NEWS LITE : GUMBEL'S GIG GETS HEAVE-HO BY CBS.

CBS is shutting its ``Public Eye,'' the newsmagazine featuring Bryant Gumbel.

The announcement to the staff Tuesday came as little surprise, since the show suffered low ratings during its freshman season and failed to win a slot in CBS' fall lineup, announced in May.

The final episode is set for Sept. 16. CBS spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said it is possible the show could return at midseason.

``Public Eye'' first aired in September 1997 after CBS signed Gumbel, former host of NBC's ``Today'' show, to a five-year contract at an estimated $5 million a year.

As for what Gumbel might do next, he said: ``It's a really good question, but I won't be focusing much attention on it until mid-September. After that, it will consume me.''

Ferlinghetti named S.F. poet laureate 

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of the founding members of the Beat Generation of literary rebels and outsiders, is now a certified member of the establishment as San Francisco's first poet laureate.

Ferlinghetti, 79, whose City Lights bookstore in the North Beach neighborhood is a Beat landmark, received the honor from Mayor Willie Brown Jr. on Tuesday.

In his official role, Ferlinghetti will give readings and meet with aspiring poets. He also will receive a $5,000 honorarium from a private foundation.

The author of two novels and more than a half-dozen collections of poems, including ``A Coney Island of the Mind,'' said he hopes North Beach will be designated a historic site and protected from development.

City Lights, founded in 1953, was host to readings by Beat writers like Jack Kerouac who scorned middle-class values and commercialism. Ferlinghetti was arrested on federal obscenity charges for publishing Allen Ginsberg's poem ``Howl'' in 1956 and was later acquitted.

Scary shares her Spice predictions

Mel B., Scary Spice, looks into the crystal ball for England's Deluxe for Men magazine and predicts what the Spice Girls' future holds: ``I'm going to do some solo stuff soon. Mine will be sort of R&B, a bit like a Busta Rhymes feel.

``Melanie C. will go down the independent route, definitely. Emma will go Janet Jackson, I think. I'm not sure what Geri will do. She might go into film and acting.

``And Victoria's getting married, so she's probably going to do more fashion, elite-type things and not so much music. She'll be an entrepreneur, owning restaurants and swanning around in her Versace all the time.''

Hopkins making big push to save peak

Anthony Hopkins has pledged about $1.6 million to help preserve 4,000 acres of Mount Snowdon, Wales' highest peak.

``Snowdonia is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and Snowdon is the jewel that lies at its heart,'' the Welsh-born star of ``Silence of the Lambs'' said Wednesday. ``It must be cherished and protected.''

Scandal-stained resort may return

The owner of the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland Hotel is planning to resurrect Jim Bakker's former Heritage USA resort.

Gaylord Entertainment Co. announced the deal Wednesday for the site in Fort Mill, S.C., south of Charlotte, N.C. Heritage USA was once the home of Bakker and his PTL ministry. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that preliminary plans include a 1,000-room hotel and convention complex costing at least $200 million.

Bakker resigned as PTL president in 1987 and served five years in prison for bilking his followers out of $158 million.

James Dean gets his grave marker back

James Dean's tombstone is back where it belongs.

Nearly a month after the actor's tombstone was stolen and found dumped on a county road, workers reinstalled it Wednesday at Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Ind., a farming community of 3,000 where Dean grew up.

About a dozen people watched as the 400-pound, rose-color granite stone was set back onto its base, affixed with a pair of 2-foot metal rods and cement.

The tombstone was reported missing July 14. Two days later, it was recovered by an off-duty sheriff's deputy who rammed into it with his car on a road about 60 miles from Dean's grave. The crash slightly chipped the tombstone, but otherwise it's in good shape.

The marker's restoration puts it back in place in time for the James Dean Festival in late September.

Dean, who starred in ``East of Eden,'' ``Giant'' and ``Rebel Without a Cause,'' was killed in a car crash in California on Sept. 30, 1955, at age 24. His grave draws thousands of visitors each year.

Police have made no arrests in the theft. The original tombstone was stolen in April 1983, recovered the next month, then stolen again that August. The present stone replaced the original.

News Lite is compiled from Daily News staff and wire reports

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Still boldly going

Actress Kate Mulgrew of ``Star Trek: Voyager,'' center, with knife, cuts a large cake commemorating the filming of the syndicated science fiction television series' 100th episode Wednesday at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Celebrating with Mulgrew on the show's set are, from left, cast members Tim Russ, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Jeri Ryan, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill. ``Star Trek: Voyager'' begins its fifth season of intergalactic adventures this fall on UPN.

Reed Saxon/Associated Press

(2) Gumbel