`LAVERNE & SHIRLEY' PROJECT HEADED FOR THE BIG SCREEN.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

``Laverne & Shirley,'' the movie, is heating up.

Garry Marshall, who created the TV show that brought stardom to his sister Penny and Cindy Williams, reports that plans for a big-screen version of the series are proceeding - and that the vintage sitcom will be featured on Nick at Nite. ``So, we're having ourselves a revival,'' he declares.

No one in the Marshall family will direct the film, it's been decided. ``I've got two other movies to do. Penny, I think, wants to sit in the hair and makeup chair for a change,'' says Garry, who'll serve as a consultant on the feature. A script has been completed. Meetings are taking place with Paramount about the project. And, as it stands now, Penny and Cindy will be back before long playing Laverne and Shirley.

Girls! girls! girls!

How'd you like to be in Richard Thomas' boat? The actor, whose John Boy Walton character becomes a father on this Sunday's ``A Waltons Easter'' movie, recently returned from six months of New Zealand and Fiji location work for 30 episodes of the upcoming internationally syndicated ``Swiss Family Robinson'' series. Richard and wife Georgiana had their five - that's right, five - teen-age daughters from previous marriages along, plus their infant son, Montana. ``We actually spent six weeks living on a boat with the rest of the production company,'' Thomas tells us. ``It was tough on my wife. The baby was just 3 months old and she was still nursing.''

Once on dry land, the Thomases hired six teachers to keep the education of their brood moving forward and ``turned the living room of our rental house into a schoolroom.'' He looks back on the stay as ``an exciting adventure, nice to make a commitment to spend that much time in a pollution-free environment. The kids loved it, and nobody killed anybody.'' With his elder son away at college, Richard finds himself quite outnumbered these days, ``except for this thimble full of testosterone upstairs. That's OK. He may be young, but I'm happy for the company just the same.''

The industry eye

Filmmaker John Singleton is putting on his producer's hat for ``Gold Diggaz,'' which will be directed by Kim Greene and Camille Tucker. The comedy is sort of a modern, urban, sports-oriented answer to ``How to Marry a Millionaire'' - with three beautiful roommates conspiring to snag rich NBA players for husbands. Greene, Tucker and Singleton are the writers.

Country music legend Willie Nelson will be popping up in the role of a convict who tries to help solve a crime in an episode of Don Johnson's ``Nash Bridges'' series.

``Diagnosis: Murder'' is at it again. Now the Dick Van Dyke drama is bringing back together former ``Carol Burnett Show'' stalwarts Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. However, it won't be as much fun as it may sound. The funnymen will play legendary comedy sketch performers who've had a falling out. A big one. So big, one of them attempts to do away with the other! Meanwhile, the other one's mistress murders his wife, and guess who she conveniently frames? This soon-to-shoot special episode, cheekily titled ``Comedy Is Murder,'' was co-written by Dick Van Dyke.

The inside track

Those hip-hop divas Salt-N-Pepa are vocalizing with Sounds of Blackness on the single ``Hold On (Don't Let Go)'' on the Sounds' new ``Time for Healing'' CD. That collaboration has been a long time coming, says Sounds of Blackness music director Gary Hinds. ``They presented us with our first Grammy at the 1992 Grammy Awards, and back then we started talking about doing something together.''

The A&M Records ``Time for Healing'' album marks Sounds of Blackness' 25th anniversary and features Core Cotton as the lead singer, replacing Anne Nesby. Nesby has embarked on a solo career, but Hinds says, ``We have a saying, `Once a Sound, always a Sound.' Anne's still very much part of the family, and we've toured together since she released her solo album. I'm sure the future will hold reunion albums for us.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Penny Marshall

Ready for a change?

(2) Cindy Williams

Shirley, she'll return

(3) Richard Thomas 

In a sea of women