By Belinda Luscombe

AND THEY BOTH SING TOO! In a stunning coincidence, bankrupt Vegas pop singer WAYNE NEWTON announced that he's a direct descendant of POCAHONTAS the very week Pocahontas the movie was released! Newton, who traces his Powhatan heritage through his paternal grandfather, says he hopes to bring his ancestor's bones back home to Virginia from England.

SEEN & HEARD

Hard times: first 14-year-old MACAULAY CULKIN hit "that awkward age"; now his parents are splitting up. Mother Patricia Brentrup has been granted temporary custody of six of the children she had with Kit Culkin. Brentrup claims Culkin is jeopardizing the children's careers by withholding his consent for them to work in movies.

Newtie isn't the only one in the Gingrich family with literary aspirations. Gay activist CANDACE GINGRICH, his half-sister, has retained a literary agent and plans to write her "kind of unique" life story. As for her half-brother's books, she says she doesn't plan to read them.

DO YOU KNOW THIS MAN?

No, it's not a kinder, gentler, larger Clarence Thomas. Here's a clue: Brian Grazer, producer of this actor's current movie, says, "From what I know of him, he's not really approachable. But when I saw him like this ... there's a sweetness that comes out." When the actor had heard Grazer was remaking a comedy classic, he called and pitched himself doing the lead-but with the twist of being extremely obese instead of just buck-toothed. "He was so passionate, I told him we'd do it right then," says Grazer. Give up? It's EDDIE MURPHY updating Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor.

RICKI LAKE ON LINE TWO, MR. Z.

VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY--the far-right Russian nationalist whose novel approach to his country's declining birth rate was a suggestion that he personally sire children in different parts of the nation--doesn't hold with remarks impugning his morality. During an appearance with Zhirinovsky on a live talk show, rival politician BORIS NEMTSOV suggested that the extremist had contracted syphilis from the 200 women he told Playboy he'd slept with. "We can cure you," said Nemtsov. "We have two simple injections." In reply, Zhirinovsky threw juice at Nemtsov. Nemtsov threw juice back. The scuffle escalated, and after the show, formerly placatory host ALEXANDER LYUBIMOV was said to have been reduced to punching Zhirinovsky in the face.