ARQUETTES WANT MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO WORK TOGETHER.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

If David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette get their way, they'll be working together more - much more.

Right now, the newlyweds, who met on the original ``Scream,'' are busy with separate projects.

David says that being away from Courteney is ``the hardest part'' of his jam-packed schedule. He's been simultaneously working on his yet-untitled big-screen wrestling comedy and recording a song called ``Click-Click'' for the ``Scream 3'' soundtrack with his band, Ear2000.

And Courteney has been juggling ``Friends'' duties with ``working really hard to help sell `The Shrink Is In,' '' says David, referring to the couple's romantic comedy, lensed earlier this year and awaiting a distribution deal.

``If `The Shrink Is In' does really well, people will see how well we work off each other and finance more movies for us to do together. That's what we hope will happen.

We hope to do the job we love - together,'' says the actor, who points out that his wife happens to be one of the producers of ``The Shrink Is In.''

He also says, ``I'm, like, the biggest fan of hers. I think she's so wonderful. Sometimes I don't think people understand the full extent of what she's capable of.

In `The Shrink Is In,' she's not Monica (of `Friends') at all, she's not Gail Weathers (of `Scream'). She's a troubled, neurotic character - and very funny. It's a sweet and hilarious movie, not too cynical,'' he says.

Of course, David and Courteney also have ``Scream 3'' due out in February. He says ``It's a fun movie that shouldn't be taken too seriously. It laughs at itself. It's winking at you all the time.''

Once he wraps the wrestling pic, the much-in-demand David will go on to the comedy ``Mile High Club,'' and from there, another comedy, ``Honky.''

Maid to order

Penny Marshall is being paged to take over where Shirley Booth left off in the '60s series ``Hazel.'' Penny's brother, Garry, tells us that there are discussions about having his sister take on the role of the housekeeper heroine in either a sitcom or a feature film, but that ``she's vacillating. One minute she wants to return to acting, the next she wants to continue directing, God love her.''

Garry also doesn't know what he wants to do next. With his ``Runaway Bride'' one of the big hits of the summer, he's being flooded with other directorial offers.

But he says, ``I've been telling everybody, 'I'm too busy now to read scripts. First things first - I've been very busy with `Crimes of the Heart.' ''

His production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play opened last week - with Faith Ford, Crystal Bernard and Morgan Fairchild - at the Falcon Theatre, Marshall's gem of a small playhouse in Burbank. He not only directed the production, he has also been on hand to oversee parking.

Now that the play has been launched, he says, ``I'll start reading.''

Get out of jail free

Jay Leno, among the honorees at the sixth annual Jack Webb Awards - along with Dennis Franz - admitted that years ago he was picked up for vagrancy in Hollywood. Jay says that he explained to the arresting officer that, despite appearances, he wasn't really a vagrant, he was a struggling comedian - and the cop gave him a chance to prove it by having him tell some jokes. The officer decided, ``OK, you're pretty funny'' - and let him go.

Before a crowd of police, city officials and celebs at the Beverly Hilton event benefiting the Los Angeles Police Historical Society, Jay insisted that the story was true, and that he later encountered the same cop, who asked how his career was going.

Bill Maher, Red Buttons, James McDaniel and Angie Dickinson were also among the Hollywood names who turned out at the gala in support of the police.

Behind the Bradys

As ``The David Cassidy Story'' moves along toward production, now, we have ``Growing Up Brady'' - an NBC telepic based on the oh-so-revealing 1992 book by that other '70s heartthrob, Barry Williams. You may recall that Williams, a k a Greg Brady, wrote about the behind-the-scenes world, the entanglements - romantic and otherwise - of ``The Brady Bunch.''

Now, he's a producer on the Paramount TV production, and casting is under way with a December start date set.

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1) ARQUETTE

(2) COX ARQUETTE

(3) LENO

(4) WILLIAMS