CELEBRITIES : HIRSCH, NEWHART MAKE QUICK WORK OF `GEORGE & LEO'.

Judd Hirsch reports that he and Bob Newhart are going to hustle to get their upcoming CBS ``George & Leo'' done as well as possible - as fast as possible. ``Bob certainly doesn't need to rehearse, and neither do I,'' says Judd.

His objective is strictly personal. The show shoots in Hollywood. His wife, Bonnie, and their young daughter will be headquartering in New York, where the little one is being enrolled in preschool. And Hirsch says, ``I'll fly home weekends - four-day weekends, I hope.

``Half-hour shows take five days to do - but if `George & Leo' goes the way I think it'll go, we should be able to get it down to four.''

He reveals that Los Angeles is not his wife's favorite place.

``The last time we lived here was in 1993. Bonnie was pregnant and felt the impending doom of the earthquake. It got so bad, I had to hire someone to stay with her when I went to work. We finally left in December. She convinced me to ship everything out. She was convinced we would never see anything we had in the home again. The earthquake came - and leveled the house - in January. Our daughter was born in March.''

The Emmy-winning veteran of such series as ``Taxi'' and ``Dear John'' and the holder of Tonys for ``I'm Not Rappaport'' and ``Conversations With My Father'' will pop up Sept. 7 on Showtime in ``Color of Justice,'' portraying an attorney who defends a group of African-American youths in a murder case that becomes mired in issues of race and justice.

Throwing down the gauntlet

Listen up, Will Smith. ``Family Matters'' regular Darius McCrary declares that you are NOT the man to play Muhammad Ali in the upcoming Sony biopic. ``I'm publicly challenging Will Smith to a boxing match,'' says McCrary, who convinced the producers of HBO's ``Don King: Only in America'' that he had the right stuff to play Ali in the upcoming telepic. ``If Will dares to set foot in the ring to even try to portray the Greatest of All Time, I'm going to have to shock the world and show them that he ain't half the man he thinks he is.'' McCrary, who took up boxing about a year ago, says he's one of Ali's biggest fans and has seen ``every bit of footage that exists on him.''

`Baywatch' buoyancy

Here's uplifting news. ``Baywatch'' babe Traci Bingham tips, ``We have secrets on `Baywatch' to make us all look better. Each bathing suit is custom made, some with underwires, some with padding. We use a lot of makeup tricks for our faces and our bodies, and lots of oil to cover up blemishes.'' She says that she doesn't need any padding, thank you, ``but my suits do have underwires and are criss-crossed in back to give me an extra lift.''

The celebrity circuit

Gary Oldman and Donya Fiorentino, the beauteous photographer he married in February, are expecting their first little one soon. Very soon.

Kevin Costner has wrapped a ``The Postman'' production shoot of 108 days, on locations that took the company from Tucson, Ariz., to Bend, Ore. ``It was a real monster,'' says Costner's partner, Jim Wilson. ``It's his (directorial) follow-up to `Dances With Wolves,' and he wouldn't leave anything undone.'' Now the monstrous thing is for Costner, who also stars in the futuristic thriller based on David Brin's novel, to get the saga through post-production in time for release during the Christmas holidays.

French Force

Jean-Claude Van Damme starts work on ``Legionnaire'' in Morocco in October. The Ed Pressman feature will have Jean-Claude playing, as the title suggests, a member of the French Foreign Legion - a dashing Parisian playboy forced to join up (oh-ho-ho

) when falsely accused of murder. He finds himself with big trouble at the fort, attacked by Arab tribesmen, faced with the choice of becoming a killing machine or being killed himself. What do YOU think he'll do?

The inside track

Jazz veteran Earl Klugh has advice for contemporary jazz artists whose sound is indistinguishable from their counterparts. ``I try to tell people what George Benson told me way back when I was a youngster. He said `Earl, whenever you're working on something, always remember one of your ideas is worth 10 of somebody else's.' '' Klugh, on tour to promote his new Warner Bros. CD ``The Journey,'' adds, ``To find your own voice you have to listen to things you don't like and you have to embrace all types of music and keep working on finding your own unique sound. Most artists today don't want to take the time.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Judd Hirsch

Trying to work fast

(2) Will Smith

A fighting challenge

(3) Kevin Costner

``The Postman'' arrives