One Gangsta Rapper Tries To Put His Violence On Ice

It’s not clear whether he did it because he’s really concerned or whether he’s trying to mend fences with the cultural elite that he’s alienated with his gangsta rap recordings.

In the long run, though, it makes no difference. The message that Ice-T delivered to students at three Minneapolis high schools on Friday was what they needed to hear.

First, he asked students to raise their hands if they knew someone who sold or used drugs or ran with a gang. Some 900 hands went up. Then he asked how many knew anyone older than 25 who maintained that lifestyle without being jailed or shot. Most hands came down.

“I can tell you how to get rich in nine months,” he said. “But the ninemonth plan ends in a funeral. There is no retirement, and you can’t win. Why get into a profession where you can’t win?”

Loose talk

“Friends” cast member Courteney Cox, a size 2, on rumors that she is bulimic: “I couldn’t make myself throw up if I tried.”

And he’s still got hi-i-igh hopes of making 81

Frank Sinatra turns 80 today.

And then, at times, he’d end up losing his Bat-temper

Whenever things would get tough on the set of the forthcoming action film “Heat,” the actors would have a simple plan. They’d turn to co-star Val Kilmer, the actor who replaced Michael Keaton in the “Batman” series. “I’d see him and go, ‘Hey, Batman. We’re in a fix. Can you get us out?”’ says Tom Sizemore, who with Kilmer plays a member of bank-robber Robert De Niro’s crime crew.

Others of us have likened that area to Siberia, too

Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a true citizen of the world, loves spending time in Tulsa, Okla. “Tulsa is a most typical American city,” Yevtushenko says, adding that the people and lifestyle remind him of his childhood in Siberia.

Casting call for Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges

Movie director Spike Lee, of all people, is hoping to write a sitcom for CBS. Not surprisingly, it won’t be another variation on “The Jeffersons.” “I’m working on a pilot called ‘Slim’s Table’ that looks at older black men who gather every day at a Greek restaurant and talk about life,” Lee told TV Guide.

Kathy to her producers: Do you really want to hurt me?

Kathie Lee Gifford is complaining again. On a recent show, she had wanted to interview Oklahoma first lady Cathy Keating. But, Gifford fumed to TV Guide, “She was bumped off the show by Boy George! He has his place, but let’s keep it balanced.”

Perhaps Whoopi Goldberg should take note

“It’s always a tremendous mistake for actors to get involved with someone they’re working with,” says actress Emma Thompson. “It can be very confusing.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

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