Prez to head Sax Club fundraiser

GOOD MORNING: With the President humming a happier tune these days, he'll head a Saxophone Club/Women's Leadership Forum fundraiser for the DNC, Feb. 26 at the Century Plaza Hotel. Titled "A Celebration at Sunset," it's an outreach for younger voters: $250 a head. Of course, it's anticipated the President will toot a few bars. A heftier fundraiser for the Demos is being planned for March 26 in L.A. Meanwhile, a "reception" for would-be Presidential Demo candidate Bill Bradley (opposing Al Gore?) is hosted by Michael Eisner and Barry Diller at the latter's home, Feb. 25 ... And talking funding, the dough ($1-2 million) for a docufeature based on Bob Evans' "The Kid Stays in the Picture" is coming from Harrison Carter. Evans plans the pic to be shown theatrically in December, to compete for an Oscar. He exec produces the movie with Bernie Brillstein, plus producers Howard Rosenman and Carole Baum. David Weissman directs. On March 5, Brillstein intro's Evan at the Aspen Comedy Festival, when Evans will show a 17-minute trailer that's completed for the docu. Evans says the Dec. preem will be a giant charity fundraiser. As for its boxoffice potential, Evans doesn't care "if it doesn't make any money." I've seen the trailer and noted it even contains footage of Dustin Hoffman in "Wag the Dog" as a producer whom Evans maintains is a takeoff on him. He will include that footage in the final film plus Hoffman's actual imitation of Evans, taped on the Paramount stages during "Marathon Man" ... On Wednesday, the eve of the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award gala, Hoffman was pre-toasted by the AFI board at Arnie Morton's of Chicago eatery on La Cienega. Allen J. Bernstein, chairman and CEO of the eatery chain and a longtime supporter of the AFI, was welcomed as a new member of the board of trustees. At the board's giant meeting Thursday morning, AFI chairman Tom Pollock congratulated George Stevens Jr., longtime AFI member, creator and past producer of the Lifetime Achievement Awards shows (26 years) on his "Thin Red Line's" seven Oscar nominations.

THERE'S MORE LUST for Vincent Van Gogh. With lines streaming around museums featuring Van Gogh exhibits, producer Larry Thompson figures fans would also line up to see a new biopic based on the tormented artist. Of course, Thompson's familiar with Vincente Minnelli's 1956 classic "Lust For Life," which stars Kirk Douglas. But Thompson believes the current exhibit will bring out new life for a new film. At the gala opening of the Van Gogh exhibit at the L.A. County Art Museum, Thompson says he told his movie idea to the Van Gogh estate chairman, Vincent Van Gogh, great-grandson of Vincent's brother Theo, who reminded Thompson the film's been done before. Thompson maintains he wants to continue his biopic career -- to follow his Duke and Duchess of Windsor bio "The Woman He Loved," his "Lucy and Desi," and the Sonny & Cher "And the Beat Goes On" airing Feb. 22 on ABC. On Feb. 26, Thompson will marry Kelly LeBlanc, the beautiful development head at Thompson Entertainment. They'll wed in the Monet Room at the Bellagio in Vegas ... Dudley Moore's ex-wife Nicole is being sued (L.A. Superior Court) by Barbra Paskin, author of "Dudley Moore: The Authorized Biography." Paskin, also a BBC contributor in L.A., seeks $250,000 for compensatory damages plus punitive, etc. Paskin says Nicole M.'s actions (a lawsuit since dropped) caused cancellation of publication of the book plus cancellation on the international Internet. Other charges are also included. Paskin says she remains in conversations with the too-ill Dudley Moore, who is in physical therapy but who told her that he is now playing the piano again every day. And he is aware of her lawsuit, adds Paskin.

ORIGINAL THEATRICAL PLANS are perking at the Bellagio in Vegas. Sandy Gallin says four or five state-of-the-art theaters will be built to launch new shows. Jerry Herman has already written several songs for the first, "Miss Spectacular," and talents including Marvin Hamlisch, Alfred Uhry and Terrence McNally are among those also sought/set for the hotel's entertainment division ... The Steinway Grand piano on which Rudolf Friml played and composed his enormous library of music is being shipped to his birthplace, Prague, to be placed in its National Museum. Friml died at 92 in L.A., Nov. 12, 1972. He had remained active almost to the end, Variety noted in its obit ... Singer/songwriter Randy Newman, nominated for three Oscars this year, and KC and the Sunshine Band perform at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, March 1 with a special free performance at its second anni. And it marks the inauguration of a new permanent performance space plus a worldwide broadcast every day on the Internet in addition to the free live performance ... Is age a dirty little secret in Hollywood? Writer Riley Weston, 32, who posed as 19, tells "60 Minutes'" Morley Safer she is now "shunned" by Hollywood. She says "If age is a dirty little secret then you should consider implants a dirty little secret, and change of hair color, and change of name and change of eye color and that should be dirty too and it's not" ... Shirley MacLaine had a week between her Berlin fest honors and the start of "Joan of Arc" in Prague, so she winged to Madrid for a TV stint, and now jets to Moscow for the preem of Nikita Mikhalkov's "The Barber of Siberia" in the Kremlin.