PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

U2 MAKES LIKE THE U.N.

Getting medical supplies into Bosnia is one thing, but getting a 40-ft. motorized lemon-disco-ball spaceship into Sarajevo is another. But U2 managed to pull it off--with the U.N.'s help--when the band, fulfilling a promise made by lead singer and honorary Bosnian citizen BONO, staged a full PopMart concert in the city, which doesn't even have running water 24 hours a day. "We offered them a scratch gig, a benefit concert, and they didn't want that. They wanted PopMart," says Bono. "They've a mad sense of humor." The concert didn't go quite as planned, though, because Bono lost his voice. "I told the crowd my voice was weak and they'd better have one," says Bono. The audience responded by drowning out the loudspeakers. "They carried us away. It was the other way around from the way it's supposed to be." Ironically, the PopMart trucks had more trouble getting into Greece a few days later, because of striking customs officials.

SERPICO: THE SEQUEL

These days he looks more like Mick Fleetwood than Al Pacino, but FRANK SERPICO hasn't changed much. Instead of being a nonconformist cop obsessed by police corruption, he's a nonvoting, vegetarian artist obsessed by police corruption. After years of reclusiveness, he's emerging to take on his favorite subject again. The 1973 book he wrote with Peter Maas, Serpico, has been rereleased, and last week before a New York city council committee he urged the establishment of an independent agency to monitor police. "I'm still waiting for the day," he said, "when the honest cop is feared by the crooked cop."

SEEN & HEARD

It was a long and winding road but, after a 16-year battle, the FBI released some of its files on John Lennon to University of California at Irvine professor Jonathan Wiener. The files include the incendiary revelations that Lennon met with antiwar activists, did nothing illegal and knew someone who had a parrot that said, "Right on!"

Donna Shalala had better watch out. Elizabeth Taylor wants to kick her in "the seat." The actress-activist says in November's Poz that she holds the Health and Human Services Secretary responsible for Bill Clinton's lack of support for needle-exchange programs. But the HHS folks say their hands are tied until "certain conditions set by Congress" are met.

THE DAY OF THE MAQUILLAGE

The plot of The Jackal may seem familiar (it's a remake of The Day of the Jackal), but the film will bring viewers at least one thing they've never seen before: BRUCE WILLIS as a bad guy. In fact, Willis will be seen in lots of new guises, including a fat-suit, blond and ponytail wigs, fake noses and geeky glasses. And not one of his trademark Die Hard "Yippee-ki-yays" in earshot. According to the director, even the actor seemed thrown by his villainous new persona. "It slightly confused him a couple of times," says Michael Caton-Jones, who spent part of last week reshooting the end of the film. "We had to stop and talk it out." Whether the Many Faces of Bruce will be able to get fans of the original movie into theaters is another story. But Caton-Jones has little patience for purists. "If they want to spend $7.50 to complain about what this film is not, that's their prerogative. I hate that hokey preciousness about not tampering with anything that has been made before," says Caton-Jones. "After all, you can do Shakespeare as many times as you want, and nobody says, 'I've seen that before.'"