Kelsey revisits old ties

Grammer

GOOD MORNING: From Scrooge to "Dr. Jekyll" -- and, of course, Mr. Hyde -- Kelsey Grammer is talking a fourth outing with Robert Halmi. Grammer is just back from three months in Budapest shooting NBC's "A Christmas Carol" for Halmi and director Arthur Allan Seidelman. The previous Grammer-Halmi teamings were Neil Simon's "London Suite" and "Mr. Saint Nick." Grammer says the Budapest experience was fantastic: "We couldn't have shot it in the U.S. for less than $100 million." Dickensian London in the winter was reproduced on Budapest's stages in the broiling summer. Grammer and wife Camille returned in time for next week's arrival of their baby boy (by surrogate mother). They already have a 3-year-old girl via ditto delivery. His next on camera stint will be for the openings of the first six segs of his banner Grammnet's "The Sketch Show" for Fox -- a 30-min. show of humorous sketches ranging from 30 seconds to three minutes. He's prepping "World Cup Comedy" for Pax and a one-hour midseason "Medium" for NBC while revving up the sixth season of "Girl Friends" for UPN ... Director Seidelman has inked to direct Jerry Herman's "Mack and Mabel" at the Goodspeed Opera House in New Haddam, Conn., for which Tony winner Scott Waara and Donna McKechnie are set. He directed the bigscreen "Sisters," based on Chekov's "The Three Sisters," earlier this year in Eugene, Ore.

AN ELATED FRANCES FISHER was on the fone from Chicago where she's started rehearsals of Arthur Miller's new play, "Finishing the Picture" about the trials and tribulations of getting a femme star to get out of bed and finish the film shooting in a small desert town. You can guess the real movie that inspired Miller's play. Fisher plays the devoted secretary of the star played by Heather Prete, who only makes a glimpse on stage. Stacey Keach is the pic's producer, Scott Glenn, the cameraman, Harris Yulin, the director, Linda Lavin, the acting coach, Stephen Lang, the acting teacher, Mathew Modine, the writer. P.S. I knew all the real characters in this true life drama of 1960. Fisher, an Actors Studio grad who worked in plays by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill, was paged by director Robert Falls for "Finishing the Picture" while she was finishing a guestint Friday in David E. Kelley's "Boston Legal." She reported to Chi over the weekend to start rehearsals for the Oct. 5 opening at the Goodman ... Eric Braeden tapes his Victor Newman role on CBS' "The Young and the Restless" Thursday ayem, catches a plane for Kansas City where he is headline speaker at the "Women for Kerry" rally that evening at the Uptown Theater , and Friday ayem returns to the "Y&R set --where he's been starring 24 years! And Braeden sez he plans to continue campaigning in like manner between now and election day. Braeden, a German-born U.S. citizen, is vocal about campaigning for the Kerry-Edwards ticket, saying he wants "to see the U.S. regain the international reputation it once had." His character in the soap is seen by millions internationally and he says, "I can't walk down the streets of Paris, Istanbul, Tel Aviv without being recognized. Therein lies a great responsibility."

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE" welcomes back Brent Spiner after a 10 year absence. In 1994 he played Data in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Now be plays the great, great grandfather of Data's creator, Dr. Soong. I asked Spiner who does he look like? "I look like me," he said -- no gold makeup or yellow eyes. "The yellow eyes -- that's what was difficult in the original. Remember, in those days we filmed 16-20 hours a day." Does Spiner survive this outing to return in another 10 years? "I've only been shown two scripts" he admitted, "and I'm told I live in a third." Stay tuned ... It was inevitable that changes were being made with the change of director (Rob Reiner for Ted Griffin) , on Par's untitled project starring Jennifer Aniston. Tony Bill tells me his character is out. "I was to be the foil for Kevin Costner," says Bill, who is now vacationing with his family. He confirmed that he has a pay or play clause on his pact ... And while Tom Selleck is skedded to appear at the Deauville Film Fest in a tribute to "Ike," the fest's Ruda Dauphin tells me the pic will not be shown because Sony "pulled" the pic. (She noted the thesps would have to be paid residuals for the screening). Dauphin said she'd never had that happen before. And she'd arranged for a foto exhibit of "Hollywood Goes to War" at the Deauville fest as well to commemorate the 60th anni of the landings at Normandy.

RENEE TAYLOR AND Joe Bologna will reprise their "If You Ever Leave Me ... I'm Going With You" for a one-niter on Sept. 13 at the Coronet Theater as a fundraiser for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Ducats available through www.concertsforchange.org. The Bolognas did their show both in L.A. (at the Canon) and N.Y. ( the Cort). They were among friends wishing Shelley Winters a happy 84th birthday as Winters made a triumphant return home after eight months in/out of the hospital and rehab. But she sounded like her old self on the phone as we called to wish her well. She admitted she had listed her birthday as two years younger when she was first inked by Columbia's Harry Cohn in 1943. Now that she's OK, la Winters said she'll take her "Place in the Sun" Oscar out of the bank vault. She said she'd donated her second Oscar, for "Anne Frank," to the Anne Frank Museum. Sure she'd like another role ... The cease and desist order from "This Land is Your Land" publishers Ludlow Music, has been removed from the "JibJab" creators Greg and Evan Spiridellis, they happily report. They are moving ahead with discussions for another outing with the Bush-Kerry wobbling heads. Jim Meskimen again voicing both leading characters and plans are to bow on "The Tonight Show."