KEATON ACCENTUATES THE POSITIVE IN D.C. FETE.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Michael Keaton flew cross-country this week to honor the honorable.

``I'm so tired of so much attention going to people like Marv Albert or to things that are glamorous, trendy, sensationalistic,'' he says.

Keaton hosted the Washington, D.C., Jefferson Awards Silver Anniversary Celebration, where Lifetime Achievement Awards were received by such luminaries as Eunice Shriver, Alan Greenspan, Jesse Jackson, Jim and Sarah Brady - and a handful of ``Local Heroes.''

The latter drew Keaton to the event. ``When I learned what these people had accomplished,'' he says, ``I knew I had to be there.''

One of the honorees he applauded was Florida police officer Wayne Barton, who has spearheaded a program in which Boca Raton businesses guarantee college educations to children in a city housing project, if they keep up their grades. Another was disabled 12-year-old Mississippian Phillip Wayne Cash, a victim of the degenerative disease spina bifida who gives motivational speeches. And then there was concentration camp survivor Henri Lanwirth, who hosts 3,000 gravely ill children and their families each year at his Disney World Give Kids the World Village.

Says Keaton, ``These are people who are quietly living their lives, doing absolutely wonderful things, and you never hear about them. I think it's where the spotlight should go.''

Ready for launch

The production spanned from July into this month. Now, at last they've wrapped principal photography of Disney's big-screen ``My Favorite Martian.'' Ray Walston, who played the title character in the '60s TV series of the same name, is in the feature, but he says, ``I'm not the Martian in it. Christopher Lloyd is. I'm playing a scientist referred to as an alien hunter.''

The feature, directed by Donald Petrie, also stars Jeff Daniels (in the part played by the late Bill Bixby on TV), Elizabeth Hurley (as a hard-bitten reporter on the trail of the Martian) and Daryl Hannah (as Daniels' romantic interest).

Octogenarian actor Walston, who stars in Showtime's ``Tricks'' with Mimi Rogers on Dec. 14, has made no secret about his disdain for his popular vintage show. A couple of years ago he groused, ``I've been telling anyone who'll listen I'm sorry I ever did it.'' So, how does he explain being in the feature? ``The part was a very interesting, very good part. And the money, that was interesting, too.'' Besides, ``at this stage, 33 years into the game, I find it rather pleasing to hear people talk about `My Favorite Martian' as a classic TV show.''

Y-Z files

An April production start has been set for ``First Wave,'' an hour drama show for syndication being produced by none other than Francis Ford Coppola. Multilayered, complex and expensive, ``First Wave'' involves a widespread conspiracy of alien infiltration on Earth - and one of the few humans who cannot be broken by the aliens ... a man who now may well be the only one who can save us all from armageddon and who will be required to sign a five-year contract to work in Vancouver.

It's legit 

The late, great Dinah Washington will be bowing off-Broadway in March, with Yvette Freeman playing the great singer in ``Dinah Was,'' a play she created. The actress, a regular on ``Working'' who also is continuing her recurring role as nurse Haleh Adams on ``ER,'' reports that because of her schedule on the series, ``I'll have to rehearse in L.A. until I can get to New York. Then I'll do the play from March to August. If `Working' gets picked up (next season), I plan to go back and forth.'' Freeman says when she starred in ``Dinah Was'' in L.A. last year, ``all the divas in town came to it. I even met Diana Ross. She came backstage and gave me a big hug, and my face went into all that hair. I was so in awe.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Michael Keaton

Honoring heroes

(2) Yvette Freeman

To play Dinah Washington