-in-law, Ed O’Neill would be intolerable

Adam Duritz of Counting Crows is a hot dater. After enjoying flings with Jennifer Anniston (“Friends”) and Ashley Judd, he’s now reportedly seeing Christina Applegate of “Married… With Children.”

And then there’s always the leftovers problem

Here’s our nomination for sitcom line of the week, spoken by Fran Drescher on “The Nanny”: “Men can’t be rushed. They’re like chicken. You cook them too fast, they get tough. You take your time, let them simmer for a while, they fall apart in your hands.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster