When A Man Loves Opera, He Doesn’t Sing The Blues

Michael Bolton’s secret is out. Instead of posing as Percy Sledge, he really wants to be Luciano Pavarotti. Or at least sing with the world-famous Italian tenor.

Since singing a duet with Pavarotti two years ago, the American crooner has been working on what would become “My Secret Passion,” a CD of Bolton-sung arias that will be No. 1 on next week’s Billboard Classical Album chart.

“We’re out to capture the attention of Michael Bolton fans who may never have purchased a classical recording before,” says Alex Miller, vice president of marketing and promotion at Sony Classical.

As for the singer himself, “I achieved what I was going for, and there’s something emotional that happened on tape that I wouldn’t erase,” he said.”I’m on a mission here.”

Loose talk

Best Actor nominee Peter Fonda (“Ulee’s Gold”) on why he doesn’t make more movies: “You just haven’t gone to the art houses. I make 1.2 movies a year.”

Let’s get this straight: He wants to ‘Shock the Monkey’?

Peter Gabriel turns 48 today.

But face it Bob, you contributed something yourself, too

Who does Robert Forster credit for his Best Supporting Actor nomination? Quentin Tarantino, director of “Jackie Brown,” in which Forster stars. “He wrote the wonderful role, he gave me the noir hero role,” Forster says. “He did everything he could to make me good.”

Here’s one way to take the bitter with the sweet

As for how the crew from “The Full Monty” took their Oscar news (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay), screenwriter Simon Beaufoy was candid. “I may go to the pub and have a pint of bitter in traditional Yorkshire fashion and sit there stonily,” he said. “We don’t do much celebrating in Yorkshire.”

In Yorkshire, he’d say, ‘Gimme a beer, dark beer’

Having played James Bond in two movies, Timothy Dalton must like Martinis, right? “No, I don’t,” he told the Associated Press. “I’ve always found martinis knock me sideways. Every bar, every restaurant you go in, there’s always some wisecrack, ‘Oh, yours will be a martini, shaken not stirred.’ You get sick and tired of that.”

Ken was in charge, then G.I. Joe walked into the room

Uma Thurma really did play with Barbie dolls as a child. “I played with them for hours and made them into sex slaves,” she told Esquire. “They had boyfriends, and they were addicted to them, and then some other guy would come and lock them in a room.”

He was flying before he even took off

Despite being out of the public eye for the last couple of years, Guns N’ Roses lead singer Axl Rose was arrested at a Phoenix airport when he refused to let a security guard inspect a bag that held something that the guard couldn’t identify. Rose was released after a couple of hours, and the mysterious item turned out to be a piece of glass art.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos

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