People, Sep. 11, 1995

KOOK CASTS KIDMAN

In Joyce Maynard’s novel To Die For, preternaturally perky news anchor-wannabe Suzanne Maretto says that if her life is ever made into a movie, she’d like to be played by “that actress that just got married to Tom Cruise.” Three years later, it has and she is. “After I got the part, I read the book and I thought ‘Oh my God. This is so strange,'” says NICOLE KIDMAN, the wife in question. The character who gave her the nod is a mariticidal lunatic, but Kidman was flattered. “Even though Suzanne’s totally wild and has a completely different moral code from the rest of us, I think there was something really cool about her.” It’s a unique perspective, but then Kidman says she also really liked To Die For director Gus van Sant’s last film, the universally loathed Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

LES LIZERABLES

Recently, ELIZABETH TAYLOR’s life has been a bit of a bust for sensation junkies. Per fume launches and charity work are fine, but they don’t evoke the Liz who made headlines just by quarreling with Richard Burton. So when “ol’ violet eyes” announced that she and seventh husband LARRY FORTENSKY were undertaking a trial separation, people seemed less shocked than mildly nostalgic. “Let the tabloid games begin,” Taylor said. But the tabs were already busy with fresh quarry–the rumor that J.F.K. Jr. had proposed to his girlfriend Carolyn Bessette.

AMERICA’S SPECIAL GUEST STAR

Many people have seen all they want of OLIVER NORTH on TV. But for the others, good news: the retired Marine Corps Lieut. Colonel will play a retired intelligence operative who provides investigators with top-secret info on an episode of NBC’s new drama series JAG. “I’m like John Wayne. I only play good guys,” says North, who has acted on TV but once before (if you discount the Iran-contra hearings, considered by some his best work). North has no plans to pursue a serious acting career, although he’d like to work again with JAG director Don Bellisario. Says North reassuringly: “He’s no Oliver Stone.”

SEEN & HEARD

Timothy Leary is not going gentle into the good night; he’s going downright cheerfully. The puckish former Harvard psychologist and lsd fan has inoperable prostate cancer and told the L.A. Times he was thrilled when he found out: “How you die is the most important thing you ever do. I’ve been waiting for this for years.”

Whitewater may never go away, but Vincent Foster’s widow is moving on. Lisa Foster plans to marry Jim Moody, a former colleague of the President’s (at the law firm of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings) and a judge-designate of the federal district court. The happy couple are old friends from Little Rock, Arkansas.