CHER FILM NOT RECEIVING HER `FAITHFUL' SUPPORT.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Cher and Ryan O'Neal, who badly need a hit, aren't doing anything to help ensure that their film ``Faithful'' will be one.

New Line Cinema representatives reveal that neither Cher nor O'Neal is ``supporting the picture'' - in other words, getting out there and helping to promote it.

This is the same picture that's been sitting on a shelf since 1994 and ended up with Cher and director Paul Mazursky at each other's throats. She wanted changes made in the completed film, and Mazursky says he couldn't understand what ``bizarre insecurities'' caused her to take that stand. He asked to have his name removed from the credits, but changed his mind when, he said, ``Cher's changes didn't work - and sneak preview audiences were very enthusiastic about my cut.''

Back in the saddle: Larry Hagman leaves for New Orleans Thursday to start rehearsals for ``Orleans'' - a two-hour TV movie/series pilot that will have him playing a judge.

A good or an evil judge? ``Good by New Orleans standards,'' responded the former J.R. Ewing of ``Dallas.''

Hagman, who underwent a liver transplant last August, just completed a ``Dallas'' reunion movie in Dallas - and said he's feeling terrific. ...

Series veterans Sherman Hemsley (``The Jeffersons'') and Dorien Wilson (``Dream On'') have come up with a title for their proposed UPN series that's sure to get people's attention. Wilson plays a professor at a prestigious university, in the humanities department - and Hemsley plays his father, a newly paroled convict who suddenly shows up at the college. They're calling it ``Freed Willie.''

Staying busy: How's this for life at the top? Richard Gere, in Los Angeles for the opening of his ``Primal Fear'' suspense thriller, expects to be back before the cameras this summer, in one of five - count 'em, five - films being prepared for him.

He hopes it won't be necessary for him to serve as producer of the vehicle of the film he selects. ``I've produced four of my films, and it's not a happy job for me. There's nothing creative about it. You're just a hand-holder.''

As for acting, he says, ``I can't imagine acting for the rest of my life. The important work of one's life is working with one's mind and heart.''

The cold reality: Dana Delany reports that the ravaging effects of the fatal disease schleroderma will not be glossed over in the ABC ``For Hope'' telepic she starts shooting next week in Vancouver.

``It's going to look like it looks in real life,'' said Delany, who plays a victim of the disease in the film based on the life of the sister of comedian-actor Bob Saget - who makes his directorial debut with the project. ``It's physically debilitating, and I'm going to be using prosthetics,'' said Delany.

Schleroderma usually strikes women and, because it's so disfiguring, ``they don't like to go out in public,'' said Delaney. She said the latter is one of the reasons more people aren't aware of the disease, even though it's more prevalent than multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy.

She added that the aim of ``For Hope'' is to educate more people about schleroderma, ``but it's not a downer at all. The script is very funny and elevates it above another disease of the week movie.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Dana Delany

Not shying away

(2) Cher

Not stum ping for film