NEWS LITE : CHESS WHIZ SAYS TOO FEW GIRLS PLAY.

The world's first female grandmaster in chess said girls are still missing out on the game because they aren't taught it.

Susan Polgar, 29, became a grandmaster in 1991 and once beat the world's fifth-ranked player, Anatoly Karpov. She spoke Saturday to the Pittsburgh Chess Club, which counts several nationally ranked girls among its membership.

``Even today in some countries, chess isn't something they teach girls,'' Polgar said. ``It is improving, and once girls start to play, they've shown they have the talent to compete with men.''

The reigning world women's champion, Polgar started playing chess before she even started school in Hungary because she was fascinated with the pieces.

Both of her younger sisters are in the top 20 of the world rankings.

Chan roles repeat

If you're Chinese in Hollywood, Jackie Chan says, the roles start looking real familiar.

``There are few roles for Chinese unless they specially write a script for us. Then it's cop, cop, cop, killer, killer, killer,'' the Hong Kong action star said Saturday in Taipei, Taiwan, where he's promoting his latest film, ``Rush Hour.''

Chan's first Hollywood production in over a decade, ``Rush Hour'' grossed $33 million in its opening week in the United States.

He plays a police officer in the movie, and Hollywood debuts this year by Chow Yun-fat and Jet Li have cast them as hit men. All are veterans of Hong Kong's gritty movie industry that puts a premium on action and violence.

Chan, who was made an honorary officer by Taiwan's police force, also said he would donate $29,000 worth of movie proceeds to a fund for families of officers killed in duty.

Some senators nix interns as dates dlim

``How would the boss feel about a staffer dating an intern?'' was a question posed by the Washington newspaper The Hill to staff members in congressional offices.

Sen. Strom Thurmond, 95-year-old South Carolina Republican, met his wife,Nancy, when she was his intern. His current position on staff socializing: ``I don't think it would be a good idea.''

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., renowned socializer, says he has no official policy.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said he would be uncomfortable with a superior dating an underling, but ``I believe in love and marriage and support them both.''

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was equally sentimental - ``I don't have a problem with two young people getting together,'' he said - but told The Hill he wouldn't approve of a married man dating one of his interns (apparently foreseeing no possibility of a married woman dating a male intern).

The strictest rules are in force in the office of House Judiciary Committee member Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark. ``Any dating between interns and staff members is strictly prohibited,'' says his intern policy handbook, ``and will result in the termination of employment for both involved parties.'' Hutchinson also insists, in writing, that interns are ``responsible for the cleanliness of their work area.''

P.S. Adrienne Biggs noticed that the online auction house eBay offers new ``and in mint condition'' White House intern program recruiter patches, ``treated with Scotch Guard for easy stain removal.'' Bidding opened at $5 on Thursday, but maybe someone will go broke underestimating the taste of the American public (sorry, Mencken); as of yesterday, no one had bid.

Experts say clip not of guitarist

Another mysterious twist in the tale of blues legend Robert Johnson: A film clip rumored to contain the only known footage of the revered guitarist-singer actually shows someone else, say blues experts and musicians who worked with Johnson.

``I don't care how many times you look at this film,'' said Robert Lockwood Jr., Johnson's stepson and a blues musician himself. ``It ain't ever going to be Robert Johnson.''

The four-second clip was screened publicly for the first time over the weekend at Case Western Reserve University as part of a conference about Johnson sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was found eight months ago by a Memphis, Tenn., shop owner and supposedly showed Johnson strumming his guitar on a Mississippi street corner.

Johnson died at age 27 in 1938 after allegedly being poisoned by a lover's jealous husband.

Designer's brother fights brain cancer

Designer Tommy Hilfiger is preoccupied with something more important than fashion these days. His brother, Billy, is trying to beat brain cancer.

``My last MRI looked great, and I feel good,'' Billy Hilfiger said in Sunday's editions of the New York Daily News. ``I have great friends, a great family, and they tell me I have a positive attitude.''

Billy Hilfiger had brain surgery in December, shortly after his cancer was diagnosed. He underwent chemotherapy every four weeks for three months and then radiation every day during May and June.

The tight Hilfiger clan ``really pulled together in a powerful way,'' Tommy Hilfiger said. ``We were praying, hoping and thinking positively; that is probably as important as anything else.''

Billy Hilfiger, 42, plays in two rock bands and runs a small urban landscaping company.

Cousteau son boils over dad's legacy

More than a year after Jacques Cousteau's death, the undersea explorer's widow and son reportedly are sniping at each another over how to carry on his work.

``I represent continuity of the name,'' Cousteau's 60-year-old son, Jean-Michel, said in the latest issue of Time magazine. ``So I must be a voice for the oceans.''

But Cousteau chose his widow, Francine Cousteau, to head the Cousteau Society, which holds the rights to his films, books and inventions.

She plans to build the 217-foot Calypso II to replace Cousteau's beloved Calypso, which sank near Singapore in 1996.

Jean-Michel Cousteau calls the Calypso II ``a joke,'' and says ``my father must be flip-flopping in his grave.''

News Lite is compiled from Daily News staff and wire reports

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

PHOTO (1) OUTSTANDING CONDUCT

Fighting the flu, Seiji Ozawa conducts an open-air concert of Beethoven's ninth symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Sunday. Ozawa is the longest-serving music director of a major orchestra and designed Sunday's concert as a tribute to the citizens of Boston for their support.

Patricia McDonnell/Associated Press

(2) Blues guitarist Robert Johnson posed for this photo in 1935 in Memphis, Tenn.

Association Press