HUGHLEY SHAKEN BY HIS OWN VERSION OF BELATED FATHER'S DAY.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

D.L. Hughley is still feeling the emotional aftershocks of meeting his biological father for the first time, three weeks ago. The star of ABC's ``The Hughleys'' reveals to this column that the meeting took place just days before he was to tape his Aug. 7 HBO ``Going Home'' concert special, ``and it messed up my head a little bit.''

In fact, he admits, ``I was angry that I met him just at the time I had this big show to do.

``My wife found him on the Internet,'' he explains. ``She's been looking for him, on and off, for a number of years. I wasn't so aware of the depth she was going with it. ... Then, she finds him, and she brings the phone to me. ... What do you say?''

Hughley had the man, to whom he does not refer by name, flown cross-country to meet him. ``I got some questions answered. ... He was not as bad a guy as he was in legend. After I talked to him, I thought I didn't need to do that anymore, and I told him I never wanted to see him again. ... I was very clear, and I'm sure he will respect my wishes.

``I had a great father, the best father anyone could have hoped for - Charles Hughley,'' stresses D.L., speaking of the airline maintenance man who raised him. ``I grew up believing that Superman worked at Delta Airlines.''

Hughley says he began feeling better about the experience ``when I got on stage and started working out a bit about it'' for his HBO show. Adds the comic, who in his early years did not know the reality of his lineage, ``I think it's the best thing I've ever done on television.''

Asked about his response to his wife, LaDonna's, efforts, Hughley says, ``At first, it was tough. I won't pretend it wasn't. ... She did it because she loved me, and, you know, because part of you always needs to know where you come from. But ultimately, no matter how much someone is there with you and loves you, this is the kind of journey you take on your own.''

The view from there

Las Vegas was a weird place to be last weekend. The casinos, the showrooms were filled as usual, but a pall was cast over everything as people there - as people everywhere - were preoccupied with the search for JFK Jr.'s plane. At the Mandalay Bay hotel, for instance, crowds hovered near the TV in the lounge, sets tuned to the ongoing coverage of the tragedy. And Marilu Henner, who's been packing 'em in with a knockout performance in ``Chicago'' at the hotel, told us after the show on Saturday night that she could feel the heaviness in the room. ``The crowd wasn't totally with us like they usually are,'' she said.

Marilu will only be with ``Chicago'' until Aug. 22, though they are trying to get her back for another stint later. She will be busy before long, promoting ``Man on the Moon,'' in which, she says, Jim Carrey gives an absolutely awesome performance as the late Andy Kaufman.

Here she is

Kirstie Alley, who plays a woman who'll stop at almost nothing to get her daughter a beauty contest crown in New Line's new ``Drop Dead Gorgeous,'' isn't particularly enamored of such pageants - even the best-known of them all. ``I always thought it was just ridiculous,'' notes the actress who plays Denise Richards' mom in the feature that also stars Ellen Barkin and Kirsten Dunst. ``Not so much demeaning as downright silly. ... I would wonder, `Why isn't someone like Meryl Streep Miss America?' It just didn't depict American women at their best. ... Every time they asked a question of the contestants, the answer had to contain either the word `peace,' or `love.' There was nothing unique, clever or brutally honest for them to say.'' Speaking of brutally honest ...

Our town

Playwright Julia Cameron's ``Four Roses'' is causing lots of talk around town. The play, which has begun a six-week run at L.A.'s Century Plaza Playhouse, is set in a women's alcohol treatment center, and it has Dominica Cameron-Scorsese - the product of Cameron's past marriage to director Martin Scorsese - playing a heroin addict battling her parents. Asked if the play is autobiographical, the best-selling author (``The Artist's Way,'' ``The Right to Write'') responds, ``I have known alcohol as a disease, but happily, I've had no experience with heroin addiction. It's a tribute to my daughter that she is so chilling in the part.''

Cameron has been working on the play, which is undergoing its world premiere, for some 15 years. She started after she became sober. ``At the time, there was still a lot of stigma attached to women with drinking problems, and I wanted to put the record straight and show what it was like to be on the other side of the glass.'' She's thrilled the play - and Dominica - are receiving such good reviews. She says of her offspring and her ex, ``I see a lot of her father in Dominica - and I like that.''

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1) HUGHLEY

(2) HENNER

(3) ALLEY