Past first daughter 'admires' Chelsea

GOOD MORNING: "My heart goes out to Chelsea," former First Daughter Patti Davis (Reagan) told me. She was at Par Wednesday where she'd pitched her romantic comedy, "Last Seen Heading North" -- about a First Daughter. Sure it's somewhat autobiographical, "But I shy away from family conflict," said Davis, who has certainly been a part of it. She now says she sees her father, President Reagan, "more than I see my mother." As for his sad condition (Alzheimer's), Patti believes he recognizes her, adding, "I don't think he is suffering." As for Chelsea Clinton, Davis said, "I admire the way she is handling herself. And I think Stanford is protecting her well. It's a safe enclave there." Davis was lunching at Par with longtime Reagan family friend A.C. Lyles -- who was also present in the hospital at Patti's birth! Davis said she has four other screenplays completed ("I write quickly") and inked with agent Marcy Wright ... A Georgetown theater marquee reads: "Lecture Series, Friday Night: Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Starr." Don't fret: It's fiction, all for NBC's mini "Tom Clancy's Net Force," set in the year 2005. The marquee was director Rob Lieberman's idea of a joke, even though he, too, hopes history doesn't make him correct! Lieberman's back from location in D.C., where they were filming outside the Hay Adams Hotel with cameras catching the President's plane arriving from his vacation in Martha's Vineyard to make the speech about bombings in the Sudan and Afghanistan. Lieberman told me they'd also constructed replicas of the Oval Office and corridor leading to it in the White House, which undergoes a bloody siege in the film. The $16 million ABC mini is exec produced by Gil Cates, Dennis Doty and Steve Pieczenik and skedded for February airing. Lieberman is an Emmy nominee for best commercial at the TV Acad's Creative Arts Awards, Saturday -- where his wife Marilu Henner will be a presenter. She just played herself in a "Taxi" sequence of the feature "Man on the Moon," in which Jim Carrey plays Andy Kaufman. She wound a year on B'way starring in "Chicago" and has been making appearances (300!) for her bestseller, "Marilu Henner's Total Healthy Makeover" (HarperCollins), in its 20th printing. She's got two more books in the works. And she and husband Lieberman are developing a sitcom and dramatic series as well!

IT WAS LADIES' DAY on my phones Wednesday: First Patti Davis, then in rapid succession, Sammy Davis' wife No. 2, May Britt, then wife No. 3, Altovise Davis. And then, Patricia Lawford Stewart. Britt, an accomplished artist, was readying to leave for Stockholm and an exhibition of her paintings (some of 'em 4'x5'). She's accompanied by her husband of five years, businessman Lennart Ringquist. Of course a comment about "The Rat Pack" was expected. Her daughter (by Sammy Davis Jr.) Tracey had earlier given negative comments. But May, who saw it when HBO aired it, told me, "I thought the guys (actors) were pretty accurate -- except for Peter Lawford, who I always found witty and charming." She thought the opening scene was "a most sensitive moment." In it, the older Sinatra says, as he's about to go on stage, "I miss the guys." Britt was married to Sammy from 1961-68, and said of Altovise (who was married to him in 1970 and widowed in 1990), "I met her many times at Sammy's, including Thanksgiving dinners -- after all, there were the children." Britt said she's been asked by many publishers to write her book, "But I don't intend to. I am a very private person." Altovise, living between Conn. and N.Y., said "Rat Pack" fortunately didn't focus on her time with Sammy. "But," she added, "the true story of Sammy Davis Jr. has not been told yet. And I've been approached to do it (the book, etc.) and I will." And Patricia Lawford (Mrs. Dan) Stewart told me, "Like Tina Sinatra, I have no intention of viewing 'The Rat Pack.' " She had arranged for Lawford's disinterment in Westwood when bills were not paid (by his family) for his crypt; she then arranged a cremation in Glendale. She still has some of his ashes at her home, the rest at sea.

BEFORE INVITATIONS were mailed for its gala honoring David E. Kelley and Jerry Seinfeld, the Museum of Television & Radio (in BevHills) has sold more tables than the total number for last year's sensaysh event. The date is Oct. 4 ... No connection with the 30th anni of "The Planet of the Apes" celebration (tonight at the Acad), but Jim Carrey appeared at Gadsbys' eatery, dressed in a gorilla suit and began waiting on the table of Laurence Fishburne and Clarence Williams III. Carrey then took off the ape's head and placed it on their table ... After filming a dinner scene with Andie MacDowell for "Muse" at the Bistro Garden at Coldwater, Sharon Stone went into a private room of the eatery to shoot a seg to be shown Sept. 19 at the Ms. America Pageant in which Stone wins the Woman of Achievement Award for her work in the fight against AIDS ... Susie and Brad Krevoy welcomed their second daughter, Sophia Elizabeth, Aug. 20 ... Ronni and Joel S. Rice welcomed their first, daughter Hannah Mae, Aug. 14 ... George Burns and Gracie Allen Drives at Cedars-Sinai will be closed Sunday for a block party honoring the generous supporters of the Thalians' 25th anni on the C-S site with dinner, dancing, etc., under the stars.