'POSTMAN' DIRECTOR DELIVERS HIS OSCAR PICKS.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Michael Radford, the British director of Italy's acclaimed "The Postman" - nominated for awards by the Screen Actors, Directors and Producers guilds - feels "Sense and Sensibility" may well nab the Oscar for best picture.

"Hollywood has a weakness for those kinds of English films," he pointed out. "They're a blessed relief from the industry's action pictures."

His favorite picture of the year was "Leaving Las Vegas," but he said, "It may be too dark for Academy approval. Mike Figgis was brilliant as director, but I believe Mel Gibson is the Oscar favorite for directing 'Braveheart' - and it was an extraordinary feat for him."

Most of the films that are expected to be Oscar nominees, he said, "Seem to be the usual product of Hollywood - and not too great examples of it."

He includes "Braveheart," "The American President" and "Apollo 13" on that list. But he stressed, "I don't want it to sound like I am belittling any production or filmmaker. I know how difficult it is to make a picture - anyone who gets this far deserves any and every award."

Radford's been getting a tremendous Hollywood wooing since "Postman." He said, "I'm being offered anything that's even remotely Italian - anything with a plate of spaghetti."

He's being modest. He's actually got enough offers lined up to keep him busy for several years, and he's putting all the recent clamor into perspective.

"Suddenly you're being offered a lot of money - and you can be as dead as a dodo if you make the wrong choice."

The industry eye: Magic Johnson's return to the Los Angeles Lakers might be of great interest to the world at large, but it apparently doesn't have producer Robert Halmi doing flips. He had been planning a biopic on the basketball star in 1993. Those plans collapsed, but he said not long ago that if Magic came out of retirement, he expected to revive the project.

So much for expectations. He told us, "There's nothing exciting about the story now. It's old." ...

The plans are now firm for Candice Bergen to start "Tim" in Los Angeles in May. She had expected to shoot the remake of the 1979 film (about a 47-year-old librarian who falls in love with a young, simple-minded builder) during her "Murphy Brown" hiatus last summer, but canceled those plans when husband Louis Malle was stricken with the illness that would take his life Thanksgiving Day.

Hello again: Susan Saint James is back in Los Angeles for the first time in years - to guest on "The Drew Carey Show," on which her niece, Christa Miller, co-stars. The episode tapes Tuesday for airing Feb. 27, and Saint James is bringing her three younger children out from Connecticut to join her.

"It will be great fun," said the former star of "Kate & Allie," "McMillan and Wife" and "Name of the Game," who retired six years ago to devote herself to her home life with her NBC executive husband, Dick Ebersol, and their three children.

She admitted she's been spending extra time working out, and staying on a diet, to be in form for her guest spot. "Luckily, I've stayed in OK shape; I do go out to functions with my husband and it's not like I'm going around in overalls all the time. But it's an ongoing battle nowadays," said the actress, who cheerfully acknowledges being 50. "I remember the times I could just cut out desserts and quit drinking beer for a week and people would say, 'God, you're too thin!' Those days are gone forever."

A change of pace: Look for a very different Carl Weathers in the big-screen "Happy Gilmore" opening next week. The action star ("Rocky," "Action Jackson") does his first turn in a comedic role in the Universal film starring Adam Sandler. "They were really surprised that I could be wacky after all the serious, macho-type characters I've played," said Weathers.

The actor also directed this Sunday's episode of "Silk Stalkings." He said it was a kick working with the syndicated actioner's new stars, Tyler Layton and Nick Kokotakis, because "they have so much enthusiasm."

The videoland view: "Married ... With Children's" Amanda Bearse expands her directorial base today as she takes the helm of the first of a two-part episode of Fox's "The Crew," titled "Winds of Change." The actress, who plays Marcy D'Arcy on the long-running "Married," made her directorial debut in that show's sixth season. "The Crew" segment she's doing today is scheduled to air March 28.

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Photo (1) Robert Halmi Magic idea fades (2) Candice Bergen Murphy does "Tim" (3) Susan Saint James Back in town