PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

FARMER FUHRMAN HAS HIS SAY

Does the world want to hear more from MARK FUHRMAN? Well, it's going to. His book Murder in Brentwood is due out in February. And Vanity Fair has scored the first interview with the disgraced former cop. To say that Fuhrman, living on an isolated farm in Idaho and working as an electrician, is bitter about his treatment during the O.J. Simpson case is putting it mildly. Fuhrman says he found other pieces of evidence that were never pursued, including a knife box in Simpson's bathroom, dark clothes in his washing machine and a blood-stained light switch. He also claims the old Mark Fuhrman is dead. "No matter how right or how wrong I am, it doesn't make any difference," he says. "I'm starting over."

SEEN & HEARD

Carl Sagan is dead, but Francis Ford Coppola hasn't forgotten him. Zoetrope, Coppola's film company, is suing Sagan and Warner Bros. over the upcoming film Contact. Coppola claims he worked with Sagan on the idea as a TV show before Sagan wrote his book. Now he wants $250,000 and a halt to further work on the film.

Let's hope Bill Clinton doesn't get any ideas from Philippine President Fidel Ramos, who will auction as a "relic" the lump of cholesterol that doctors recently removed from his right carotid. Proceeds will go to Smokey Mountain--the big garbage dump that is now the site of low-cost housing. No word on whether Sotheby's is interested.

MET ON SEVEN, WED IN '97?

In Seven, the movie on which they met, their marriage ended rather badly--with her head in a box--but in real life, GWYNETH PALTROW and BRAD PITT's future could not be any peachier. Pitt, alumnus of Kickapoo High School and son of a trucking company manager, and Paltrow, alumna of the rather more expensive Spence and daughter of director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, have announced their engagement--proving, perhaps, that a similar level of photogenic appeal outweighs differing backgrounds. No further details were forthcoming about the happy event, which has been much anticipated--and dreaded--by teenage girls everywhere. Ah well, there's still Keanu.

WHAT, NO SIR RINGO?

Didn't those wags who write headlines for British tabloid newspapers have a field day with this story! YES-SIR-DAY, HARD DAY'S KNIGHT and, of course, DUB ME DO, the papers crowed when it was announced that aging vegetarian, philanthropist and, oh yeah, former Beatle PAUL MCCARTNEY, 54, was to be knighted. All the Beatles were previously given M.B.E.s (Members of the Order of the British Empire), although John Lennon subsequently sent his back as a protest against the Vietnam War. "It's a fantastic honor," said McCartney, "and I'm gratefully receiving it on behalf of the people of Liverpool and the other Beatles, without whom it wouldn't have been possible." McCartney wasn't the only celebrity honored. Now, it's Lord Lloyd Webber, who can sit in the House of Lords, and Joan Collins, O.B.E.--honored for her acting, not her literature.