BENING'S `HEART' STILL VERY MUCH IN AIDS DRAMA.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Annette Bening, who was expected to star in the long-planned film version of Larry Kramer's ``The Normal Heart'' AIDS drama this fall, may still fill that bill - after her third child, due in January, is born.

Says producer David Picker, ``Annette definitely wanted to make the movie, but then she became pregnant. We're trying to put off production until next spring, when she would be available again.''

Right now, Picker and producer Laurence Mark are finalizing financing for the movie that they expect to bring in for $12 million to $14 million - with John Schlesinger directing. Barbra Streisand was, of course, expected to direct (as well as star as Dr. Emma Brookner) until she bowed out of the project last spring.

Picker notes that ``ER's'' Anthony Edwards also is expected to be part of the cast, and that he, like everyone else who takes part in the production, will be working for very little. ``The dedicated people who make this movie will do so because it's a labor of love.''

Movie madness

``I'm dumbfounded. I've never seen anything like this,'' says John Krier, president of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. He's referring to the vast amount of money being plowed into advertising of movies that won't hit the screen until year's end. He adds, ``A madness is prevailing. There are so many films out there that studios are trying to create awareness for their product earlier than I can ever remember.''

Some movies already being hyped are not even finished. Because of that, and the mad jockeying for theater space that's taking place, more than a few films likely will not make it into release on the dates planned. A while back, this column alerted readers to the fact that Hollywood was grinding out movies at such a frantic pace that there was a shortage of soundstages and above- and below-the-line talent. Too many movies and too few theaters to house them in prime periods are now resulting in what Krier refers to as ``madness.''

As the ball bounces

Michael Jordan will be juggling promotional chores for ``Space Jam'' with basketball duties after all. He will definitely, says filmmaker Ivan Reitman, be on hand for a ``Jam'' electronic press junket in Chicago on Oct. 20-21, and in New York two days later to talk up the film with the print press.

The videoland view

The ``Moesha'' cast and crew took over the Hollywood Palace last night to shoot a special concert episode of the UPN sitcom. In the segment scheduled to air election night, Moesha (played by pop star Brandy) sneaks into a concert to catch the live performances of such hot groups as Blackstreet, Xscape and Soul for Real - who'll be guesting for real. Also making cameo appearances in the episode are Def Jam honcho Russell Simmons, the group 112 and Olympic basketball player Lisa Leslie. For ``Moesha's'' more mature audience, jazz legend Nancy Wilson also performs in a special lounge scene.

Oh, and Kobe Bryant, the 18-year-old Laker star, is saying that all the reports that had him romancing ``Moesha'' lead Brandy were just plain bunk - that they've merely been good friends.

Meanwhile, ``Beverly Hills, 90210's'' Ian Ziering, at Marjoe Gortner's celeb sports tourney at the Ihilani Resort in Hawaii with his lovely Nikki Shieler, reports most of the series' contracts will be up the end of this season. ``Talks are starting with the various agents,'' he says, ``to see if we'll go on into an eighth year - the characters will have graduated college. Maybe we can become another batch of `Friends.' '' Ian says that what he's really hankering for is a sitcom of his own.

Doing his bit

Lou Diamond Phillips says working week in and week out on Broadway with his juvenile co-stars in ``The King and I'' is making him feel like he wants to start a family of his own. ``I'm being primed as a father,'' says Phillips, who's married to Kelly Preston (no relation to John Travolta's wife). ``I feel like a dad backstage. ... Whenever one of the kids gets a sty or a tummy ache I get very concerned. They call me King Daddy.''

Phillips says the closeness he's developed with the children is what compelled him to become a spokesman for the American Health Foundation. ``I'm trying to get the message out about teaching kids the risk of sun exposure and being sun smart,'' he says. ``You get 60 to 80 percent of sun exposure before the age of 18, and all it takes is two really good sunburns during childhood to significantly increase the risk for developing melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.''

MEMO: The Celebrities column appears Monday through Friday.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Annette Bening

Time out for pregnancy

(2) Mic hael Jordan

Juggling promotional chores