Mandrell gives up song for screen

GOOD MORNING: Barbara Mandrell sings for the last time -- Oct. 23 at the Grand Ole Opry House, where she's performed 25 years. She's not quitting showbiz, but says she's going to devote all her energies to her acting career. "You could say I'm just changing lanes," Mandrell told me from her home in Nashville. She feels as much at home on movie/TV sets as on the concert stage: "I grew up on it for 38 years, since I was 11." She asked son Nathan, 12, what he thought of her retiring from the singing stage. "It's not what I think," the youngster answered adultly, "it's what you think -- but does that mean you'll never do another CD?" "It depends," Barbara admitted to him (and to me). "It depends what's offered. But I want to put my full force into acting -- not that you're not acting when you're singing." She reminds she'd often do concerts in as many as three states over a weekend, then catch the red-eye to L.A. for her regular role in "Sunset Beach" or to Salt Lake City for a recurring role in "Touched by an Angel." This weekend, f'rinstance, she'll play dates in two states before winging west. Mandrell reminds, "I've been on the road all my life," interrupted only after a near-fatal car crash in 1984. ... Her final concert will be with her nine men on stage, the Do-Rites, and supported by her regular touring crew of 30. ... As for her regular role in the "Sunset Beach" soap, she says, "Aaron Spelling: what a great schoolteacher -- an hour show a day! I think God did that for me. I feel like a little kid!" Her last concert will, natch, be taped for TViewing, but in advance of that airing CBS presents the two-hour "Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story," starring Maureen McCormick as Mandrell on Sept. 28. Barbara says she had nothing to do with the making of the Peter Guber production, written/produced by Linda Bergman and directed by Jerry London. But she and husband Ken Dudney have seen it and she says it is "true." She appears in the opening and closing montage sequences and friends Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers appear as themselves. Mandrell, a winner of many trophies including several People's Choice Awards, said, as she departs the live stage, "The public has been so wonderful to me"; she hopes they will continue their affection as she "changes lanes."

FRANCIS COPPOLA'S WINERY was the set Tuesday for Walt Disney's new "Parent Trap," whose production designer is longtime Coppola collaborator Dean Tavoularis. Joanna Barnes again appears in the "Trap": In the 1961 version, she played Brian Keith's love interest. Now she's the mother of Dennis Quaid's love interest. ... In "Money Talks," Chris Tucker poses as Vic Damone Jr., "son of Vic and Diahann Carroll." The real Damone, pere, isn't upset about the movie family fun, saying, "The only time the movie's producers will hear from me is if Diahann sues me for child support!" ... Family matters got a re-birth during his Moscow Film Fest stand, says Irvin Kershner, who is writing the story of his family's escape from a little town out of Kiev, to Amsterdam and eventually to N.Y. While planning a return to Russia, Kirshner first heads to China to develop the film of John Hershey's "A Single Pebble," for which Kirshner's also writing the script. ... Pierre Cossette admits he's proud to be among those invited to the four-day Forstmann Little & Co. off-the-record confabs starting Thursday in Aspen. Participants include Frank Biondi Jr., Michael Eisner, Michael Ovitz, Tom Murphy, Sidney Poitier, Colin Powell, Howard Stringer, Bob Wright, Tom Brokaw, Bob Woodward, George Shultz, Robert Dole, etc. Will lucky Pierre's repertoire of jokes find a niche here?

JOAN LUNDEN'S FIRST appearance since departing "Good Morning America" will be to host the 1997 Sheba Humanitarian Award dinner, Sept. 16 at the BevHilton. Oscar- (3) and Thalberg-winner Saul Zaentz is the honoree. Dinner proceeds will fund the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Research Institute at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv Oscar-winner Steve Katz, who contributes (gratis) the lighting and sound for the Temple Shalom for the Arts High Holy Days services, was named director of marketing research for Hollywood Rental Co. Inc. ... Billy Barnes guests in a musical ("Pirates of Penzance") seg of "Mad About You" directed by Gordon Hunt, who worked with Barnes on revues in the days when Hunt's daughter Helen was "a little baby in his arms." ... Elaine Kaufman, owner of N.Y.'s literati eatery, Elaine's, is home from the hospital, having been treated for a fractured hip after one of those weird at-home accidents. ... About David Caruso's return to TV (in CBS' "Michael Hayes"), Les Moonves tells October's US mag, "I think the pain-in-the-ass reputation came from the fact that he is a man who is very exacting and very concerned about the work. Now I think he understands how the game is played and that this show is not an ensemble -- it's called 'Michael Hayes.' If he leaves, there's no show. I can't get Jimmy Smits."