People

By Michele Orecklin

TALK AIN'T CHEAP

Last week talk-show hostesses OPRAH WINFREY and ROSEANNE vied for the arguable honor of conducting the first non-grand jury grilling of Monica Lewinsky. When negotiations with Winfrey seemed to fall apart, allegedly because Lewinsky asked for money, Roseanne picked up the ball and offered some--a lot, in fact. If Lewinsky is still debating her choice, we offer some points to consider.

ROSEANNE Familiar with being a social pariah

On first show, featured a Linda Tripp impersonator, identified as a "big fat snitch"

Said on Larry King Live she thinks the President loved Lewinsky

Offered seven figures

OPRAH Could set up a tie-in with the book club for when Lewinsky eventually writes her memoirs

Does really good makeovers

Many people actually watch her show

Doesn't pay for guests

THANK YOUR PLUCKY STAR

Jimmy Carter may want to watch his back. The American racking up the most humanitarian interventions these days is TOM CRUISE, who extended his string of rescue missions last week by aiding a mugging victim in London. Hearing cries for help, Cruise, emboldened no doubt by the presence of his bodyguards, ran to assist a woman being robbed of her jewelry. Cruise is no neophyte knight in Armani armor. At a 1996 premiere of Mission: Impossible he lifted two boys over a barricade to prevent them from being crushed. A few months later, while sailing in the Mediterranean, he rescued castaways from a burning boat. Also that year, he swooped in to comfort a hit-and-run victim and paid her hospital bill. Just another lucky citizen, saved by the beau.

CHILLA IN MANILA

It's not exactly a fatwa, but in her own adorably angst-ridden way, actress CLAIRE DANES has provoked the ire of a foreign government. While filming the movie Brokedown Palace earlier this year in Manila, she managed to miss the more tourist-friendly aspects of the Philippine capital. Recalling her experience in an interview with Premiere magazine, Danes, who apparently possesses a keen nose, recalled that the city "smelled of cockroaches." In an earlier interview, she referred to the city as "ghastly and weird." The proud members of the Manila city council could take no more. In a 23-to-3 vote, they agreed to ban all movies in which Danes appears. Philippine President Joseph Estrada said she "should not even be allowed to set foot" in the country. Danes issued a statement saying her comments were misunderstood, but the actress, who just began her freshman year at Yale, may want to consider some classes in diplomacy.

HARMONIC DIVERGENCE

Social critics have long debated whether rock 'n' roll is the devil's music or heaven inspired. The latest Billboard album charts should add fuel to that theological fire. Last week dc TALK's album Supernatural debuted at No. 4, landing between Psychic Circus by KISS at No. 3 and Mechanical Animal by Marilyn Manson at No. 5. But while the demonic Manson courts controversy and the geriatric KISS covets relevance, dc Talk is appealing to a higher power. The Christian rockers consider the Almighty their greatest musical influence. Asked his opinion of Manson, whose last album was titled Antichrist Superstar, dc Talk's Kevin Max said, "I'd love to hang with him and discuss '80s music." Maybe they should talk literature. Manson's autobiography was titled Long Road out of Hell.

FASHION FORWARD

In the past several years, British designer Alexander McQueen, 29, has scandalized stylish society with such runway collections as "Highland Rape," which featured blood-spattered models, and "Joan," inspired by Joan of Arc. His success at shocking the studiously unflappable fashion cognoscenti has paid off with yards of fawning press and the post of chief designer at the classically haute house of Givenchy. But when the first model in his London fashion show hit the runway last week, she managed to upstage both McQueen and his clothes. Wearing a leather bodice and ruffled skirt, American AIMEE MULLINS, 22, a double amputee, also showed off a pair of sculpted wooden prosthetic legs. Born without shinbones, Mullins is a Paralympics champion who holds world records in two sprinting classes. To suggestions that she was being exploited by McQueen, she replied, "I want to be seen as beautiful because of my disability, not in spite of it."