And, Let’s See, He Did It Sometime In, Well, 1984

Things are heating up in the “Twister” lawsuit. Seems Michael Crichton is an admitted plagiarist.

Well, almost. The suit, which is being tried in St. Louis, was brought forth by would-be screenwriter Stephen Kessler, who claims that Crichton and wife Anne-Marie Martin conspired to rip off his unproduced script “Catch the Wind.” Kessler also is suing producer Steven Spielberg.

According to the Mr. Showbiz Web site, Crichton on Friday admitted to using someone else’s work while a sophomore at Harvard. But, he said, he did it to prove that a professor was grading too harshly, and he told another professor about his tactic.

“I was getting C-pluses,” Crichton said. “George Orwell got a B-minus.”

Loose talk

Mick Jagger on his personal habits, to a group of Pepsi employees (as reported by Reuters): “After 20 years of taking coke, it’s good to drink Pepsi!”

Question is, can she turn ‘Jackie Brown’ into gold?

Bridget Fonda turns 34 today.

In every movie career, a little rain has to… pour

Making movies may look like fun. But after spending months inside a huge tank filled with five million gallons of water to make “Hard Rain,” Randy Quaid begs to differ. “It was like Chinese water torture 17 hours a day,” the actor told the San Jose Mercury News.

Not only that, but she’s a lot of fun, too

Betty DeGeneres, mother of “Ellen” star Ellen DeGeneres, likes to brag about her daughter. And she’s doing so in a public service announcement for the Human Rights Campaign. “Hello, my name is Betty DeGeneres and my kid is the greatest,” DeGeneres says. “You know her. She’s Ellen - and she’s gay.”

The sad thing is this music we now call rock ‘n’ roll

Elton John is tired of being sad. According to the Mr. Showbiz Web site, the singer, whose song “Candle in the Wind ‘97” made millions for charity, wants to rejoin the living. “I’ve put that song to rest,” John said. “I don’t even think I’ll sing the Marilyn version of it for a long time. I’m not going to go around the world being a professional mourner.”

Our lone J. Crew sweater is looking better and better

Just how out of touch with the average Joe’s reality are Hollywood celebrities? Consider the case of Kirstie Alley and estranged husband Parker Stevenson. In their divorce struggle, Stevenson has revealed that the couple spent almost $40,000 a year on Christmas gifts and $25,000 on a Halloween party with 150-piece marching band.

And what might that be? His blood-pressure medicine?

Leave it to Larry King to be in on the Hugh Hefner-Kimberly Conrad Hefner split. King’s wife Shawn Southwick, who is Conrad’s pal, says the breakup is because “she can’t give him what he needs right now.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

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