Love ‘Em Or Leave ‘Em, Esquire Fetes Its Women

In its annual “Women We Love” issue, Esquire magazine compiles its eclectic list, with each choice profiled by a male celebrity writer.

For example, we have Frank Rich writing on Noa Ben Artzi-Pelossof (the daughter of Yitzhak Rabin), Ben Stiller writing on Tea Leoni, Kinky Friedman writing about Lisa Marie Presley and Jimmy Breslin writing about Victoria Gotti (the daughter of jailed “Godfather” John Gotti).

Then we have the “Women We Don’t Love,” featuring Cincinatti Reds owner Marge Schott (“She was good at the beginning, but then she went too far”) and Kathie Lee Gifford (“You couldn’t pay us 19 cents an hour to love her”).

In between, the magazine features a seven-page photo spread on Sharon Stone - the exhibitionistic star who, at this point, should be enshrined in the Esquire cover-girl hall of fame.

Loose talk

Actress Natalie Portman (“The Professional”) on her temperament: “I am more a teenager than anyone else I know. One minute, I feel really adult, and the next minute, I say, ‘Let’s play hide-and-seek.”’

Blow out the candles? Make it so

Patrick Stewart turns 56 today.

That way we’ll be able to get less for Moore

Michael Moore’s comic-documentary series “TV Nation” has a chance of again making news. The show may be picked up by Comedy Central, which plans to show the 17 hour-long episodes in half-hour segments.

Oh, well, there’s always Nick at Nite

Kathleen Sullivan, the one-time network broadcaster, has been dropped from her gig as a co-anchor on the E! cable network’s “E! News Daily.” A spokeswoman for Sullivan said the news was “a complete surprise,” but insiders say that Sullivan - who once was lauded for the sweaters she wore while covering the 1984 Winter Olympics - had been suspended recently for swearing at one of her bosses.

Next up: ‘Her Friend Was Arrested for Marrying Her Mama’

Rosie O’Donnell may be changing the face of daytime talk shows. Christy Slewinski of the New York Daily News says Ricki Lake will depart from her steady diet of “Her Best Friend Married Her Mama”-type topics. While still concentrating on “relationship-oriented topics,” Lake is likely to do more “current-event and news-oriented” programs.

Envelopes full of big bills will do just nicely, thanks

Speaking of Rosie O’Donnell (see above), in recent shows she’s been celebrated with gifts. Single mother O’Donnell received a baby tanktop from Richard Simmons and a stuffed “Babe” piggy from Ed McMahon. “George Clooney brought flowers and now everybody thinks they got to give me something,” O’Donnell said.

All that and a PG rating and you can’t miss

So how did “Independence Day” manage to make a whopping $96.1 million in its first week of release? “Because a film about the end of the world can be pretty depressing,” said producer Dean Devlin, “(so) we made hokum, comedy and the human spirit a part of the mix.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

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