NOTEBOOK

By CHARLOTTE FALTERMAYER, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, LINA LOFARO, JEFFERY C. RUBIN, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND SIDNEY URQUHART

WINNERS & LOSERS THE SUPERMAN RENAISSANCE

[WINNERS]

LOIS & CLARK TV's modern superduo aren't destined to live worlds apart after all: they say "I do" Oct. 6

MARGOT KIDDER Just months after her breakdown, she comes back with a role on NBC sitcom Boston Common

GEORGE REEVES A forthcoming book on his mysterious death rekindles interest in TV's first Superman

[& LOSERS]

LOIS AND CLARK The comic-book duo give up 58 years of dating to match the nuptials of their TV counterparts

BATMAN Despite new megaflick, Gotham's Dark Knight is overshadowed by the latest Krypton craze

JON PETERS Producer's big-budget Superman movie may miss boat and not get to theaters until 1998

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

--When to inhale? Ending a five-year debate on how to treat MILD ASTHMA, researchers have concluded that daily use of inhalers to relax bronchial muscles, while safe, is unnecessary. The condition can be kept in check by using inhalers as needed--during an attack or in anticipation of one, for example.

--Early reports suggest that post-menopausal women with SPINAL FRACTURES may have something to be grateful for: a 60% lower risk of breast cancer. Fractured vertebrae are often associated with low levels of estrogen, which in turn may protect against the cancer.

--An FDA advisory committee has recommended approval of copolymer 1 for MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS. Besides managing symptoms, the drug can reduce the frequency of attacks and slow the disease's progress.

THE BAD NEWS

--A dirty little secret is out. Researchers staked out public toilets and discovered that roughly 4 out of 10 Americans do not WASH THEIR HANDS after using the toilet. Women are cleaner than men: 74% of them wash up, compared with 61% of males.

--A standard procedure to monitor the heart in critically ill patients may do more harm than good. Pulmonary-artery CATHETERIZATION--in which a catheter stays in the heart for several days--raises by 21% the risk of patients' dying within 30 days.

--In spite of the cardiovascular benefits of moderate amounts of ALCOHOL, the American Cancer Society says that a few glasses a week may increase the risk of breast cancer among high-risk women. The group's advice: limit intake or abstain altogether.

Sources--GOOD NEWS: New England Journal of Medicine; American Society for Bone and Mineral Research; Food and Drug Administration. BAD NEWS: American Society for Microbiology; New England Journal of Medicine; American Cancer Society

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

LANCE ITO, 46; LOS ANGELES Simpson criminal-trial judge

In the year since the "Trial of the Century" ended, Judge Ito has kept a low profile. Unlike other O.J. players, he has declined to write a book or otherwise exploit his celebrity status, though he has spoken on a number of occasions to lawyers' groups. Nonetheless, among L.A. courthouse wags, "pulling an Ito" has entered the legal lexicon to describe someone who has become intoxicated by a celebrity case. Gawkers still occasionally wander into Ito's courtroom, now located on a higher floor, to see the familiar face preside over routine criminal trials. Last April Ito suffered a setback: a federal judge overturned his second most famous case, the 1991 state conviction of Lincoln S&L chief Charles Keating, on the grounds Ito gave flawed jury instructions. Despite that ruling and continuing criticism of his handling of the O.J. criminal case, Ito is running unopposed for re-election to the bench. As the civil-trial phase of the Simpson mess opened last week, Ito and his wife were on vacation.

19 YEARS AGO IN TIME

Actress of Substance

Diane Keaton was stepping out of Annie Hall fame into a more risque role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar: "She [says] she is insecure about her looks...[But] a listener can endure only a certain amount of this nonsense without contracting an enormous crush on Keaton. She marches sturdily into her sentences, pinafore starched and party shoes shining, then imagines that she hears a growl, stops uncertainly, scolds herself for being silly, collects herself and moves forward, uttering exhortations, and finally collapses, out of breath, on the far side of a not especially fearsome thought. She does not seem dithery or dimwitted, merely enormously vulnerable and utterly uncalculating." --Sept. 26, 1977