DON'T CRY FOR 'EVITA' COMPANY.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

After the many reports that the "Evita" company was received in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with protests and threats against Madonna's life, what's turned out to be the most difficult thing for the film troupe? "Deciding what restaurant to go to each evening," reported Jonathan Pryce.

Pryce, who plays Juan Peron in the film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, said, "Everything is going remarkably well. None of the resistance and problems we expected came to pass. The people have been amazingly cooperative and friendly. And the only threat against Madonna came from a woman in her 80s who had worked with Eva Peron."

The production moves on to Budapest, Hungary, in mid-March, and could be wending its way in April to London, where Pryce could receive a British Academy Award equivalent (BAFTA) for "Carrington." He anticipates filming to wrap around May 19. "A very long shoot."

A particularly long shoot when you consider he's been involved in "recording and endless wardrobe fittings" for "Evita" since last September. He noted, " 'More Suits Than Songs' will be the title of my book about this picture."

The doctor is far out: Wait'll audiences get a load of Marlon Brando in his forthcoming "The Island of Dr. Moreau." We understand that, after much waiting and build-up for the title medico in John Frankenheimer's rendering of the H.G. Wells story, Brando finally makes his grand entrance - in a flowing white robe and a Katharine Hepburnesque hat-with-scarves affair. And ... get ready ... purple lipstick! His hugeness is said to look like a drag queen. Yet, no mention ever is made of his odd appearance in the movie.

The videoland view: "Saturday Night Live" alumna Julia Sweeney certainly has an interesting project on the boards. The comedian-actress, who has gone through her own battle with cervical cancer, is poised to star in "Jules," a prospective TV series she co-created, with a story line involving a brother and a sister who move in together after he discovers he has cancer. The brother will not die during the series, though the show will focus on his life dealing with cancer. Sweeney will play the sister. The characters of the mother and the father also will be prominent.

And you think you've had bad days: Kirstie Alley goes the heavy dramatic route - and then some - in her ABC movie "An Urban Legend," on which she's executive producer. Alley will play a San Francisco waitress who gets in an accident that causes her to lose the use of her legs. She finds out her boyfriend is a married man with kids. Then she gets beaten up by muggers who take her government disability check. Perhaps not surprisingly at this juncture, she contemplates suicide. Then - thank goodness - friends intervene, and things take a turn for the better.

And then there are the good days: Meredith Baxter plays the mother of a family who must come together after the suicide of the eldest child in the CBS movie "After Jimmy." She says its dark theme - and the somber tone of other telepics she has made - should give us a clue as to why she was "desperate to return to comedy," as she does Wednesday with the ABC sitcom "The Faculty." Baxter's life is very full these days. The ex-wife of David Birney married novelist-screenwriter Michael Blodgett last October. She has five children, ages 11 to 29; he is the father of three, the youngest age 9.