When The Camera Rolls, It Brings Out Her Best

Being a television star makes Tea Leoni sick - literally.

The airsickness bags nailed up around the set of her new sitcom, “The Naked Truth” (tonight at 9:30 on ABC), are more than mere props. Leoni filled five of them while filming the show’s pilot.

“It’s just that I don’t like big crowds,” she tells TV Guide. “But I love this job. Especially once I’ve thrown up.”

Her voice is usually much lower in the first scene, Leoni says, “and I don’t have a hell of a lot of energy ‘cause I’m still reeling from having just lost my dinner.

“They’ve talked about me doing (David) Letterman. But I can’t do that. They bring it up: ‘OK, what about doing Letterman?’ And I start getting sick right there at the thought of it.”

Loose talk

Tennis star Andre Agassi, on attending 35 performances of “Grease” on Broadway starring girlfriend Brooke Shields: “If any cast member forgot a line, they’d look at me and I’d mouth it to them.”

Someone’s at the door … it’s David!

Shaun Cassidy turns 36 today.

They certainly seem like the funny car types

It was a drag of a duel Monday in the NBC-TV parking lot between “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno and “Home Improvement” star Tim Allen. Leno spun the wheels of his Buick Grand National twin-turbo dragster and left an 88-foot-long patch of rubber. Allen, behind the wheel of his 1995 Saleen Mustang, laid out 159 feet.

The roots of his problems go much deeper

While Andre Agassi had his long locks shorn, don’t look for singer pal Michael Bolton to follow suit. Bolton told the “Extra” TV show: “If somebody told me I’m going to become the greatest tennis player in the world, I would (cut my hair), but it’s not going to help me, I don’t think.”

Waiting next in line: Mary-Kate and Ashley

In other “Grease” news, pop star Debbie Gibson, who played the sweet, virginal Sandy Dumbrowski in the London revival of the musical, is transformed into tough-talking Betty Rizzo - the role Brooke Shields previously took over from Rosie O’Donnell - in the touring company of the Broadway version beginning Oct. 30.

So she really did get taken to the cleaners

“Leeza” host Leeza Gibbons was taping a show on wedding scams, talking to a guest whose gown came back from the cleaners stained, when she brought out her own boxed wedding dress to see if it had been properly cleaned. “This isn’t my dress!” she shrieked, finding her headpiece, veil and petticoat, but not her custom-designed gown.

Word has it he even shocked the monkeys

Michael Jackson showed up at the Memphis Zoo with wife Lisa Marie Presley and her two children, wearing a black surgical mask. Said one 7-year-old boy in the crowd: “Me and my brother like Michael Jackson a lot, but when we saw him, my brother was scared and I was froze.”

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino