By Claudia Wallis

Can Flash Gordon, space ace of the 1930s, captivate audiences who have had Close Encounters of a latter-day kind? Film Producer Dino De Laurentiis thinks so, provided a few adjustments are made. In Flash Gordon, opening in December, the hero is no longer a polo-playing Yale grad but a New York Jets quarterback. His girl, Dale Arden, has become a working woman--a travel agent. And the hand-cranked special effects of Buster Crabbe's day have given way to Star Wars technics. Arch enemy Ming the Merciless hasn't changed a bit. Still "a mixture of Mephisto and Rasputin," says Max von Sydow, who portrays him. "I haven't had such fun since I played a monster who ate children at a Stockholm children's theater."

Sinatra on the mound, and here's the pitch. A single--for Dean Martin, who could swear that "this was one of those moving fields. I ran to first base and it was gone." Having wrapped up a benefit concert in Atlantic City, N.J., the two crooners chose teams for a 3 a.m. game of Dom Perignon-fueled softball. Frankie's Blue Eyes challenged Dino's Red Eyes, a crew described by Sinatra as "unemployed bartenders and those who failed the Alcoholics Anonymous physical exam." Despite the hour, 2,000 fans showed up to donate money to a local charity and to see the action. And it was 5 a.m., with the score tied 18-18 after seven innings, when OF Blue Eyes called the game--"due to daylight."

"Everyone knows that TV commercials are better than the shows," says Comic Steve Martin. So, Martin has taped All Commercials, an NBC special set to air in September. Among the products he plugs: Truman Capote jeans, the Just a Second Honey bra and Mount St. Helens laxative. But his favorite bit is a tribute to Morris the Cat, finicky flack for feline food. "He and I were quite close. His death came as a real shock," Martin confides. "I want to show the real Morris, the private Morris." For this, he boasts, he is purrfect: "People who knew him and who have seen me in my Morris costume have found the resemblance uncanny."

In his ten years of covering the boom towns and boondocks of America for CBS's 60 Minutes, Morley Safer has found himself in more motel rooms than he would care to remember. But Safer, 48, has made a virtue of professional necessity: he winds up his days on the road by retiring to his rented rooms, switching on Johnny Carson ("very conducive") and pulling out his paintbox and brushes to record the place for posterity. Come Sept. 14, a score of watercolor and acrylic still lifes by the closet Matisse of Marriotts will go on display and sale at Manhattan's Central Falls Gallery. "People will always paint Notre Dame," the artist explains, "but who is going to memorialize Room 409 of the Holiday Inn South, unless I do?" A new career here for Safer? Ah, he sighs, "it would mean no more motels."

At a 62nd birthday party for his friend Leonard Bernstein, Composer Aaron Copland was describing the trials of writing his autobiography: "I have no trouble remembering everything that happened 40 or 50 years ago--dates, places, faces, music. But I'm going to be 90 my next birthday, Nov. 14, and I find I can't remember what happened yesterday or last month." The future has got a bit fuzzy too, as one listener politely pointed out. "Mr. Copland," he murmured, "you're going to be 80 this year." By Claudia Wallis

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