BELAFONTE BUSY WITH MUSIC, TELEVISION, FILM PROJECTS.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Harry Belafonte reveals he's just signed a new multiple-album recording deal with Sony and is scheduled to star in his first television special in 30 years.

The TV offering is ``a two-hour musical presentation for PBS that will go on the air for their pitch month in March,'' says Belafonte, who's performing Friday and Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts as part of the nationwide Discover Grammy Festival, with Grammy-winning artists doing concerts to promote music education.

Music students will get to pick Belafonte's brain about the music industry prior to the concert. They'll also get a preview of some of the music that will be featured on the PBS special and the accompanying CD and home video.

Belafonte is juggling preparation for the special with ``Amos 'n' Andy'' - the big-screen project he's co-producing with Robert Altman.

The script is only at the outline stage for the project ``that will explore the existence of blackface humor in American culture, and the conflict stirred up around the whole issue of `Amos 'n' Andy.' '' Yet, Belafonte says, Altman ``wants to start shooting the end of spring, early summer, so it'll be ready by fall, early winter '97.''

In Altman's usual style, the film will be sprinkled with top-name talent.

Political jabs: ``By the end of taping, I felt like I should be apologizing for the jaundiced views,'' says Robert Klein of AMC's Oct. 15 ``D.C. Follies'' documentary, which he hosts. ``It's a fairly blistering and cynical view of the political arena.''

He also notes that the compilation of film clips from more than a dozen politically themed movies (juxtaposed with actual news footage and classic campaign commercials) prove Hollywood has long enjoyed putting down politics and politicians. Actually, the comedian believes, ``We don't give politicians the respect they deserve. We hold our leaders up to a false light. We talk about patriotism a lot - then celebrate Washington's Birthday with a mattress sale.''

If Klein had his way, politicians wouldn't be judged by their sexual hijinks - that's one thing he liked about the good old days. He points to Grover Cleveland, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, even Dwight D. Eisenhower, as just a few of the presidents who were involved in sexual hijinks - at no jeopardy to their posts. ``These were matters the press never bothered with - it's unfortunate the rules have changed. I'm only concerned with the way a president performs when he's at his desk.''

No star-tripping here: Sigourney Weaver could have used her clout as a big-name star to insist on first billing in the Broadway production of ``Sex and Longing,'' but instead the actress graciously accepted an alphabetical listing, which of course places her last. Now in rehearsals, the Lincoln Center production of Christopher Durang's satiric look at our life and erratic/erotic times will be playing at Broadway's Cort Theatre Sept. 12-Nov. 17.