NEWS LITE : KIDDER ESPOUSES DRUG-FREE COURSE.

Margot Kidder called on her ``fellow nuts'' to take control of their treatment for mental illness.

The actress said Thursday at a mental health conference that she uses herbs and alternative treatments to control her manic-depression.

``I was able to do it - and I was really out of it, as most of you saw on the news,'' she said to laughs at the Vancouver, British Columbia, meeting.

She lambasted the use of drug treatments as a ``pharmacological lobotomy.''

Three years ago, Kidder made headlines when she was discovered in a delusional state in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Pictures of a disheveled and confused Kidder were broadcast around the world.

``All those National Enquirer reporters, I didn't ask them to come. I didn't want them along for the ride,'' said Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the ``Superman'' movies.

O.J. and children calling motel home

O. J. Simpson and his children Justin, 11, and Sydney, 13, are temporarily living in a hotel off a busy Los Angeles freeway, but the former football star, acquitted on charges of murdering their mother, denied he was evicted from his home.

Simpson, in an interview with the syndicated television program ``Extra'' that was to be shown Friday night, confirmed a newspaper report that he was living in two rooms at the Luxe Summit Hotel off the San Diego Freeway in the Brentwood section, not far from where ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered in 1994.

But Simpson told ``Extra'' he was not forced out of his rented home in nearby Pacific Palisades because neighbors had objected to his presence or because his Great Dane had destroyed the back yard, as the New York Daily News reported Friday.

Instead, Simpson told ``Extra,'' he left the rented house because the owner had found a buyer.

Streisand reneges on her end of deal

When Barbra Streisand, who fancies herself a savvy investor, heard that thestreet.com was going public, she called its boss, Kevin English, and offered to trade four tickets to one of her concerts for the chance to buy some shares. Some haggling took place; ultimately, English told the New York Observer, Streisand agreed to have dinner with his family and friends in exchange for a piece of the financial action.

English forked over ``a very modest amount of stock,'' he told the Observer, but Streisand never came through with the dinner. ``I feel a little bit used in that respect,'' said the street-man.

Dalai Lama passes on TV appearance

Oprah Winfrey wants to talk with the Dalai Lama (who'll be in Chicago on Aug. 28), but the Dalai Lama's people say he doesn't have time. Why would he ``turn down the chance of a lifetime to get his message into millions of American homes?'' asks the Chicago Sun-Times.

Aiming for medal; Oscar winner turns sights toward Olympics

Geena Davis already has an Academy Award. Now she's shooting for a medal.

The 43-year-old actress, who took up archery two years ago after watching the Olympics on television, is ranked 22nd in the nation and is competing this weekend to qualify for the next Olympic team.

``I have learned as an adult that I'm fairly athletic,'' Davis said Friday, the day before the semifinals of the U.S. Olympic trials.

The star of ``Thelma and Louise'' and ``The Accidental Tourist'' - for which she won an Oscar in 1988 - has surprised archers with her quick rise in a sport that doesn't normally capture the kind of attention it got Friday.

Camera crews surrounded Davis, wearing a floppy blue hat and sunglasses, as she calmly fired off 60 arrows in Brookdale Park, N.J., to a target 70 meters away. Her coach, Don Rabska, said she had to work to distinguish the clicking sound her bow made from the clicking cameras.

``If she would make the team, it would be unbelievable for our sport,'' said Denise Parker, the top-ranked woman in the nation. ``The question is, Does she want to be in the spotlight in this environment?''

Davis had kept her hobby a secret from Hollywood and the public for two years, despite winning a tournament or two, until she finished 29th out of 300 women in Ohio to qualify for the Olympic semifinals. Four of the 32 semifinalists dropped out, making Davis one of 28 competing Saturday.

That number will drop by Monday to eight, who will compete next month in California for three team spots and one alternate spot at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Many called Davis' chances slim at best to become an Olympian, saying she is competing against higher-ranked archers who have trained more than twice as long.

But Justin Huish, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist from Simi Valley, said Friday, ``I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Geena Davis made the Olympic team.''

Huish, 24, said he shot with Davis last week in a private yard in the San Fernando Valley and ``a couple of times, she shot better than me.''

Davis first learned she had shooting ability while going through FBI training to shoot handguns for the 1996 film ``The Long Kiss Goodnight,'' Rabska said. But she had no interest in firing handguns in her back yard.

She wanted to try shooting with a bow and arrow after watching Huish win two gold medals at the Atlanta Olympics.

``He made it look so elegant and interesting,'' she said.

She met with Huish, who thought initially that Davis ``wanted to shoot archery just as a stress reliever.''

She told him she wanted to go to the Olympics.

Rabska, an archer for more than 30 years, said Davis has mastered a concentration during her acting career that helps her as an archer. Archery, he said, is all about finesse and mental toughness.

Davis said, ``I don't feel that I've yet discovered how good I can get.''

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

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Geena Davis practices for the semifinals of the U.S. Olympic trials.

(2) KIDDER

(3) STREISAND