NEWS LITE : COSBY ADDRESSES SON'S ALMA MATER.

Mixing his trademark wit with tough talk about the importance of teachers, Bill Cosby addressed graduates of the Columbia University teaching program where his slain son had studied.

Cosby mentioned his son only at the very end of his 30-minute speech Tuesday.

``I hesitate to talk about Ennis at this time,'' he said in New York. ``You don't have to excuse me, I just hesitate. Even today, if Ennis were alive, I would see Ennis in your faces. If Ennis were alive, I would see you as teachers for our children.''

Ennis William Cosby, 27, was a doctoral student at Teachers College at Columbia University when he was shot to death along a Los Angeles area freeway while changing a flat tire Jan. 16, 1997.

Ennis Cosby had earned a master's degree in special education learning disabilities from Teachers College. At last year's convocation, he was posthumously awarded a master's degree in education.

Pavarotti benefit recruits Spice Girls 

Luciano Pavarotti announced in Rome on Tuesday that he'll appear with the Spice Girls, Celine Dion, Stevie Wonder and others at a June 9 concert in his northern Italy hometown of Modena to aid the youngest victims of Liberia's seven-year civil war.

``The idea of singing a duet with the Spice Girls is intriguing,'' said the opera star. ``Their music is choral and it seems especially made to draw me in.''

Spike Lee will direct the concert that will have new music written by Wonder and Jon Bon Jovi. Michael Jackson was asked to participate but declined.

Sinatra last words were `I'm losing it'

Frank Sinatra's last words were, ``I'm losing it,'' according to Daily Variety's Army Archerd. The columnist said he interviewed Sinatra's daughter, Nancy, who told him the last words were passed on to her by the nurse tending her father the night he died at L.A.'s Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

Nancy said she was watching the last ``Seinfeld'' TV episode when she got word her father was rushed to the hospital.

Archerd reported that three of Sinatra's four wives (Ava Gardner is deceased) will attend the funeral. He added that the singer will be buried at a Palm Springs family plot.

Ailing Hope skips Washington tribute

Bob Hope, nursing what his publicist called a bad cold in a hotel, missed an early birthday dinner for him Tuesday night given by the Library of Congress in Washington, which is establishing a gallery in his honor.

But his wife, Dolores and three of their four children were there. She signed a poster with photographs of him and the legend ``95 Years of Hope.''

Hope will be 95 on May 29.

Son Tony, a Washington lawyer, said the family is donating $3.5 million for the upkeep of Hope's more than 50 films, an estimated 100,000 jokes and thousands of records, videos, letters and other memorabilia. They will be exhibited in the Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment.

`Titanic' take-off to star Hasselhoff

David Hasselhoff and Priscilla Presley will star in a $25 million spoof of ``Titanic'' due out next spring. ``Titanic Too - It Missed the Iceberg'' is being scripted by Pat Proft, who did ``Hot Shots'' and the ``Naked Gun'' series.

Said Kelvin MacKenzie, one of the producing honchos: ``It would be great to say we came up with the premise after loads of market research and development. But the truth is I had the idea after a couple of drinks in the bar.''

Teacher unable to repeat success

The unorthodox teaching methods that made Jaime Escalante a star and the subject of the 1987 movie ``Stand and Deliver'' have failed to make the grade in Northern California.

At least a third of Escalante's Algebra I students at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento have dropped out since the first of the year, leaving only 20.

He no longer even teaches advanced calculus, the subject that brought him national attention, because only six students signed up.

As a teacher at Garfield High School in the Los Angeles barrio, Escalante transformed a lackluster math program into a nationally known success in which more than 60 percent of the calculus students managed to pass the tough Advanced Placement exam.

Information overload; Workers interrupted constantly, study says

Do you feel flooded by faxes and memos, overwhelmed by e-mail and voice mail? You have good reason.

Office workers send and receive an average of 190 messages a day, and most get interrupted by such communications at least three times an hour, a study found Tuesday.

The study, paid for by Pitney Bowes Inc., the office products company, was based on a survey of 1,000 workers in large companies as well as face-to-face interviews. It counted 12 forms of communication, from telephone calls to letters and packages.

Forty percent of workers get interrupted six or more times an hour by messages, while 37 percent get interrupted three to five times an hour.

``Unless you prioritize, you're in the whirlpool and you're getting dragged down, sucked under,'' said Don Hasbargen, a Minneapolis-based consultant.

Since many workers are now almost always available by phone or e-mail, they feel they're always on call.

``The speed of information exchange has gotten us to the place where clients and co-workers expect almost an instant response,'' said Jannie Herchuk, a Costa Mesa partner with Deloitte & Touche accountants.

News Lite is compiled by Karen Duffy from Daily News staff and wire reports

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Warming up

President Clinton stretches into a triumphant pose before starting a round of golf, while his nephew, Zachary Rodham, plays at his feet.

(2) Cosby