`EVERYBODY' LOVES EMMY, BUT ROMANO LOVES TO WORRY.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Ray Romano, thrilled that he and his ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' show finally have earned Emmy nominations, is fretting about the possibility that he'll win.

``There's now going to be this pressure to get up and give an acceptance speech that's funny,'' says the comedian. ``And I'm already worried about that. That's the way my mind works - worry is what fuels me. Worrying keeps me going, keeps me from being complacent.''

Romano was hardly complacent while he awaited the Emmy nomination announcements last week.

``All the strong competition came to mind - Kelsey Grammer, Michael J. Fox, Paul Reiser, John Lithgow, David Spade, and all the actors from `Friends.' (The first four did turn out to be Romano's competition.) But it's just good to be there, finally. We've been overlooked until now.''

``Everybody Loves Raymond'' is also in the outstanding comedy series category, running with ``Ally McBeal,'' ``Frasier,'' ``Sex in the City'' and ``Friends.'' One gets the impression that Ray considers the latter his show's strongest competition - and is surprised that ``Friend'' Matthew Perry isn't among the nominees.

He says of the competing sitcom, ``It's always been a good show, and this was its best year yet.'' He adds of Perry, ``The buzz was that he would be nominated. He should have been.''

Look who's talking

Uh-oh. Another celeb talk show is on the way - this one with former porn queen Traci Lords as host. Actually, this one promises to be like no talk show before.

Wait - they all promise that, don't they? Traci's manager, Juliet Green, who'll co-produce the program with Peter Isaacson, calls it ``an anti-talk show. No desks. It'll be more like a party, with a much more hip, lively, edgy feeling.''

What qualifies Lords to host such a program? ``Traci is a fabulous talker, real smart, with a biting wit. She has friends from every world imaginable.'' We can imagine.

Back to `Annie'

Andrea McArdle found last week's trek to L.A.- to play a role in the Disney/ABC telepic special of ``Annie'' - a ``sort of surreal'' experience.

Of course, the original Broadway musical made McArdle a juvenile star in the '70s, and, as she notes, ``no matter what role I play, my name is going to be associated with the show forever.'' This time around, she has the grown-up part Star-to-Be, and the famous orphan, Annie, is being played by Alicia Morton - who happens to be the best friend of McArdle's daughter, Alexis.

``There were those moments when I'd hear the musical playback of Alicia singing and feel a little strange. But I love the way they're doing it. They're getting incredible stuff, capturing the feeling of the Broadway show, unlike the film.'' For herself, ``it felt like closure for me, because Alicia will be the Annie for this generation, and they'll leave me alone. And also, it was an honor to play Star-to-Be. We lost the actress who originated that part, Lauri Beechman, to ovarian cancer last year. She was the standard for young girls who dreamed of going on Broadway.''

McArdle's heart definitely belongs to Broadway, where she's the current Belle in ``Beauty and the Beast.''

No laugh track

Filmmaker Roland Joffe, who has jumped into the TV world with MTV's nightly ``Undressed'' half-hour drama, says he would not have been interested in doing a TV series ``if it had to be done in the typical way television is done. I don't like things presented with canned laughter, within all sorts of pre-set constraints about how long a story should take, and so on. It's almost as rigid as the Chinese empire. All that needs to be refreshed. Let the people call the tune,'' says the man whose film credits include ``The Mission.''

However, he adds, ``I did think it would be really fun to do stories that played out in their own ways, and have it on five days a week'' - as he's doing with ``Undressed,'' which premieres tonight.

Double shift

``ER'' actress Lily Mariye, who plays nurse Lily on the NBC drama, is spending her hiatus directing ``The Shangri-La Cafe,'' a film short for AFI's Directing Workshop for Women.

Mariye also wrote the piece about Japanese-Americans and African-Americans coping with racism in 1959. And to score her film, she's enlisted the aid of her husband, hot jazz saxophonist Boney James.

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1) ROMANO

(2) PERRY

(3) JOFFE