Streep enters 'Madison County'

GOOD MORNING: It's an Oscar-team for "Bridges of Madison County" as Meryl Streep joins Clint Eastwood, who'll also direct at WB. Streep segues directly from "County" to join Liam Neeson and Barbet Schroder in "Before and After." But first Streep gives members of the press a taste of river rafting on the junket for "River Wild" at the location, Kalispell, Mont. Streep had been rumored to take over the role Jodie Foster abdicated in "Crisis in the Hot Zone." Redford has skedded to back-to-back "American President" and "Up Front & Personal." Meanwhile, he's building good advance word on "Quiz Show"... Chuck Workman's got his work cut out for him on this year's Emmys: three special filmed segs. Oscar-winning Workman's readying one seg titled "Anything Goes," which chronicles a review of the simplicity of early TV to today -- when anything goes , from nudity and sex. The four-to-five minute seg boasts 100 images. You recall , Workman had over 450 in his six-minute, Oscar-winning "Precious Images" for the DGA in '87. A second seg in this year's Emmys will be his minidocu of the matriculation of stars like Roseanne, Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling from stand-up to series, including some of their old club routines. Tim Allen, appropriately, intros. A third Workman Emmy seg chronicles TV's cop shows, from "Dragnet" to "NYPD Blue." (Well, that's one way to get David Caruso on the Emmys!) Workman's also working on a bigscreen, indie-financed feature docu, "The Source"-- how the arts developed through the second half of this century --"the source of what we take for granted today"... TriStar's Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones, due to leave the company in its new Columbia-TriStar unification, are reportedly heading to Universal.

MICHAEL EISNER IS BACK AT HIS OFFICE at Disney today, in record recovery time from his bypass surgery ... Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw returned from Ireland in time to celebrate their 45th wedding anni here, Friday. She's feeling fine post hip surgery, and walks sans cane. "But I'll do no stunts this season," she laughs. She starts taping Aug. 29 ..."I Dream of -- Julie"? When Barbara Eden didn't show for a skedded guesting on Rick Dees' radio show with "I Dream of Jeannie's" Bill Daly (in New Mexico -- all via phones) for a promo of the six-seg showing of "I Dream of Jeannie" on "Nick At Night," Dees quickly subbed his wife Julie. She imitated Eden perfectly. Listeners were never told it wasn't Eden, nor was Daly informed. Barbara's press agents admitted it was their fault for failing to get Eden to the phone on time ..."Mrs. Clinton Comes to Town" is the "Empty Nest" seg to be taped Aug. 30. No, the First Lady will not appear "live"; it'll be via clips from tours for the health bill. Guess who will be appearing "live": Zsa Zsa Gabor, who ends up in the Dade County jail when she and the series' regulars become embroiled in a street scene where Mrs. Clinton's expected to arrive. "It brings up a lot of old memories, dahlink"... Gary Coleman who has been reluctant to come back to TV, has now agreed to star in producer Neil Gordon's half-hour sitcom, "Looking Up"; it's based on Gary's life and it's to be set at Coleman's Game Parlor in Marina Del Rey. Gordon also has the Bree Walker story pending ... Geraldo Rivera is guestarring this week in the "Baywatch" seg titled "Red Wind" and working with David Hasselhoff. Rivera winds his stint taping one of his own shows with the "Baywatch" cast on the sand at Will Rogers State Beach ... Carol Burnett joins "Jeopardy's" Alex Trebek as host of the eighth "Live From the Hollywood Bowl" Sept. 17 show titled "Around the World in 80 Minutes" with movie themes. John Mauceri conducts (and of course comments). KCOP airs ... Alison LaPlaca, who was Tom Arnold's wife on his series , will now be John Larroquette's love interest in his NBC'er.

FRANK SINATRA'S "DUETS, I AND II" will be CBSpecial'd in Nov. by pal George Schlatter. The show will be a profile of past clips plus current concerts and duets. Schlatter's got "She-TV" on ABC bowing Tuesday ... The Beverly Wilshire Hotel's ballroom (seats 850) is undergoing a $ 5 million facelift, changing everything except the marble from Hernando Courtwright's era. New general manager John Indrieri says the first event in the new room will be the Sept. 22 Oscar de la Renta fashion show sponsored by I. Magnin to benefit LACMA ... Los Angeles magazine publisher Geoff Miller, retiring after 34 years, was farewell-partied at the Bev Wilshire's Trianon Room by well-wishing pals. He, of course, is writing a novel -- the setting's Benedict Canyon ..."Entertainment Tonight's" praiser Scott Seomin's back at work following a car accident which hospitalized him.