Altmas presses forward on fashion pic

GOOD MORNING: "I guarantee everyone'll have knives out for me," says Robert Altman as he preps "Pret-a-Porter" for its 1994 Paris start. He shoots the documentary portion -- at the shows -- in March, "then I follow with the fiction." He's been prominent at the recent N.Y. and Paris shows and he observes , "They remind me of a circus." He admits the movie's "a big undertaking" but expects to bring it in "under $ 20 million -- and a two-hour movie, I promise you." He admits he was "stunned" by the length for "Short Cuts," but says, "Everything in it demanded to stay. This one will be much lighter, nice and sexy -- with all those models"-- in varying stages of dress and undress. He also plans to shoot one day in Moscow. Why? "I'm not going to tell you," he laughed. Altman's cast includes Anouk Aimee, Marcello Mastroianni, Harry Belafonte, Lauren Bacall, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins (whom Altman would like to direct a movie for him), Stephen Rea, Tracey Ullman, all the top designers --"and anyone who's in Paris who wants to be in it"... What happened to the two-hour CBS "I Spy Returns" starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp? The Sheldon Leonard production was rushed into readiness for the end of August as they were told the show would air in September. Nothing happened. Then it was skedded for November sweeps. And nothing happened. Word from CBS was that the show was "a gem." NBC, meanwhile, has Cosby under pact for four two-hour pix of their own, and according to Leonard, they would be interested in "Spy" sequels, and an overseas feature was also a possibility. So what's happening with CBS? Jeff Sagansky says the show will positively air in January. He tells me, "It's a terrific picture and we hope they keep doing it for us -- one a year." There'll be an invitational screening at the TV Acad Wednesday.

GEORGE BURNS' 100TH BIRTHDAY GIG, Jan. 20-22, 1996, shifts from London's Palladium to Vegas' Caesars. His century stand at $ 100 (get it?) a ducat will be announced, appropriately, at a Century (again!) City ABC Entertainment Center bash at noon on Tuesday. He'll play London later. Burns is part of Sunday's "60 Minutes" 25th-anni show, as well as part of NBC's "Legends to Legends" spec and "The Comedy Hall of Fame," natch. And, celebrating 20 years with Burns is his manager and producer, Irving Fein. And lest you think George is just waiting around, he's off to Palm Beach Nov. 23 for a one-niter at the giant Kravitz Center ... Ali MacGraw, totally burned out of the Malibu house she was renting from owner Guy McElwaine, is pulling it together at former husband Robert Evans' BevHills home, where she's also being comforted by son Joshua (22) ... Jimmy Rogers (80), son of Will Rogers, has been asked by Pierre Cossette to play Will Rogers' father, Clem, in "Will Rogers Follies" with Pat Boone in the title role bowing April 5 for six months in Branson, Mo. ..."Clarence Darrow," David Rintels' play starring Mike Farrell (Henry Fonda did it 20 years ago), previewed at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple this week and starts its tour Sunday at Cleveland's Palace. Rintels returns here Monday to start rehearsals of his "WW II: Then There Were Giants," a four-hour NBC mini in high-definition, lensed by Johnny Alonzo. Ed Begley Jr. joins the previously announced Michael Caine (Stalin), Bob Hoskins (Churchill) and John Lithgow (FDR) as Harry Hopkins, top adviser to FDR. They'll shoot three weeks in Prague doubling for Yalta, Teheran and the Kremlin ... Fay Kanin is back from the Flanders Intl. Film Fest, where she accepted for "Passion Fish" and John Sayles -- awarded $ 100,000 to use in a feature with an Belgian element in it -- and $ 40,000 toward its distribution in Flanders and Brussels. Kanin stopped in London, where she made a deal with Mark Chivas of BBC feature movies to co-produce Edith Olivier's "The Love Child," which Kanin's owned for many years. Hugh Whitemore will script.

WEEKEND MADNESS: Jack Lemmon, Dana Delany and James Spader panel with other Andover-Abbot alumni Saturday as part of the school's first all-day film fest, at Universal ... Joan Van Ark hosts Saturday's Special Olympics "Spirit of Friendship Awards" dinner at the BevHilton, with Kenny Loggins performing ... Clarence Avant, Motown Records board chairman, is honored Saturday by the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund at Santa Monica's Barker Hangar bash featuring an all-star band with George Duke and Quincy Jones ... Mort Sahl, SRO in his last stand, returns to Cafe Morpheus Sunday. Sahl's writing the Stan Kenton story for book/film form ... The Cinema Against AIDS exhib, a hit at Cannes, bows here Sunday at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Santa Monica, benefiting AmFAR from sale of photogs' chef d'oeuvres plus auction packages.