NEWS LITE : BROKAW REPORTEDLY TURNS DOWN CNN.

Anchorman Tom Brokaw has spurned an offer from CNN and signed a five-year contract to stay at NBC for $7 million a year, TV Guide reported Monday.

But an NBC spokeswoman dismissed the report as ``pure speculation.''

``We're having very good talks,'' NBC spokeswoman Julia Moffett said. ``But any sort of deal or agreement is premature at this stage.''

Brokaw's agent, Ed Hookstratten, did not return a call seeking comment.

CNN founder Ted Turner had been courting Brokaw for his network, which has been struggling in the ratings since the end of O.J. Simpson's trials. TV Guide said CNN was offering as much as $8 million a year.

His contract with NBC, which reportedly paid Brokaw between $4 million and $5 million a year, expires Aug. 30.

Brokaw, 57, has been lead anchor of NBC's ``Nightly News'' since 1983. Before that, he was host of the ``Today'' show and an NBC reporter.

Tenor says paper missed his point

Luciano Pavarotti is singing an angry note after it was reported that the tenor can't read music.

The Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported the supposed minor gap in his education, and Pavarotti fired back in an interview with another newspaper.

``All garbage. The invention of hunters of a non-scoop,'' Pavarotti said Monday in the Bologna paper Il Resto del Carlino.

Pavarotti said Sunday's Corriere article misrepresented his comments.

``Journalists always write about music with approximation. So, the score is the book that the conductor has in front of him with all the parts: the instruments, the voices, the chorus, etc.

``The part for voice and piano . . . is what we singers use,'' he said. ``Singers, all singers, read this. And I do too.''

Pavarotti clarified that he in fact uses cue cards during recitals with the text, in case he has a memory lapse.

``I know the music by heart, but I tend to forget the words. Therefore I need the text and prefer to have only that in front of me,'' he said.

Loss of designer tears at fave model

Naomi Campbell wept Monday when asked about slain designer Gianni Versace.

Campbell, the supermodel who was a favorite of Versace's, was on a four-day fashion shoot for a South African clothing store. She had avoided questions from journalists since arriving in the country Saturday.

``I think it's a terrible crime to commit, and I'm leaving tonight to go to the funeral tomorrow,'' she said at a news conference in Johannesburg, her voice faltering. ``I don't really accept that he's gone. Maybe tomorrow I will.''

She also refused to comment on allegations that she recently took a drug overdose, saying she ``would never want to kill myself.''

Campbell last month spent 18 hours in a Spanish hospital, reportedly because of an overdose of anti-anxiety pills.

Pageant splits from tradition

on swimsuits

Fifty years after Miss America first wore a two-piece swimsuit, she will try one on again.

In a break with tradition, contestants this year will get to choose the style they wear for the swimsuit competition, provided it's not a teenie-weenie bikini or a thong-style suit.

The women will be allowed to wear a one-piece or two-piece solid-color suit, and will have to buy it off the rack. For the sake of fairness, they'll have to certify it was not custom-made.

The two-pieces must also have ``full'' or ``moderate'' rear bottoms. The top must be a ``full coverage'' style with straps from front to back or a halter strap no less than a half-inch in width.

The change is not for sex appeal's sake, said Leonard Horn, chief executive officer of the Miss America Organization. And it's not the first time: In 1947, all contestants wore two-piece suits.

``The reason we're doing that is we're trying to stress the importance of coming to compete in the type of clothing you wear at home,'' Horn said Monday.

Other changes:

The Sept. 13 pageant will switch to ABC following more than 30 years at NBC.

There will be no call-in segment.

Regis Philbin, the solo host of the telecast last year after sharing the job for several years with broadcast partner Kathie Lee Gifford, has been replaced by ``All My Children'' stars John Callahan and Eva LaRue.

OFFBEAT 

`Bite fight' souvenirs

available

Pete Stephens, who installs automatic garage doors in Atlanta and was in the audience at the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight, is asking $22,000 for an assortment of souvenirs from the event. The selection includes a square of bloody gauze that was applied to Holyfield's ear, a water bottle said to have been used by Holyfield and a ticket autographed by referee Mills Lane.

Holyfield's lawyer, Jim Thomas, told the New York Daily News he was ``disappointed but not shocked at the offering.'' High bid so far is $12,000.

In Las Vegas, the News reported, someone is also said to be selling the piece of Holyfield's ear retrieved from the ring but somehow lost en route to the hospital.

Miller to be official brew of millennium

The Miller Brewing Co. has registered itself with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as ``Official Sponsor of the Millennium,'' says Harper's magazine. Among others climbing on this bandwagon are Mars Inc., the Official Chocolate of the New Millennium; Maidenform, Millennium undergarments; and White Consolidated Industries Inc., Millennium vacuum cleaners.

America's Cup winner to take helm of Calypso 

The skipper of the New Zealand yachting team that won the America's Cup in 1995 has been chosen to succeed the late Jacques Cousteau at the helm of marine research vessel Calypso 2.

Sir Peter Blake said Monday that he was stunned when he learned via fax from France that the Jacques Cousteau Foundation wanted him as the new captain.

``It is an absolute dream job. I was wondering what I was going to do after this next America's Cup,'' Blake, 50, said in a radio interview off the Turkish coast, where he was vacationing with his family. ``I didn't want to be put out to grass just yet.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Miss America pageant contestants will now have a choice of competing in either a one-piece swimsuit or a modest bikini.

(2) PAVAROTTI