Clark seals $4.2 mil deal

GOOD MORNING: The question is, "What actress wouldn't want to play Marcia Clark?" Following Thursday's auction victory by Viking of the O.J. Simpson prosecutor's book -- for a $4.2 million advance -- the feature deal is the next to be set. Clark's fee compares with the $1.3 million by HarperCollins for Christopher Darden's story. Both books will be made into bigscreen features. "No other way -- no miniseries," insists William Morris' Norman Brokaw, who with the agency's Joni Evans made the deals. ... As noted here, producer Steve Tisch already met with Darden about the "trial of the century" but its ramifications, "how the trial challenged and violated the very foundation of our justice system." Clark's hardcover Viking book will be followed by a Penguin paperback ..."I'm glad I didn't screw it up for the kids. They could say, 'My father buried Bond,' " Pierce Brosnan said after an emotional premiere of "Goldeneye" Wednesday night at the Acad. Prior to the unspooling, Pierce was intro'd and plaqued by son Christopher for his "ambassadorial" activities raising funds and awareness for research into ovarian cancer. Brosnan related how wife Cassie died of the disease after four years of "pain and suffering." The preem, through the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industries, raised more than $ 500,000 for the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center for Ovarian Research, where Cassie was a patient. Judy Ovitz, Vendela and Lynne Cohen chaired, and the latter's husband, Bert Cohen, a bond trader (not Bond, that is), "won" an auction (by John Paul and Eloise DeLoria) of 007's BMW, which replaces the Aston Martin in the Bond pic -- Cohen bid $ 45,000 for the $ 28,000 (retail) car ... Brosnan also was accompanied by actress-daughter Charlotte (in an "NYPD Blue" seg) and younger son Sean and Pierce's lady, environmental journalist Keely Shaye Smith. Also on hand at the preem: co-stars Famke Janssen and Izabella Scorupco, director Martin Campbell and producers Barbara Broccoli, Michael Wilson and Dana Broccoli. Cubby , who is recuping, sees the movie at home Monday. Brosnan resumes Barbra Streisand's "The Mirror Has Two Faces" in N.Y., as the man she's always loved. He has a 10-day role, wrapping on the 18th, after which he heads out on a global p.a. tour for "Goldeneye"... Producer Wilson tells me they are looking to go back to England for UA's next Bond pic in two years. Brosnan has "two or three" more to do. This one came in at $ 60 million, Wilson says. It looks like a helluva lot more! And judging by preem reaction, he can do as many as he wants. All the filmmakers have nothing but the highest praise for him. We, too.

IT LOOKED LIKE a CAA reunion -- with Ron Meyer, Richard Lovett, Jane Sindell, Rick Nicita, Fred Specktor, Joe Rosenberg and Rand Holston lunching Thursday at Cicada; but Meyer's lunch partner was Sony's Mark Canton. The CAA group was dining amongst 'emselves -- and Billy Crystal. But the friendship between Ron and CAA continues: the Meyers, the Nicitas and their families cruise the Caribbean together at Christmas. As for the meeting between Canton and Meyer --"We're old friends." But seasoned studio exec Canton reminded MCA's new topper, "It's a long-distance run -- not a sprint"... Jim Carrey's next, "Cable Guy," will boast some of TV's top talkers, including Geraldo Rivera, Ricki Lake and ? In the film, Carrey lives and dies by their advice, which he gives to Matthew Broderick in his love quest for Leslie Mann. Director Ben Stiller is enthusiastic about the pic, which, he says, "will bring another new type of comedy to the screen." But, he assures, "There will be three to four set pieces" in which Carrey can carry on. One is a hysterical jousting sequence in the Medieval Times eatery. Another, in a giant satellite dish -- 75 feet across -- now being built for this pic. By the way, the giant satellite dish in "Goldeneye" is a real one -- in Puerto Rico, but it's also augmented by digital special effects for Bondoings ... Jim Carrey's current "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" had its laugh-filled preem Wednesday in Westwood, with the crowd including Roseanne, Pauly Shore, Ian Ziering, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Malcolm Jamal Warner and the pic's director Steve Oedekerk, producer Jim Robinson ... Peter Strauss says they lost part of their set in a record storm on the forest site, out of Vancouver, of "In the Lake of the Woods" for Fox/Hallmark. The Tim O'Brien book "requires enormous courage to make," Strauss says. "But we're all in this together. It's a very dark story and the ending is left up to the audience to decide"-- whether he kills wife Kathleen Quinlan or not. Peter Boyle co-stars and Carl Schenkle directs. Strauss will be seen on Par's bigscreen in two weeks in John Badham's "Nick of Time" with Johnny Depp. And Strauss is talking a series with CBS: "The Earth Abideth."

ADD BOOK-INGS: Brandon Tartikoff's imprint at Warner Books added its third tome, "Playground of the Gods," by Cathy Cash Spellman, which Brandon describes as "a battle of the sexes which turns into all-out war --Joel Silver meets 'Thelma and Louise.'" On his New World TV frontline, Tartikoff has a January start for the pilot of N.Y. deejays Doctor Dre and Ed Lover. Tamara Rawitt ("In Living Color") will exec produce the show for either primetime or latenight.