CASTING FOR PILOT SCOTT O'GRADY UP IN THE AIR.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Despite the reports that Tom Cruise would likely star in the film adaptation of Capt. Scott O'Grady's autobiography, Orion Pictures is now considering Christian Slater ``and a whole gamut of actors'' for the drama.

This is the word from O'Grady, the U.S. Air Force pilot who evaded capture after his plane was shot from the sky over Bosnia in June 1995, surviving for six days on bugs and rainwater.

He said, ``They've talked about a lot of actors. First they want to get a good script and then a director.'' Right now, the screenplay is in rewrites, he said.

Currently stationed in Salt Lake City, O'Grady is certainly keeping busy. In addition to flying with the 419th Fighter Wing, the 30-year-old is heading Saturday's ``Make a Difference Day,'' a national day of volunteering. He gives motivational speeches around the world, raises funds for causes such as St. Jude's Children's Hospital and the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and is promoting the just-released paperback version of his ``Return With Honor'' autobiography.

He's also working on a children's book, to be called ``Basher 52,'' for spring release and is looking for work as host or narrator of environmental or educational TV specials.

And, oh, yes, he'd like to be in a sitcom.

``People think if you're in the military you don't have a good sense of humor,'' he says with a laugh. ``I have a heck of a good sense of humor.''

From hero to heavy

Wait'll you see ``ER'' knight Anthony Edwards in CBS' miniseries adaptation of Truman Capote's ``In Cold Blood.'' He plays a sleazy con man who helps murder a family in the drama that airs Nov. 24 and 26 and handles the role so realistically that it'll chill you. He himself says that when he was approached about the role, ``I thought, `This is too dark. I just spent 10 months trying to save people in the ER. Now I want to do something light and fun.' I actually thought I was going to be in England over my last hiatus, making a `Four Weddings and a Funeral'-type comedy,'' adds the actor.

So, what changed his mind? His wife, makeup artist Jeanine Lobell. ``She said in her knowing way, `Hello. Isn't this what you asked for?' '' Meaning - a high-quality piece with a character radically different from kindly Dr. Greene. Then, says Edwards, ``I started realizing the reason I was reluctant was that I was probably scared of it, and that it was going to be a great challenge.'' He rose to it chillingly.

The big screen scene

The very hot Jason Patric, in Florida making ``Speed 2'' with Sandra Bullock, could finally be starring in the story of Notre Dame football great George Gipp before too long. The project, which Patric is developing with Francis Ford Coppola, has been in the works for a long time, but now appears to be picking up steam. Patric (whose credits include ``Lost Boys,'' ``Rush'' and ``The Beast'') has received some great critical acclaim, but is just now enjoying his first top box-office success with ``Sleepers.''

News from the home front

Larry Hagman and his wife Maj, in New Orleans for shooting of his coming ``Orleans'' series, have been keeping a close eye on TV reports of this week's terrible Malibu fires - which raged very close to the Hagmans' beachfront home. Larry sent someone out to check on the house, and received the report that the smoke was too dense to see what condition the home was in. ``We are expecting there will be a lot of smoke damage,'' says Larry, who will be grateful if that's all the damage there is to the $6 million estate.

Hello again

Alan Thicke, producer of Sunday night's NBC movie ``The Secret She Carried,'' has a sitcom in the works for '97. Thicke, who starred in the series ``Growing Pains'' and ``Hope & Gloria,'' has a development deal with Warner Bros. TV and says that the studio is looking for a series format that would suit him. This year he's played a bad guy in two TV movies and one feature - and has been busy producing ``The Secret She Carried'' telepic in which ``Frasier's'' Peri Gilpin plays a married woman who becomes pregnant after she is raped - and Jere Burns (of the sitcom ``Something So Right'') portrays the psychotic rapist.

Betty Buckley, who's on a world concert tour with her new ``Betty Buckley: An Evening at Carnegie Hall'' album, is roosting at the Chateau Marmont - the hotel where she lived during her ``Eight Is Enough'' series days - while in L.A., before heading out to Australia. The Tony-winning performer couldn't be much busier. She has a telepic called ``Critical Choices'' coming up on Showtime in December, plus a holiday special on American Movie Classics.

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Photo

Photo: Anthony Edwards plays a sleazy con man in ``In ColdBlood.''