`SABRINA'S' HART WANTS TO PRODUCE SHIRLEY TEMPLE BIOPIC.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Could anyone ever fill the tiny tap shoes of that remarkably talented, unbelievably adorable moppet of the '30s, Shirley Temple?

Melissa Joan Hart thinks so. And, in fact, the star of ABC's ``Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'' is in meetings with the 70-year-old former actress to bring the story of Shirley Temple Black to the screen.

Hart, 22, who spent most of her teen years starring in Nickelodeon's ``Clarissa Explains it All,'' co-produces her current ``Sabrina'' series, and would serve as producer of the Shirley Temple biopic.

``I've been waiting for this day all of my life,'' she says of her meeting this week with Black. She adds that the idea for the movie came to her because her 4-year-old sister Alexandra, ``looks and acts so much like a very young Shirley Temple.''

The movie would have Alexandra playing Shirley as a tot, her 11-year-old sister Emily portraying Shirley as a young teen, and the 22-year-old Melissa taking over the role from late teen to young adult.

Hart has six sisters and one brother. All but the youngest have done Broadway shows, TV movies, series and commercials, with their mother, Paula Hart, the prime mover behind their careers. ``Sabrina'' was developed through the Hartbreak Films company of Paula and Melissa Joan Hart, first as a Showtime movie. Hartbreak will bring us the Shirley Temple biopic - if all the pieces can be put together.

Meanwhile ... Melissa expects to learn today if she'll be heading to Rome soon to make a ``Sabrina'' TV movie for ``The Wonderful World of Disney.'' She expects that her live-in love, James Fields, would make the trip with her. James is an aspiring actor, who already has appeared on a few segments of the series, and she figures he could audition for a part in the telepic.

The inside track

Salt-N-Pepa is ready to spice things up in Tinsel Town. The members of the multiplatinum-selling rap group, Cheryl James (Salt), Sandi Denton (Pepa) and Dee Dee Roper (Spinderella) are gearing up to make a serious move into acting. ``We're under new management,'' reports Denton, who's expecting her second child in August. ``After I have the baby, we're definitely going to Hollywood to see about doing a sitcom and some other things. That's something we've always wanted to do. We've dibbed and dabbed here and there, guesting in movies, series and HBO specials.''

Meanwhile, Salt-N-Pepa is just about to release the ``Imagine'' single (sung with Sheryl Crow) off its latest Brand New CD. And the group will perform on ABC's ``Where It's At: The Rolling Stone State of the Union'' special that airs on May 21. The group joins Bruce Springsteen, Jewel, Beck, Fiona Apple and Sean ``Puffy'' Combs on the program that's tied into Rolling Stone magazine's 30th anniversary.

Our town

Jodie Foster has been set to be the first of three hosts for AFI's ``100 Years ... 1,000 Movies'' - 13 hours of programming on CBS and TNT, which will honor the 100 greatest American films of all time. Those films - as selected by some 1,500 leaders of the film community - will be announced during a CBS prime-time special on June 16.

The industry eye

``Rescue Me,'' currently filming for MGM, has Aaron Eckhart co-starring as Elisabeth Shue's brother, Buck - not D.W. Moffett as we said the other day. Moffett plays a soap opera star in the feature in which Elisabeth portrays Molly, a woman with autism, who moves in with her brother after she has been institutionalized for years. It's being described as a lighthearted comedy.

Sam Elliott is getting ready to star in and executive produce ``One Last Town,'' a TNT movie set in the 1920s, in which he'll play a 60-year-old lawman who becomes chief of police for a crime-infested town.

The inside track

Trisha Yearwood is managing to finish up work on her next album on breaks from her yearlong concert tour with Garth Brooks. She recently made a trek into L.A. to shoot the record cover and a video. Yet untitled, ``It'll come out in July. There's a song on it I would like to record with Garth,'' adds the performer, who got her start as a backup vocalist for Brooks. Trisha also says that she and Garth haven't given up the idea of doing a full album of duets - but putting together such a record ``turned out to be more difficult than we thought.''

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1) Melissa Joan Hart

``I've been waiting for this day''

(2) Jodie Foster

``1,000 Movies'' co-host

(3) Trisha Yearwood

Not giving up on duet