`MAD ABOUT' HUNT, AZARIA JOINS HER ON SEASON FINALE : PART TWO.

Byline: Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

Helen Hunt's real-life love, Hank Azaria, gets into the ``Mad About You'' action Tuesday night when Jamie Buchman finally gives birth to her baby.

``I take care of Murray the dog while everyone's going crazy,'' says Azaria.

He's agreed to return to his recurring role of Nat the dog walker next season. With his big-screen career soaring, he certainly doesn't need the work, but he points out that when he's in town he's usually on the set anyway, to be with Helen, ``so I might as well be working.''

They've been together since '95. As far as marriage, he says, ``I should be so lucky.'' Then he says, ``We have no plans yet, We're very happy just as we are - but we'll see.''

Azaria, who played the hilarious houseman in ``The Bird Cage,'' will be seen on screen soon in ``Home Grown'' with Billy Bob Thornton. And he co-stars in the upcoming modern-day version of ``Great Expectations'' with Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke, Anne Bancroft and Robert DeNiro. Right now he's in New York making TriStar's ``Godzilla'' with Matthew Broderick.

He notes that sometimes ``you end up working for tyrants,'' but that filmmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin (``Independence Day'') are making ``Godzilla'' work a pleasure. ``They're very safety-conscious and very concerned about their actors. They also try to keep the hours sensible. That's tough to do in New York. You're under the gun to leave a location, it's hard to get permits to shoot, and the rules change constantly.''

``Godzilla'' moves from New York to L.A. in a few weeks. And then Helen can watch Hank work. She's taking the summer off - after a rigorous period of squeezing in filming of Jim Brooks' ``Old Friends'' with Jack Nicholson around her ``Mad About You'' shooting schedule.

We told you the other day about the struggle going on between director Lance Young and the MPAA ratings board over Young's filmic saga of a couple's sexual intimacy, ``Bliss.'' Although the movie, starring Craig Sheffer, Sheryl Lee and Terence Stamp, features no frontal nudity and is tastefully made, it's been back and forth between Young and the board, which slapped it with an NC-17. The latest: an R-rated version of ``Bliss'' will be released by Sony, on schedule, June 6. A disheartened Young allowed the studio to make the edits needed to avoid the NC-17 mark that pretty much kills a movie's chances of success. He tells us, ``I feel two scenes have been artistically compromised, but it's my hope that the only one who will be offended by that is me.''

Twinkle toes

Kris Kristofferson goes before Sony's ``Shut Up and Dance'' cameras today - after spending weeks with choreographer Daryl Matthews and seven-time Latin dance national champion Liz Curtis in a warehouse near the studio learning Latin and ballroom dance steps. We're told he's ``really had to learn to dance'' for his role as the owner of a run-down Houston dance studio in director Randa Haines' latest movie, which co-stars Vanessa Williams and Latin music idol Chayanne. Kris was the only member of the trio who didn't know how to dance. He says that playing pro football in ``Semi-Tough'' was relatively easy. ``Football was my passion for years. But learning to dance? It was rough.''

Up to no darned good

Hey! What have David Letterman's minions been doing, casting look-alikes for George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle, Noah Wyle, Laura Innes and Julianna Margulies? The faux ``ER'' group will be seen in a Letterman promo spot set to shoot Tuesday in New York. Remember, kids, the shows are on different networks.

The big-screen scene

Seeing the dinosaurs up on the screen in Steven Spielberg's upcoming ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' is nothing like being right next to them. Richard Schiff, who co-stars with Jeff Goldblum in the film, reports, ``I worked with the three-dimensional T-rexes for an entire week, and they look real even when they're not moving. They have moist skin, the eyes move back and forth and every muscle that the dinosaur would have is represented by some form of movement. And, they're lethal. ... When they swoop down toward your head, you're in severe danger if the guys who are controlling them slip. It was very scary.'' Schiff, who isn't holding out hope his critically acclaimed ``Relativity'' series will be picked up by ABC for next season, just finished playing Danny DeVito's brother in ``The Kiss'' and is set to start shooting ``Doctor Dolittle'' as one of Eddie Murphy's medical-practice partners this week.

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- 2) Hank Azaria returns to his role of Nat the dog walker to be with his real-life love, Helen Hunt, on ``Mad About You.''

(3) Kris Kristofferson: ``Learning to dance? It was rough.''