Maybe Hizzoner’ll Make An Offer They Can’t Refuse

If New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had his way, the folks running the Grammy show would take their party back to Los Angeles.

He had a different take when the show initially moved back to the Big Apple. “There really is no other city, at least in America, that can celebrate a show like this quite the way that New York can,” he said at the time.

But then he was cut from the recent Grammy nomination ceremony. And then, after questioning National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences president Michael Greene, one of his aides was “verbally abused.”

Giuliani says Greene “used language with her you shouldn’t use and not only hasn’t promptly apologized for it, but is lying about it.” As for the show itself, “If they want to go back to L.A., they can,” Giuliani said. “I’m not worried about it at all.”

Loose talk

Actress Jane Russell on fellow Hollywood veteran Stuart Whitman finally earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: “After 100 motion pictures, it is about time that he got to be on this sidewalk with the rest of us, where everybody walks on us and spits on us.”

He hopes that his pal Oscar makes the party

Burt Reynolds turns 62 today.

He’s probably just hanging with his pal Bob Dole

After being removed from his “Weekend Update” slot last month, “Saturday Night Live” comic Norm Macdonald has pulled a disappearing act. Even though still a cast member, he made no appearance on Saturday and wasn’t listed in the closing credits. An NBC spokeswoman told the New York Daily News “We’re continuing to talk to (Macdonald). There hasn’t been any resolution.”

You could title their memoir ‘Good Pals Writing’

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, co-Oscar nominated for their original screenplay “Good Will Hunting,” had no writing difficulties. “We’re pretty inseparable, in terms of our experiences,” Damon told Entertainment Weekly. “We look at things in exactly the same way. It wasn’t like someone was good at structure and someone at dialogue. The only difference between us is Ben can type.”

He knows just what a pal he has in Jesus

Searching for material to fill out the character of his protagonist in the film “The Apostle,” writer/director/actor Robert Duvall chose the Rev. Paul Baggett, aka “The Happy Pastor.” “Somebody once told me I preach like I got yellowjackets up my legs,” says Baggett. “Why am I the ‘Happy Preacher’? It’s the joy of Jesus. It’s recognizing I’ve got a place in heaven.”

She knew just what a pal she had in the cameraman

How did Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter handle doing her first nude scene (in “Wings of the Dove”)? Every move was choreographed down the smallest detail. Bonham Carter even made storyboards of each shot so she could memorize every step. Then, when the director cried action, “I just shut my eyes and got on with it,” she said.

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