Here’s The Lowdown On The Year’s Biggest Highs

It was an up and down 1995 for your favorite celebrities. Tom Hanks, for example, told Entertainment Weekly magazine, that his high was “Looking down in the audience at the Oscars and thinking, ‘Wow, that’s Paul Newman!”’ His low: “If one more person gives me a box of chocolates, I’m gonna choke.”

David Schwimmer’s (“Friends”) high point was “Just seeing how happy my grandparents are that they’re getting perks at the dry cleaners because they have the same last name as me.” John Henson (“Talk Soup”) liked Drew Barrymore flashing David Letterman. “I got to get me a job like that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bruce Willis’ low was critical reaction to wife Demi Moore’s “The Scarlet Letter.” “Is there some sort of literature cop out there who says you can’t change a story?” he asked.

Loose Talk

Anthony Hopkins on portraying Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon”: “Capturing Nixon’s awkwardness was quite easy for me. To be honest, I find emotions to be sort of inconvenient.”

She’s the real thing, Cokie is

Cokie Roberts turns 47 today.

Do you work your mouse with thumbs up or down?

Movie critic Roger Ebert wasn’t happy about being included in the book “E-Mail Addresses of the Rich & Famous.” Why? “When your address appears in a place like that, your mailbox starts filling up with messages like, ‘Is this really you? Please write back!!!”’

This is dedicated to the one she loves now

Author Kaye Gibbons doesn’t believe that the printed word is so revered that it can’t be altered. “In the new printings of ‘A Virtuous Woman,”’ she told The New Yorker magazine, “I’m deleting my ex-husband’s name and replacing it with my second and final husband’s, Frank Ward.” Why did she do it? “It was irritating to me every time I opened the book.”

And somewhere, somehow, someone agrees with him

In the forthcoming updating of the songs of the Broadway musical “West Side Story,” one of the unusual covers includes Little Richard singing “I Feel Pretty.”

He would, however, consider Janet or LaToya

“60 Minutes” producer Don Hewitt has considered making some changes in his program, including the attempted hiring of ABC anchor Peter Jennings. “I don’t have any openings, but I’d make room for him,” Hewitt says. But he isn’t likely to changes the program’s format. “I’m not looking for Michael Jackson,” he said.

Only Santa knows whether he was naughty or nice

Fans waiting outside O.J. Simpson’s Brentwood estate were rewarded when the former football star waved to and smiled at them on Christmas day. Simpson waved to a dozen or so tourists, then climbed into his black Bentley and drove off. A security guard ignored questions about Simpson’s Christmas plans.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

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