CHAPMAN TAKES EXCEPTION TO AMY GRANT'S REVELATIONS.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Singer/songwriter Gary Chapman wants us to know he's hurt and dismayed that his ex-wife, Amy Grant, has been portraying their 16-year marriage as troubled long before her involvement with Vince Gill.

``That's not the case at all,'' insists Chapman, who candidly reveals, ``Our marriage had a rough start, because I had a substance-abuse problem. But on Sept. 2, 1986, I stopped - and through the ensuing years, we had three gorgeous kids and the world by the tail. So, this notion that our marriage was perpetually on the edge of death is completely erroneous. I've got way too many pictures and family videos and love notes and letters and faxes . . . way too many reminders of some really wonderful years to allow that fallacy to remain unresponded to.''

Chapman's responding to an article in this week's People magazine - which also notes that Grant and Gill have been steadfast in their insistence that their relationship remained platonic until after their respective divorces. But Chapman, whose divorce was finalized in June, alleges, ``Since the beginning of 1994, they had what I would call an inappropriate friendship, which was destructive to our marriage. My family, friends and most of the people in Nashville who have at least two brain cells slapping against each other have known for years what has gone on.''

Despite everything, he says he and Grant ``are still very friendly. She's moving on, and so am I. Even now, we openly discuss how to get past this with as little injury as possible.''

Chapman and Grant share custody of the children (Matthew, 12, Millie, 10, and Sarah, 7). He says the past year hasn't been easy for the kids, but ``they're doing so much better than I thought they would. They're the best example of God's grace that I have ever personally viewed.''

He adds, ``This may sound strange, but I wish Amy and Vince well. They've both wanted this a long time, and I hope they're very happy - for my kids' sake.''

Who's the real Arnold?

Arnold Schwarzenegger will have the requisite action in his soon-to-start-shooting ``The Sixth Day,'' but the film will be decidedly lighter in tone than his current apocalyptic ``End of Days.''

Michael Rooker, who plays a corporate exec going after Arnold in ``Sixth Day,'' notes the film ``is set about 20 years in the future. Arnold plays a poor, regular guy who gets in trouble with this huge corporation in the process of trying to change the political and social mores in regards to cloning. They already have cloning centers for your pets. Arnold gets accidentally cloned, then, there are two Arnolds running around, and we've got to figure out which is the clone and which is the human, and try to retrieve one of them. Neither one of them knows that they're anything but the real McCoy. It gets a little hairy.'' Roker says: ``Some of the lines and relationships are a lot of fun. As long as it doesn't become `Keystone Kops,' I think it'll be pretty good.'' ``The Sixth Day,'' which is being directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starts shooting Dec. 7 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It's legit 

``Spin City's'' Richard Kind will take to the boards in ``I Spent My Days in Mourning'' at New York's Actors Studio in January. ``It's three one-act plays written by David Newman, who wrote `Bonnie and Clyde' and `Superman,' '' says Kind, who's co-starring with Ben Gazzara in the plays. ``I play Ben's brother in one of the productions, and a nightclub owner in another.'' Kind's stage chops will already be in fine form. He'll segue to the Arthur Penn project from ``The Eight,'' the legiter he starts this week at The Duplex in Greenwich Village. ``It's eight monologues about Santa's reindeer, and I must tell you, it's not for children. It's a bizarre, dark, dark play. In it, Santa is a sexual deviant. Rudolph was abused by Santa, and I play Rudolph's father.''

Best of both worlds

``Will & Grace'' leading man Eric McCormack has become a dual citizen of both his native Canada and the United States. But he and his wife, Janet Holden, still maintain a home in Vancouver, which they visit when his NBC sitcom is on hiatus. They spent Thanksgiving here, working at a shelter for the homeless. As for Christmas, they're planning what he describes as ``something like a cross-country tour of Canada. Jan comes from Edmonton, my parents are in Toronto, and our friends are in Vancouver. We plan to see them all.'' They should have time. Eric tells us that ``Will & Grace'' goes on holiday hiatus Dec. 14, and won't resume production until Jan. 3. As he says, ``You're spoiled rotten on a sitcom. I love it.''

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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4 Photos

Photo: (1) GRANT

(2) GILL

(3) SCHWARZENEGGER

(4) McCORMACK