Limo drivers won't go hungry on Oscar night

GOOD MORNING: Lest the limo drivers be forgotten on Oscar night, the city of West Hollywood -- site for six post-Oscar celebrations -- will gift the shuttling/waiting drivers (250) with "goodie bags" of food and bottled water to get 'em through the long night! The West Hollywood locales are Chasen's, Morton's, Spago, Roxbury, House of Blues, Bel Age -- and others ... David Letterman has arrived with his nine writers, joining the Oscarcast's head scripters, Hal Kanter, Buz Kohan and Bruce Vilanch ... Mel Gibson's out of the Oscar show and Jeremy Irons is in ... Where's the next Maria Schneider or Dominique Sanda coming from? They were the 19-year-old discoveries of Bernardo Bertolucci in "Last Tango in Paris" and "The Conformist," respectively. Now Bertolucci is covering the U.S. on a talent hunt to find another 19-year-old lass to star in his untitled (formerly "I'll Dance Alone") film for Fox Searchlight. The male cast will range in age from 20-70. The budget is $ 15 million ... Another takeoff on "The Brady Bunch"--"The O.J. Bunch"-- tapes for the "Tonight Show" today -- it's a birthday party scene and the birthday gift from Marcia Clark and Judge Ito to Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) is -- O.J. Simpson! ... Jimmy Smits gets a new love interest in "NYPD Blue"-- she's Kim Delaney, who will guestar in the last five segs of the season and -- ?... Sharon Stone guests on "Roseanne," which airs at 8 p.m. Wednesday, the new ABC timeslot for the show. Sharon bought her cameo at a fundraiser. Guesting on another seg of "Roseanne" is Ellen DeGeneres, who'll play a marriage counselor ... Morgan Brittany guestars in the two-hour season finale of "Melrose Place" as a fashion designer/wife of Patrick Muldoon. Brittany earlier starred for Spelling in "Glitter." She's having a glittery stand on the Home Shopping Network where her handpainted collectible dolls have passed the $ 5 million mark in sales ... Swoosie Kurtz co-stars with Laura Dern in Woods Entertainment's feature, "The Devil Inside." Burt Reynolds is also sought to co-star. He's now on p.a.'s in Rio and Buenos Aire$ .

"WHEN YOUR BROTHER IS THE GREATEST DIRECTOR in the business," said Talia Shire of Francis Coppola, "it's very tricky." She just completed directing her first feature, "One Night Stand." Talia's late husband, producer Jack Schwartzman, had been on the set with her, "but never got to see the last cut," says Shire. So Francis stepped in "as presenter." New World distribs foreign, New Horizon, domestic. Schwartzman and Roger Corman are exec producers. Shire says, "Roger Corman was Francis' and my mentor." And David Shire, Talia's ex, scores the film. "We are good friends," she reminds. Alida Camp is co-producer of the erotic mystery movie in which Talia says the romance is told "totally in a woman's style -- like those done by Alfred Hitchcock!" Among projects she'd like to follow -- the Chuck Yeager story and other Jack (S.) projects that he had in his drawer ... Frances Fisher, with "The Stars Fell on Henrietta" skedded for fall bigscreen, recently wound "The Other Mother" for NBC in Canada and is now back from Texas and Chris Guest's "Waiting for Guffman" for Castle Rock. She reports the ad-libbing in this pic is hysterical. The cast includes Bob Balaban, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard. Balaban's "The Last Good Time" (he produced/directed) bows next month and he's also prepping to direct and co-produce "The Eustace Diamonds."

GEORGE BURNS WON'T PLAY any club dates before his January '96 100th birthday stand at Caesars -- however, he's agreed to do print ads, including one for Almaden wine. I guess George gave up martinis ... Tony Danza, with a new starring series set to start and four other productions coming from his banner, now wants to do a club act. He's hired Walter Painter, Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan to create the show. Danza's no slouch with fancy footwork -- he's studied tap dancing for years ... Tony Curtis is in France where he's received the Chevalier of Arts and Letters. Jill Canderberg accompanied Curtis, who's also p.a.'ing his autobiog in Paris ... Tracey Gold ("Growing Pains") is on ABC's "Sleep Baby Sleep" Sunday and on CBS' "The Lady Killer" April 5 ... ICM hosts a dinner party tonight at Drai's for their clients-nominees-foreign film directors ... A memorial for actor-director-Shakespeare scholar Frederick Hoffman, will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Globe Theater in West Hollywood ... Peter Tortorici , Fran Drescher, Carrie Fisher and Marcy Carsey are among those speaking at the 30 p.m. Sunday memorial for Tim Flack at CBS TV City ... The Professional Dancers hold their awards Sunday at the Century Plaza ... Annie Gilbar, editor-in-chief of Ticketmaster's unnamed upcoming magazine, has set Neil Simon to write a monthly column. Well, Simon's got nothing else to do -- he's filming the TVersion of his "Sunshine Boys," readying "London Suite" for off-B'way -- and completing his autobiography. This'll no doubt give him another chapter or two.