CELEBS MAKE PLANS FOR MILLENNIUM EVE.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

What are you doing New Year's? Not this New Year's, next New Year's, the New Year's - the eve of the new millennium?

It might seem too early to plan, yet cruise ships, banquet rooms in world-class hotels, night clubs, Broadway shows such as ``Chicago'' and many exclusive resorts are already sold out for New Year's 1999.

Barbra Streisand and the Rolling Stones are expected to kick off their tours that night. Celebrations are planned in places like Mount Fuji in Japan and the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. Some 650 privileged guests will spend $1,300 each to party at a period ball at France's Palace of Versailles. ... And that's just the start of it.

Joan Plowright, for instance, tells us she wanted to rent a castle in the Highlands of Scotland for a party with family and friends, ``but they're already gone - others have rented them.''

Rock superstar Sting says ``I keep being offered outrageous gigs in ludicrous places.'' He declines to get too specific, but allows that the locales are ``even more outlandish'' than the ancient holy site of Machu Picchu in Peru. However, he'd ``like to be at home by the fire with my family'' next New Year's Eve. Sting's English country estate rivals those castles Plowright was interested in.

Meanwhile, Gene Simmons of KISS reveals that his band is already committed to a New Millennium's Eve gig. ``We're doing an event that's going to be called `The Seven Wonders of the World,' but that's all I'll tell you about it - otherwise everyone would do it,'' says the fire-breathing rocker.

Country king Garth Brooks says he, too, has been inundated with requests for his performance presence for the final night of the 1990s. If Garth does take a date, he'll bring his wife and their young'uns along. ``I don't want to be away from my family that night.''

Neil Diamond says, ``I want be performing somewhere - anywhere. I don't care if it's a small club, a big club, on the eve of the new millennium. It's my job to bring music and happiness to people by performing, and I can't think of any way I'd rather ring in the year 2000.''

Even Jim Belushi, who is known far better as an actor than as a music man, is getting heaps of offers for New Year's Eve '99 play dates - with his Sacred Hearts band. He says, ``My wife isn't happy about it, but I can't think of anything I'd like to do better.'' He adds pragmatically, ``They're offering big money, unbelievable numbers.''

Then, of course, there are those who have yet to make plans for that date a year away.

Burt Reynolds is among the celebrities who tell us they expect to be in a party mood on that big night. ``On the eve of the year 2000, I would love to get as many old, dear friends as possible together to enjoy each other's company,'' says Burt. ``Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, Charlie Durning, Robby Benson - whom I feel like I raised - so many people I love. That would be my favorite way to spend the evening.''

Mike Wallace, who turned 80 in May, says, ``as I became older, I thought, `If I can just last till the year 2000, it will be enough for me.' Now I'm sure I've got that made - but I'm not making reservations anywhere.''

``Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' star Melissa Joan Hart says, ``I don't know who's going to be in my life then, but I feel I should make plans. After all, this will be the most important night any of us have ever spent. Maybe I'll just have a party at home with all my friends - surrounding myself with the people who really matter to me.''

And then there's Jack Lemmon. Asked how he'd like to celebrate the New Millennium, he responds succinctly, ``Be there.''

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Plowright

(2) Belushi