People

By Michele Orecklin

SISTERLY BOND

Bond girls are granted memorable names but fleeting roles. Most get replaced by younger models with less clothing in subsequent releases. Now, in what must be a lothario's nightmare, Vanity Fair has assembled 007's sirens for a group photo. Since Bond has vanquished more vixens than villains, it was a big group (this is only a third of them). From left, they are: URSULA ANDRESS (Honey Ryder), SHIRLEY EATON (Jill Masterson, coated in paint in Goldfinger), HONOR BLACKMAN (Pussy Galore), LUCIANA PALUZZI (Fiona Volpe), JILL ST. JOHN (Tiffany Case) and LANA WOOD (Plenty O'Toole). Where's Miss Moneypenny when you need her?

NOT SUFFERING IN SILENCE

No regular child prodigy, MARSHALL BALL has had to overcome much to share his gift. The 13-year-old from Austin, Texas, whose recently published book has already gone to No. 4 on Amazon.com's best-seller list, is unable to speak and barely able to move, having been born with a still undiagnosed illness. He composed the poems and thoughts in Kiss of God: The Wisdom of a Silent Child by tapping on a primitive letter board. Ball's tenaciously loving parents read him literature and played him music from the time he was still an infant; by age 9, he was testing at a 12th-grade reading level. Particularly partial to Tolstoy, Ball offers musings that are often similarly elliptical: "I hope to gather thinkers/ To give them my thoughts about Love/ Love to clean their ideas/ That cleaning might loosen the love in their hearts."

KANE FOR A DAY

"I've only realized this year what a luxury it is not to get overexposed," says LIEV SCHREIBER. Rather than practicing false humility, the actor is acknowledging how intense media attention can hobble a career. As an example, he cites Orson Welles, whom he portrays in HBO's upcoming RKO 281, the story of the making of Citizen Kane. "When this movie was released," he says, "no one saw it because William Randolph Hearst hated it. So the press killed it." Schreiber has been drawing increased scrutiny as he rehearses Hamlet on Broadway and reprises his Scream role in December. And wary as he is of hype, he's not about to turn down work. "I'll take anything I can get."

FEUD OF THE WEEK

NAME: "Sir" Charles Barkley OCCUPATION: Trash-talking hoopster BEST PUNCH: Said he was "disappointed greatly" that teammate Pippen wants to leave Houston after one season, particularly since "the Rockets went out of their way to get Scottie."

NAME: "Beam Me Up" Scottie Pippen OCCUPATION: Trash-talking hoopster BEST PUNCH: Hardly contrite, responded, "I wouldn't give Charles Barkley an apology at gunpoint...If anything, he owes me an apology for coming to play with his sorry fat butt."

WINNER: Pippen. He got himself traded to the Portland Trail Blazers

BROTHER BRANDO

Germans do not enjoy a reputation as fun lovers. But Die Zeit, one of the country's leading newsweeklies, recently started playing six degrees of separation with gusto. According to one social theory, everyone on the planet can be connected to anyone else in six steps. So the paper asked Salah Ben Ghaly, an Iraqi immigrant who owns a local falafel stand, to whom he would most like to be linked. Ghaly, naturally, chose MARLON BRANDO. It took some months, but Die Zeit managed to relate them. A friend of Ghaly's who lives in California works in the same company as Ken Carlson, boyfriend of Michelle Bevin, sorority sister to Christina Kutzer, daughter of Patrick Palmer, producer of Don Juan de Marco, in which Brando starred. Alas, Brando seems unmoved by the relation. He's yet to return Ghaly's calls.

RADIO AIR PLAY IS DOUBTFUL

With a defunct sitcom and a fledgling talk show, a girl's got to find some way to get attention. So last week ROSEANNE and the Barr Flies commandeered New York City's legendary downtown club CBGB and cracked some of rock's finer chestnuts. Opening with a Rolling Stones medley, the former Ms. Arnold interpreted Satisfaction in ways Mick Jagger surely never intended and with a refreshing indifference to melody. She screeched her way through My Generation and I Wanna Be Sedated, pausing only to eat chocolate, swill beer and swear, charming the young crowd with her atonal exuberance. If only TV viewers were so readily impressed.

AND THEY PAY HOMAGE TO MR. RICARDO

Whether you're watching ESPN or MTV, you can't escape the reign of the Rickys, and last week was particularly eventful. Here's how to tell them apart.

Ricky Williams Ricky Williams Ricky Martin

Profession: Running back Running Back Singer

Spent college years at: Texas Texas Tech General Hospital

Praised athletically for: Speed and power Speed and power Swiveling hips

Heisman Trophy prospects: Won in 1998 May win in 1999 Not good

Felled last week by: A sprained A sprained knee TLC, whose single elbow outsold his

IT WAS A BANG-UP GOOD TIME

The best you can hope to pick up at most art openings is some vicious gossip and cheap champagne. But at her Fifth Avenue gallery last week, venerable art dealer MARY BOONE offered a little more. For a show featuring a sculpture made of guns, Boone filled a vase with 9-mm cartridges, a thoughtful parting gift for art patrons. Unfortunately, the law didn't see it that way. Police took Boone to jail, where she spent more than 24 hrs. and was charged with possessing an exposed rifle and disposing of ammunition. She maintained the bullets weren't live (ballistics tests disproved this) and refused to eat (at least until her chauffeur arrived with bagels). Boone insists she was framed, and plunged back into the First Amendment fray by attending a party for that other art exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum upon her release.