NEWS LITE : AMY FISHER FINDS FORGIVENESS, HOPE.

Amy Fisher appeared closer to freedom Tuesday, with the forgiveness of the woman she shot and support from prosecutors who said she was denied effective legal advice when she pleaded guilty.

Fisher has been in jail for almost seven years for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco, the wife of her lover. The case drew national attention and she was dubbed ``Long Island Lolita'' for her affair with Joey Buttafuoco.

Prosecutors in Mineola, N.Y., filed papers Tuesday supporting Fisher's motion to vacate her guilty plea, saying she provided compelling evidence.

Prosecutors said they also were persuaded by Mary Jo Buttafuoco ``not to oppose the defendant's motion.''

She said in a letter that she forgave Fisher after meeting with her mother and corresponding with Fisher for several months.

Fisher - now 24 - was 16 when she shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the head on May 19, 1992, in a jealous rage outside the Buttafuocos' Long Island home.

Supreme Court Justice Ira Wexner is scheduled to rule on the motion April 22.

Fictional cannibal returns in sequel

Hannibal Lecter is back. The bad doctor, whose fave dish is liver - the human variety - and ``fava beans with a nice chianti,'' is revived in a new novel by ``Silence of the Lambs'' novelist Thomas Harris, who turned in his ``Hannibal'' manuscript last week to Delacorte Press. It'll be out June 8. It took Harris 10 years to finish the ``Silence'' sequel, which should be a hot movie property what with the five Oscars won by the original flick, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. The publisher is saying little about the new plot beyond noting that Lecter, who escaped justice at the end of ``Silence,'' ``is pursuing his interests.'' And, yes, he will again face FBI agent Clarice Starling. The motivation behind his cannibalism will be gotten into and, generally, we'll all get to know the man a lot better.

Paltrow will don doublet and tights

Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow will return to her acting roots this summer at the Williamstown (Mass.) Theatre Festival, where she'll again do Shakespeare and her cross-dressing bit. She'll appear as Rosalind in ``As You like It'' Aug. 4-15. Paltrow began her career at Williamstown, where she appeared in productions of ``Picnic,'' ``The Sea Gull'' and ``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'' Her mom, Blythe Danner, has been a member of the festival troupe for 22 seasons. Paltrow's next movie,''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' with Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett, will be out in the fall.

`Blue moon' shadowed by mistaken meaning

Like the countless earthlings who will mistakenly celebrate the dawn of a new millennium on Jan. 1, 2000, one researcher says many people will think tonight's full moon will be a ``blue moon.''

It won't be. For more than a half-century, public opinion has held that a blue moon is a second full moon in any given month, like the one tonight. That mistaken definition can be traced to a 1946 article in Sky & Telescope magazine, and from there its acceptance has grown astronomically.

Don Olson, a professor of physics at Southwest Texas State University at San Marcos, sheds new light on what a blue moon is in an article to appear in Sky & Telescope in May.

Olson says a Blue Moon occurs when a particular season contains four full moons. In that event, the third full moon is the blue one.

All other full moons of the year are named for seasonal activities, such as the Harvest Moon, the Lenten Moon or the Hunter's Moon.

The two-full-moons-in-one-month definition was established by James Hugh Pruett in 1946. Pruett based his definition on what Olson and others say was a mistaken assumption from an earlier Sky & Telescope article, which took its information from a 1937 Maine Farmer's Almanac. The almanac called the 13th full moon of a year a blue moon.

Pruett wrote that if there were 13 full moons in a year, one month must have had two full moons. ``This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called blue moon,'' he wrote.

He was wrong, but other magazines reprinted the mistake. It made its way to the popular StarDate program on public radio and to the board game Trivial Pursuit, cementing it in popular culture. Frank Sinatra once crooned a love song, ``Blue Moon,'' originally written by Rogers and Hart.

Considerable media attention has been focused on the blue moon phenomenon lately because there were two full moons in January and March this year.

The next real blue moon, according to Olson, will be Feb. 19, 2000.

A blue moon occurs about seven times every 19 years, using either definition, but they would not fall on the same dates.

Olson still has not discovered where the ``blue'' originated.

Manners matter to subway riders

New York's subway conductors will be allowed to keep saying the magic word.

The city transit agency decided Tuesday that it doesn't take too long, after all, to say ``please'' before asking riders to ``stand clear of the closing doors.'' The agency had said conductors could save five seconds at stops by dropping the word ``please.''

NO RESPECT; Fabio's ride for the birds

Busch Gardens touted Fabio's ride on a new roller coaster called Apollo's Chariot as ``Modern-Day Adonis vs. Ancient-Day Sun God.''

But a bird upstaged the supermodel and the ride.

The animal hit Fabio on the nose and cut him, sending blood streaking down his chin and cheeks. Several women sitting near him in white tunics, portraying goddesses at the Williamsburg, Va., park, were splattered with blood.

Fabio was treated for a one-inch cut on the bridge of his nose and released from a hospital.

``He's fine, no serious injuries,'' park spokeswoman Deborah L. DeMarco said. ``I don't know about the bird's plight.''

She added: ``We're very sorry that it happened. It was an act of nature.''

Compiled by Karen Duffy from Daily News staff and wire reports.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) FISHER

(2) HOPKINS

(3) Blood streaks the face of model Fabio after he was hit by a bird during a roller coaster ride.