BRUSH WITH DEATH CHANGED SWAYZE.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

``This has turned into one of the most wonderful periods of my life. I feel like Mary Poppins, singing to the birds and trees, lucky to be alive,'' says Patrick Swayze. He feels he's a changed man after his brush with death last May, when he was thrown off a galloping bareback horse into an oak tree during filming of ``Letters From a Killer.''

Swayze credits a lifetime of dancing and gymnastics with saving him. ``It would have killed me, I would have gone head first into this oak tree, if instinct hadn't kicked in and I hadn't grabbed two handfuls of that horse's mane and been able to flip my body so I'd break my legs on the tree instead of crushing my skull,'' says the actor. He suffered breaks in both legs (a broken femur and fibula), plus four detached tendons in his shoulder, in the accident.

Swayze, who gets his star on Hollywood Boulevard on his birthday, Monday - days before the 10th anniversary re-release of ``Dirty Dancing'' - reveals he's now set for a Sept. 3 return to ``Letters From a Killer.''

The script's been rewritten to include a scene that makes his injury part of the story line. He also acknowledges that he must not perform any more of his own stunts in the picture; that's part of the agreement made in order to get the film's insurance company to let him go back to work.

Meanwhile, ``I lucked out that the bones broke clean, they're going to heal perfectly, and they were able to reattach all the tendons in my shoulder. ... Doctors have been blown away by my progress,'' adds Swayze, who is already walking without even a cane.

Swayze also says he's overcome a recurring nightmare in which he gets killed in the accident - by viewing the footage of it. (He still loves horses and considers the fall his own fault, not the animal's.)

Now, ``One of the things I've come away from this experience with is an unwillingness to put off the things that are important to me. We're only here so long. Let's get on with it!'' he says. Swayze's been working in supercharged fashion to make some long-awaited dreams reality. Among other things, he says he now has financing for the dance movie he and wife Lisa Niemi have been wanting to make for years.

From the mean streets

Randy Spelling reports he's just about to finish his first rap demo album. The son of Aaron Spelling and brother of Tori Spelling - who stars on NBC's daytime soaper, ``Sunset Beach'' and has a recurring role on ``Beverly Hills 90210'' - says, ``Acting is my career and my craft, but music is more something that comes from the soul. I started rapping and doing music a couple of years ago.'' Spelling says his rap influences are groups like Wu-Tang Clan, The Roots and The Fugees. ``The rap I listen to is not like gangsta rap, it's more like hip-hop. ... It has a positive vibe.'' He's calling his rap group Linx. ``It's kind of like linked souls ... all together for a common cause.''

Idol chatter

Robert Pastorelli has his hands full with his forthcoming ABC ``Cracker'' crime series, based on the hugely successful British drama. Still, he recently pulled double duty in order to squeeze in a role in the big-screen ``Revenant.'' ``They told me I'd be playing Count Dracula - and Rod Steiger would be playing Van Helsing,'' says the actor fondly recalled as ``Murphy Brown's'' Eldin the painter. ``I couldn't say no! I consider Steiger to be one of the two great American character actors.''

Pastorelli admits his ``Revenant'' scenes with Steiger weren't exactly what he had in mind. ``As Dracula, I have him captured and have put him in a Chinese monkey table. It has a hole in the middle and the head sticks out because they eat the brain. I have Rod Steiger there, and I'm preparing to eat his brain.'' But on the plus side ... He's corralled Steiger to play his father on ``Cracker'' - if they'll write in a father for him.

Happy, happy birthday baby

Beauteous Charlize Theron, shaping up as the fastest new movie name this side of Matthew McConaughey, turned 22 last week - and was birthday-partied over the weekend on the carnival set of ``Mighty Joe Young'' in Long Beach. Theron's parents flew in from South Africa for the occasion. Leading man Bill Paxton gifted her with a copy of Donald Bogle's Dorothy Dandridge biography - and high praise for her acting talent.

Whoops

Spike Lee is not producing ABC's upcoming telepic, ``The Ruby Bridges Story.'' The film is being produced by Marian Rees.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1) Patrick Swayze

Dancing saved his life

(2) Robert Pastorelli

Relishes work with Steiger

(3) Charlize Theron

Big birthday party