NOTEBOOK

By LISSA AUGUST, CHARLOTTE FALTERMAYER, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, DAWNICA JACKSON, TYLER MARONEY, JODIE MORSE, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND ERIC SILVER

WINNERS & LOSERS

THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY

[WINNERS]

AEON FLUX MTV's buff babe makes Esquire list: "Women We Love Even Though They Can Kick Our Ass"

GARGOYLES Disney plans live-action feature based on its syndicated Saturday-morning-TV cartoon

BETTY BOOP Nearing 66, she's still hot, with a steamy six-volume video set to be released in August

[& LOSERS]

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME Panned by literary scholars, it's not ringing up francs as quickly as Pocahontas did

BUGS BUNNY Until the FTC is happy, the Warner icon won't be merging with pals on Turner's Cartoon Network

THE SIMPSONS Audiences aren't exactly having a cow; the clan was an underachiever in ratings wrap-up

Lamm-ination

Headlines we will probably see leading up to the Reform Party convention in August

Out on a Lamm Sacrificial Lamm Silence of the Lamm

THE FRIENDLY SKIES

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's third wife Sara was a flight attendant for El Al. Watching a well-organized first-class stewardess ladle out champagne at 25,000 ft. appears to do something to a politician, for Netanyahu is not alone among world leaders who have got hitched to stewardesses:

--The late Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou married Dimitra, above, an Olympic Airways hostess

--The Sultan of Brunei took as his second wife a Royal Brunei Airlines hostess named Mariam, the daughter of a customs agent

--Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating married an Alitalia stewardess named Annita, above, after an airborne courtship

--Steingrimur Hermannsson, former Prime Minister of Iceland, first fell for Edda aboard an Icelandair flight

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

--Research indicates that a new type of MRI may allow BREAST CANCER patients to find out almost immediately if their chemotherapy treatment is likely to be effective. The image reveals if the drugs are directly attacking the cancer site.

--For colds, think zinc. A study finds that sufferers who begin to pop a kind of ZINC LOZENGE (gluconate glycine) within 24 hours of symptoms get over their sniffles and sore throat three days sooner than those who suck on a placebo. Possible side effects: nausea and a bad taste.

--New relief may soon be available for severe INCONTINENCE. An operation in which a muscle from the thigh is wrapped around the urethra has helped half of all patients studied.

THE BAD NEWS

--People over 70 who take certain short-acting CALCIUM CHANNEL BLOCKERS for high blood pressure may increase their risk of developing cancer, suggests a study. The drugs may impede the body's normal safeguards against rapid cell division.

--Don't even chew the fat. The mere taste of FATTY FOOD--even if it isn't swallowed--promotes a surge in the concentration of fat in the blood. One explanation: receptors in the mouth may detect the chemical properties of food and cause the body to react.

--On-the-job MAYHEM: 1,071 murders, the most ever reported, occurred at work in 1994, while 1 million physical assaults take place annually, the latest government statistics reveal. Riskiest occupation: taxi drivers. After that, sheriffs.

Sources--GOOD NEWS: American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting; Annals of Internal Medicine; American Urological Association meeting BAD NEWS: American Journal of Hypertension; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

NOT AN INCH TO PINCH

The Ab (for abdomen) is the body area that has launched a thousand fitness devices. Each aims to create what bodybuilders call a six-pack, a perfect row of muscles.

Product Price Abflex $59.95 AB Isolator $29.95 AB Machine $59.95 ABRoller Plus $89.85 ABSculptor $79.80 ABShaper $119.80 Ab Trainer $89.95 ABWorks $119.95 Perfect ABS $59.90 (With more to come, ab nauseam.)

Hey, Big (and not so big) Spenders

Average amount expended by House members to run their offices, as a percentage of their annual allowances:

Democrats 91.5% Republicans 87.0%

Source: National Taxpayers Union

LOCAL HEROES

MARY PIERCE, 49; ST. JOSEPH, MICHIGAN; lung-disease activist

Suffering from Alpha1, a genetic form of emphysema, Pierce received a double-lung transplant in 1993. After intense rehabilitation, she now competes in bicycling events around the world. Last year she started Team Alpha 1, whose members participate in American Lung Association rides across the country to raise awareness of the disease. "This is a tool for patients to live as full a life as they can," Pierce says. "The body can work again."

VERNETA WALLACE, 47; ANCHORAGE, ALASKA; volunteer children's advocate

A mother of two who has served as a foster parent to 109 children over 23 years, Wallace is a court-appointed special advocate, or CASA. Nationwide, 37,000 CASAs are the "voice in court" for abused or neglected children, helping overburdened social workers by interviewing doctors, teachers and the children themselves and then recommending the best course of action to a judge. Says Wallace: "We as adults are good at saying, 'What a shame,' and then looking away."

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

ABBA EBAN, 81, HERZLIYYA, ISRAEL; Former Foreign Minister of Israel

A sharp wit, combined with Cambridge-accented eloquence, made the longtime liberal fixture a legendary figure in Israeli politics. Born in South Africa, raised in England, he was appointed Israel's first ambassador to the U.N. in 1949. From his Labor seat in parliament, he was named Foreign Minister in 1966 and remained in office for eight years--still a record for that post. After serving as chairman of the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee, the dovish Eban left parliament in 1988 after 29 years. He continues to campaign for peace with the Palestinians through speeches and writings. Author of a forthcoming book on post-cold war diplomacy, he's currently in New York City preparing a PBS film on the Middle East peace process. Will new hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threaten its path? "The peace process is in abeyance until he gives some clarification," says Eban. "If it is not going to be followed through, it's a cosmic event in the history of the Middle East."

29 YEARS AGO IN TIME

Dogged Consistency

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who managed last week's minimum-wage bill in the Senate, has long kept his focus on work and America's cities: "'All the things we've tried to help the cities with aren't working out very well, are they?' asks Moynihan, 40, a former Assistant Secretary of Labor and the most controversial of urban-affairs analysts. The question may sound over jaunty, but it reflects the preoccupation of Moynihan's life...'We are the only industrial democracy,' he told a Senate subcommittee, 'that does not have a family allowance. And we are the only democracy whose streets are filled with rioters each summer...The biggest single experience anyone has is working.'" --July 28, 1967