Stone rolls into rural Beaufort

GOOD MORNING from Beaufort (pronounced B-you-ferd), S.C., where Sharon Stone, Rob Morrow and Touchstone's "Last Dance" company are locationing under the direction of Bruce Beresford and producer Steven Haft. This is one of America's oldest towns -- a favorite stopping-off point for pirates dating back to 1520, so they tell me. Stone's riverfront home (mansion) for the duration boasts 300 -year-old oak trees with branches 50 feet long. Neighboring streets lined with similar vintaged trees and picturesque houses form a historical painting for visitors passing in Percheron-drawn buggies. Sharon is sans makeup, her hair cut short and chestnut-colored for her role of a double murderess on death row. "But I looked at myself in the mirror," she smiled, "and I said to myself, 'Not bad for 37!' " You can say that again! Her co-star Morrow told me, "I'm sure she even looks great when she rolls out of bed." But he wouldn't know that, of course -- that pleasure is for Stone's steady beau, assistant director Bob Wagner, who now has joined her on location. She says she has no plans for a husband, "But one of these days I should be thinking about a baby." She says she also has no plans for an agent. Chuck Binder's her personal manager and a co-producer on the pic, as well as on "The Quick and the Dead," which Sharon will rep in Cannes. She is enjoying a full dance card with movies of all types upcoming -- plus Martin Scorsese's "Casino" completed, in which she ages to an unattractive dope-hastened demise. "I could have done plenty more 'Basic Instincts' but I think I've already established my gender," she laughed. So don't look for similar themes in any of her movies. Stone's partner in her Chaos Prods., Paulette Pierotti, also is on hand in Beaufort as they plan pix beyond the already set "Diabolique," "Doctor, Lawyer Indian Chief," "Lady Takes an Ace," an untitled thriller and TV series (to produce only). I asked if there is any nudity in "Last Dance" and Sharon revealed there is a "strip search" in the prison, during which she laughingly tells the examiner, "Remember, whatever you find, you keep!"

THERE ARE NO love scenes -- as we know them -- for Stone and Morrow, who plays her lawyer in "Last Dance." However, there is a through-the-bars emotional farewell sequence as death (by injection) approaches. Director Beresford tells me he has permission to film an epilogue at the Taj Mahal with Morrow. He says the movie leaves you with the question of "What if?" Beresford admits the movie company was lucky to have found Ridgeland's as-yet unopened prison of stark white cinder block. It's a half-hour out of Beaufort. Sharon's wardrobe is the simple prison uniform of blue pants with white stripes up the legs, blue denim "Dept. of Corrections" work shirt and white T-shirt. Morrow, who was the "Quiz Show" attorney who broke the scandal, now plays a former playboy-lawyer who takes on Stone's appeal. He visits her in prison and gets the expected reaction from the 150-or-so femme inmates as he walks through their courtyard. Everyone says this is not a prison story, but a love story. And Morrow says that while the movie looks at capital punishment, "It doesn't proselytize or take a position. If we think about it (capital punishment) after the movie, then it (the pic) is effective -- on an entertainment level." The first scenes of "Last Dance" show Stone committing a double murder and she told me it's gory "with blood spurting." "It looked like the real thing to me," admitted Morrow, "but like nothing Oliver Stone would put in one of his movies!" Beresford follows this prison-set movie with "The Captives," about women prisoners (British, Dutch , Australian) of the Japanese in World War II in Sumatra. He says it's inspiring and he will film for Greg Coote and the Roadshow Co. Beresford wrote the script while in Italy after departing directing "The Bridges of Madison County." ("I left on good terms with Clint Eastwood," he sez.)

PRODUCER HAFT WILL BRING in "Last Dance" for "under the current mean cost of $25 million," he says. He feels lucky Beresford bowed out of "Madison County" and returned to "Last Dance." Haft next heads to England to produce "Emma" for Miramax. Beresford also will conveniently be in England editing "Dance"... Haft's varied movie projects (he did "Dead Poets Society") also include the long-planned "Don Quixote," hopefully with Sean Connery and Robin Williams, plus "Three Christs From Ypsilanti" (!) Haft's wife, writer Lisa Birnbach, visiting the location, dined with us at the charming Rhett House Inn, where Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte dined during "Prince of Tides" filming down here. Birnbach's now returned to N.Y. since "Loose Lips," which she co-created and co-wrote, bows May 18 at the Triad Supper Club on West 72nd Street. Martin Charnin directs the no-holds-barred show and celeb hosts are plotted. The theater's also the birthplace of "Forbidden B'way" and "Forever Plaid." Simon & Schuster already is planning the book version of "Loose Lips" for fall.