NEWS & NOTES : INAPPROPRIATE `LATE SHOW' BIT ELICITS APOLOGY FROM LETTERMAN.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

It was no joking matter Tuesday night on ``The Late Show'' when host David Letterman offered an on-air apology for a Monday-night comedy bit that spawned viewer complaints.

During the CBS show's weekly ``News in Review'' skit, Letterman held up a photo of a sculpture depicting several females in agony, and then quipped: ``The New York Giants saluted their fans last week by unveiling this sculpture entitled, `What New Yorkers Look Like After They See Us Play.'''

Funny? Not to those who were aware, unlike Letterman and company, that the sculpture is part of a work called ``Dark Elegy,'' and represents the women who lost loved ones in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. It was made by sculptor Suse Lowenstein, whose son Alexander died in the crash.

A spokeswoman for the show said ``quite a few'' viewer calls alerted them to the grievous error.

``Obviously, when I found out about this, I was sick about it,'' Letterman told his audience last night during his profuse apology. ``I never, never in a million years would include something like this in a piece of comedy.

``It was a horrible, horrible mistake, and I'm dreadfully, dreadfully sorry.''

A Jewell for Wallace:``60 Minutes' '' Mike Wallace sat down in Atlanta Tuesday with Richard Jewell, the Olympic security guard the FBI pegged as a suspect in the Atlanta bombing. The leaked allegation triggered a media frenzy around Jewell, who never was accused of the crime.

It's Jewell's first major interview; he talks about how the allegations have affected his life and reveals his future legal plans.

The interview will be broadcast Sunday at 7 p.m. on CBS.