Mario Puzo's The Last Don.

Murder, betrayal, honor, pasta--Mario Puzo's The Last Don serves up all the Mafia themes we expect from the man who brought us The Godfather. By now Puzo's tales are like old friends, and this six-hour extravaganza has a comfy retro feel. Even its billing as a "star-studded miniseries event" harks back to the network TV blockbusters of a decade ago.

But as Puzo himself has often told us, looks can deceive. Based on his 1996 novel, The Last Don challenges both network TV tradition and the mythology of the mob. Here, for the first time, Puzo's universe includes a real place for gay people. What's more, The Last Don's openly lesbian cast member--k.d. lang--is being promoted by CBS as one of the more studly stars of this star-studded event.

Though the film wasn't available at press time, Puzo's story goes like this: Domenico Clericuzio (Danny Aiello), a powerful don, wants to take his family legitimate. But his daughter (Kirstie Alley) falls in love with a son of the rival crime family, necessitating a lot of killing and putting that dream of respectability out of reach again.

So where does lang come in? She plays Holly wood director Dita Tommey, who's shooting a film starring lovely Athena Aquitane (Daryl Hannah). When Athena's ex-husband turns abusive, Dita leaps into action to save the picture. We don't know whether she succeeds--but rumor has it that lang and Hannah do survive to share a dance together.

Amid all this progress, it's only fair to note that CBS has been a bit cagey in bringing Dita, and lang, to TV. In Puzo's novel Dita is a big lesbian, case closed. In the miniseries nobody asks, and Dita doesn't tell. Instead--and here we suddenly go retro again--Dita is unlike all the other women because she's a feminist

It's ironic: As fast as lesbians and gay men see our own faces in mainstream entertainment, new euphemisms spring up to explain us away. But then again, with gloriously trashy fare like The Last Don, why get huffy? Lang herself may have suggested Dita's "feminist" tag when she told one reporter, "I took the role of Dita because she's exactly like me--a demanding feminist bitch." Should lang have said "demanding lesbian feminist bitch"? Well, maybe next season.