NEWS LITE : CONNERY MIFFED HE'S NOT SIR SEAN.

Sean Connery still sounds sore about being passed over for one of Britain's highest honors - a knighthood.

``I think it lacks class on their part,'' the Scottish-born actor was quoted as saying in Monday's Glasgow (Scotland) Evening Times.

The Scottish National Party accused the British government in February of rejecting Connery because he is a longtime advocate of independence for Scotland.

The Scottish National Party, which Connery supports, is battling for seats in the 129-member Scottish Assembly, which will be elected in May. If the party wins the most seats, it has promised to seek a referendum on full independence within four years.

Connery told the newspaper that it was ``strange'' how he'd played a knight in his latest film, ``The Avengers.''

Describing the character of Sir August De Wynter as ``a scoundrel, a blackmailer and a cheat,'' Connery said: ``It makes you wonder at times what exactly is the criteria to qualify.''

It's breakup time for Paltrow, Affleck

Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck quietly split after New Year's, the New York Daily News reports. Representatives for neither side are talking yet, but unofficial sources say the goodbye - unlike her Brad Pitt one - is amicable.

Paltrow, engaged to Pitt on Christmas 1996 only to see him walk six months later, has been Affleck's arm decor since winter 1997. Pitt faulted her for being too conservative and constrictive. But all seemed well between the actress and Affleck, both in the movie ``Shakespeare in Love.'' In September, she gave him a $21,000 platinum watch for his birthday.

But there have been signs from his side. In a July interview, he shunted aside nuptial queries with: ``I like to have adventures.''

Retro reunion show given network's ax

Further proof that the 1970s are long buried: ABC has pulled the plug on Mary and Rhoda's reunion and is storming ahead with a schedule of voyeuristic video shows.

The network had ordered 13 episodes of a prospective TV series reuniting Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper, but said Monday that the project is dead.

``This was one of those cases where the stars didn't line up correctly,'' ABC Entertainment President Jamie Tarses said at a news conference in Pasadena.

The show was to depict Mary and Rhoda as two friends who had lost touch with each other but are reunited as widows, each with a daughter named for their old friend. Both starred in ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' from 1970 to 1977 as neighbors in a Minneapolis apartment house.

Monica double-moniker; Politician hopes voters not too tired of name

A congressional seat being vacated because of fallout from the Monica Lewinsky affair could be filled by a woman known to her friends as Monica Squared.

``This is not a politically cute trick,'' 48-year-old ophthalmologist Dr. Monica L. Monica said of her plans to run for the House seat held by fellow Republican Bob Livingston. ``I was Monica long before the other one was. It's on my driver's license.''

That's the actual name she was given by her father, Elihu Root Monica.

``I asked him, Did you stutter, or what? He said, I loved you so much and felt so much honor in the name that I named you twice,'' Monica recalled.

Monica has been politically active and is among the doctors on the Louisiana Health Care Review Organization, which works on Medicare initiatives.

Watching Livingston's resignation announcement on television, she recalled, ``I said, This is ridiculous. Somebody's got to get in there, somebody's got to start advocating and becoming positive and bringing out the best they can in the medical system, education, the environment.''

Monica's grandfather, an Italian immigrant, named his four sons for famous Americans: Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Russell Sage, Elihu Root.

Monica said, ``I will take my name and make it as individual and as honorable as it was given to me by my father.''

Camp Pendleton makes `cool' list

It's big and green and looks good in camouflage, but who knew it was so cool?

The World Wildlife Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting wildlife, has listed Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base as one of the ``Top 10 Coolest Places You've Never Seen'' in North America.

``This coastal dry land harbors many rare plants and animals, including the San Diego horned lizard, California gnatcatcher, rosy boas, kangaroo rats, fragrant coastal sages and the greatest diversity of bees in the United States,'' according to the fund.

Much of the base, protected amid the endless sprawl of Southern California, still looks like the ranch it was when the Marine Corps took over in the 1940s. Visitors are allowed, but are typically restricted to main roads.

Officials at the 125,000-acre base just north of San Diego are standing proud with the new designation.

``We're preserving what Southern California used to look like years ago,'' said Lt. Col. Ken Quigley, the base's deputy assistant chief of staff for environmental security.

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

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Stepping into history

Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon proudly displays her foot after having it, along with its mate, immortalized in cement at Hollywood's famed Mann's Chinese Theatre. Sarandon said she enjoyed the ``squishiness'' of the ceremony.

Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

(2) CONNERY

(3) MOORE