NEWS LITE : HURLEY HUMBLES U.K. TAB.

Elizabeth Hurley accepted undisclosed damages Wednesday in London stemming from a tabloid story alleging that she would make herself available to any man who fancied her for 12,000 pounds ($20,100).

Headlined ``Rent-A-Liz, It's A Bargain,'' the June 1996 story in the Daily Mirror contained a purported transcript of a phone conversation between a journalist posing as the sister of a man who ``really fancies Liz'' and a model agency.

The article concluded with what Hurley's lawyers termed a ``grossly offensive'' comparison between their client and Divine Brown, the prostitute who was arrested with Hurley's longtime boyfriend, actor Hugh Grant.

Marcus Partington, representing MGN Ltd., the Daily Mirror's parent company, said the item about the model and actress was intended to be lighthearted.

The newspaper conceded the allegations were without foundation.

Earl Spencer divorces, must pay ex $3 million

Earl Spencer's tumultuous eight-year marriage ended Wednesday when a judge in Cape Town, South Africa, granted him a divorce and gave his former wife a settlement worth more than $3 million.

The divorce of the late Princess Diana's brother and former model Victoria Lockwood capped a series of embarrassing courtroom revelations.

Lady Spencer, 32, alleged that the earl was a serial adulterer who had 12 mistresses, starting soon after their 1989 marriage.

He maintained she was mentally unstable, unable to handle a large sum of money and would return to the alcohol abuse and eating disorders that have plagued her in the past.

The settlement, finalized Wednesday, was reached Tuesday just before Lady Spencer, her father, and the earl's former mistress Chantal Collopy were due to give evidence against him.

In Cape Town High Court, Judge Ian Farlam asked Spencer if his marriage had broken down.

``It is so broken down, my Lord,'' Spencer, 33, replied in a soft voice.

The couple had argued for five days in a Cape Town court over where the divorce should be held - back home in Britain or in South Africa, where they live now.

The couple, already estranged, both moved to Cape Town in 1995 and set up separate homes within a few streets of each other. Spencer said he left England to escape press intrusions.

Cable Guy, wife reconnect lives

Things are ``all righty, then'' between manic comic Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly. They're reconciling - carefully. She's supposedly moving back to his $4 million Brentwood digs ``slowly, moving in a bag here, a bag there.'' While dating, they broke up briefly, then impulsively wed 1-1/2 years ago after doing ``Dumb and Dumber'' together. She kicked Carrey to the curb earlier this year after 10 months of marriage and took up with director Ed Burns, who now appears out in the cold.

It's Sommers time again at ABC Radio

Bill Sommers has been named president and general manager of ABC Radio's three local properties - talk radio KABC-AM (790), Radio Disney KTZN-AM (710) and rock KLOS-FM (95.5).

Sommers, who had been president and general manager of KLOS before he retired and moved to Idaho last year, originally joined the station in 1973 as an ad salesman.

Maureen Lesourd, who became president and general manager of the three local ABC stations about 18 months ago, has resigned to pursue other opportunities, according to a statement from ABC Radio.

Lesourd had been criticized for the way the changeover from KMPC to the female-oriented Zone to Radio Disney was handled as well as the removal of longtime talk host Michael Jackson from his weekday midmorning post.

Hollywood agrees to blow less smoke

With Vice President Al Gore contending that Hollywood is partly to blame for teen-age smoking, some movie-makers and TV producers agreed Wednesday to clean up their acts.

Representatives of the Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild and Writer's Guild - along with Christy Turlington speaking for supermodels - pledged to use their own kind of peer pressure to keep their colleagues from depicting cigarettes as cool.

It would be a voluntary initiative with no new government regulations or censorship, Gore said.

He cited a study that found 77 percent of all movies released last year showed tobacco use - often in scenes that glamorized smoking. That finding coincides with a recent rise in teen smoking.

``The cause and effect relationship is very, very clear,'' Gore said. Regrettably, he added, impressionable moviegoers ``don't see the victim of lung cancer drowning in the fluid that builds up in their lungs.''

Richard Masur, president of the actors guild, blamed a new generation of younger filmmakers and TV executives. ``They have not had the benefit of the kind of educational process that many of us who are older had,'' he said.

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1) Model Christy Turlington takes part in Al Gore's anti-smoking crusade.

(2) Earl Spencer, rear, follows unidentified legal advisers Wednesday.

(3) Hurley