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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Besides, He Really Likes The Royal Treatment

Compiled By Staff Writer Rick Bo

You won’t catch Jane Pauley playing herself on the big screen, like former “Today” show partner Bryant Gumbel does in “Contact.”

“It blurs the line,” the “Dateline NBC” anchorwoman told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Viewers are confused enough about the hair and the makeup and the glamour,” Pauley said. “We already confuse them so much without crossing the line and suddenly becoming make-believe.”

But CNN talkmeister/USA Today columnist Larry King, another “Contact” cameo player who has eight - count ‘em, eight - more movies coming out, is making no apologies.

“One, the experience is a hoot; two, the money is great (I donate it to my heart foundation), and let’s be honest: Everyone would do it if offered the chance,” King wrote.

Loose talk

Marla Maples, on what she’d keep in the Oval Office if she were president (in George magazine): “A photo of my daughter, a juicer and Kahlil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet.”’

Just think what he could’ve done with King

Norman Lear turns 75 today.

The air personality, and the air personality apparent

Speaking of newscasters, NBC has re-signed both “Nightly News” anchorman Tom Brokaw, who was being courted by CNN, and his Saturday replacement and likely successor, Brian Williams. Brokaw will receive a reported $35 million over five years.

The whole idea wasn’t exactly a stroke of genius

And speaking of fact meeting fiction, Kenny Kramer, the quirky, real-life inspiration for the “Seinfeld” character of the same name, has dropped out of the New York mayoral race. “I finally realized that when I was standing in the sun, asking people to sign my petitions, I could be out on the golf course,” the real Kramer said.

That entertainment bone keeps getting him in trouble

First brother Roger Clinton and his band, the Politics, played at the premiere of the presidential thriller “Air Force One” in Las Vegas, where Bill Clinton arrives this week for the National Governors’ Association meeting. “He doesn’t have a gambling bone in his body,” the younger Clinton said, “but he does have an entertainment bone in his body and I’m surprised he hasn’t been to see some big shows.”

We thought she did the suing, and he did the pursuing

Charlotte Brown, the sister of Clinton accuser Paula Jones, is shopping a book proposal offering an “inside view” of Jones’s sexual harassment charges, reports Entertainment Weekly. Her agent says Brown will tell “what, specifically, is behind Paula’s pursuing the president as she is.”

Guess he must have thought they had deep pockets

John Dean, the Nixon White House staffer who spilled the beans about Watergate, has settled out of court with St. Martin’s Press over the book “Silent Coup,” which depicts him as the mastermind of the break-in and subsequent coverup. Dean had sued for $150 million.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

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