`MAGUIRE' KID HAS A HANDLE ON THE TRIVIAL.

Did you know that the human head weighs 8 pounds?

And did you know that dogs and bees can smell fear?

Of course you do. You probably have these facts floating around your brain if, like millions of other moviegoers, you've seen Tom Cruise's ``Jerry Maguire.''

The film doesn't have the mind-taxing plot twists of ``Mission: Impossible,'' but writer-director Cameron Crowe loads the script with nuggets of knowledge. In one key bonding scene, a too-cute-to-be-real 6-year-old (Jonathan Lipnicki) shares with Cruise obscure bio-trivia about heads and dogs.

But watch out, mini-Maguire wanna-bes. He's only kind of right.

``I've weighed heads before,'' says Audley Broadey, who works in UCLA's pathology department performing autopsies, slicing and sorting dead bodies.

In fact, he puts an unattached human noggin on the scales during the phone interview. It weighs about 11 pounds.

``There's a range, though, depending on ethnicity and age,'' he adds. The brain accounts for about 3 pounds, and the skull and eyes and skin fill in the rest.

Sometimes, he says, the whole package can reach 17 pounds.

But give the ``Maguire'' kid an A+ for his line about how animals sense uneasiness in humans, says Rick Karl, owner and head trainer at the Hollywood Dog Training School in North Hollywood.

``When you're afraid, you usually have an adrenaline rush - you're putting out a chemical imprint,'' he says.

``Dogs read fear into people's behavior. They smell adrenaline, and all the signals put together amount to what we would call fear.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: In a key ``Jerry Maguire'' bonding scene, Jonathan Lipnicki's 6-year-old character shares some obscure knowledge with Tom Cruise's sports agent.