NEWS LITE : CYBILL AND HER KING-SIZED FLING.

Cybill Shepherd discusses in detail for the first time in TV Guide her monthlong fling with Elvis Presley in 1973, noting that she ended it because of his pill-popping and her then-ongoing affair with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich. She was 23 and Presley 38. ``I couldn't handle the whole thing with the pills,'' she says in next week's issue. ``Pills to go to sleep. Pills to wake up. I think that lifestyle limits you.'' But she admits, ``he was still looking fabulous. He was a sweet man. And he smelled great. He had one of the most beautiful voices that ever existed.'' She added that his fame ``was terrifying for him. . . . He was a very fragile person.'' Shepherd suggests she loosened up the king, noting that before she met him, ``he was (sexually) conservative, trapped in a stupid, macho thing.'' It all ended, she notes, when Presley demanded exclusivity, and she chose Bogdanovich, who had cast her in her first movie, ``The Last Picture Show'' (1971).

`Murphy' man makes last call

Phil, the burly, gravel-voiced restaurant owner and bartender on ``Murphy Brown,'' is pouring his last brews. Actor Pat Corley will leave the CBS series at the end of this season.

Corley, who has appeared in several TV series, including a recent episode of ``Murder One,'' also has played in movies including ``Bad News Bears'' and ``The Onion Field.''

On the show, Phil's bar and grill serves as a hangout for TV journalist Murphy (Candice Bergen) and her colleagues.

Tina turnout: 300 at sultan's

Tina Turner lived up to the name of her album ``Private Dancer,'' giving a secret performance for the family of the sultan of Brunei.

The 57-year-old star sang for an audience of 300 in Brunei this week at a party to celebrate the 19th birthday of the niece of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the world's richest man. Guests included celebrities flown in from around the world.

Turner's manager Roger Davies refused to say anything more about the event. The oil-rich sultan lets little news of royal activities emerge from his 1,778-room palace.

``We have actually signed a form saying we haven't seen a thing,'' Turner's sound engineer Rory Madden said. ``We haven't seen anything except decadence beyond belief. There were gold doors, gold everything and 10,000 roses flown in from London for the party.''

Turner then went to Singapore for a concert today that launches a 1-1/2-year world tour to promote her latest album, ``Wildest Dreams.''

OFFBEAT Hair's the

evidence

The question was: Are restaurant knives as sharp as the Ginsu knives advertised on television? Michelle Rosati says the way to answer it was definitely not to chop off her 2-foot ponytail.

Rosati, 28, of Yardley, Pa., said she had been growing her hair for six years before Richard ``Lefty'' Clunn settled a restaurant argument in December by slicing it off.

Now the waitress wants $1,000 an inch in damages, plus an unspecified amount for emotional pain and suffering, according to a story in Friday's Bucks County Courier Times.

Clunn's lawyer said he cut her locks on impulse. He was debating with his brother, spotted Rosati's long hair, walked into the kitchen, grabbed a knife - and there was the severed proof that the knife was very sharp.

``The poor girl was shocked. Lefty himself was so shocked that he did it, he dropped the knife on the floor, and the hair fell on the table,'' attorney Walter Campbell told the paper.

``He admits it was a stupid act. But he didn't do it maliciously. It was just a stupid prank that got out of control.''

Clunn, 51, of Hulmeville, was charged with harassment.

Rosati's attorney, Tom Landis, called the impulse defense ridiculous.

Topic A in the tabs: Di's leg dimples

Princess Diana has put the word out that she's cellulite-free.

Her friend, James Whitaker, writes in London's Daily Mirror that she doesn't have ``a single ounce of it, on her legs or anywhere else for that matter,'' noting the denial comes directly from ``Diana herself.'' He says what looks like cellulite in an incriminating photo is actually the impression left by the stool she sat on at her gym's juice bar.

Whitaker says the princess has no intention now of proving the photo wrong: ``She thinks that is beneath her dignity. Give her time and you will find a photo that will prove she does not have this particular problem.''

Follow that baby

Nana Visitor, who plays Major Kira Nerys on TV's ``Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,'' is four months pregnant with the kid of series co-star Alexander Siddig, who plays Julian Bashir. For the show's purposes, the fetus will actually belong to Rosalind Chao (who plays Keiko O'Brien), but will be transplanted to the major when it is found that O'Brien can't carry to term. Don't ask!

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Cybill Shepherd makes a claim to tame on thelate gyrator.

(2) Tina Turner

Boogies in Brunei