NEWS LITE : MALKOVICH BREAKS UP STREET FIGHT.

John Malkovich broke up a street fight to the cheers of passers-by.

Driving through Madrid, Spain, on Sept. 20, the actor noticed that two drivers had left their vehicles and were punching and shoving each other over who had the right-of-way.

Malkovich, 46, got out of his car, took off his coat and dragged the two apart, the El Pais newspaper reported Monday. People recognized him and cheered, with one shouting: ``You're my hero.''

He later told reporters he has broken up several fights, many in England, where brawls are worse because ``people go for the kill,'' he said.

Wedding hush-hush for Williams, Fox

Vanessa Williams, 36, and basketball star Rick Fox, 30, were semi-secretly wed over the summer, her rep said last weekend. Said it happened in the Caribbean with only closest fam there. The actress' rep denies she's pregnant, though Broadwayers are saying that's the reason she's pulled out of doing the show ``The Wild Party.'' She has three - girls Melanie, 12, and Jillian, 10, and a boy, Devin, 6 - by ex-manager Ramon Hervey, from whom she's been divorced two years.

The L.A. Lakers player has a son, Kyle, 7, with his college sweetheart, Kari Hillsman. Williams is set to start shooting a ``Shaft'' movie remake next month. Fox has been living in her Chappaqua, N.Y., house. They met via Tyra Banks when she was dating Fox. When that went south, he took up with Williams.

Arquette lives out `Stigmata' fantasy

Patricia Arquette finally got her stigmata.

Arquette, who stars in the horror movie ``Stigmata'' as a hairdresser who manifests the wounds of Christ, said she was devout as a child.

``I was an odd child, and I wanted to have stigmata. Really, I loved God so much . . . that I thought, Please give me stigmata!' I would look and look and they never came,'' she said in the Oct. 1 issue of Entertainment Weekly. ``But I finally found a movie where I could live out my little fantasy.''

Actress sees magic in boy's adoption

Isabella Rossellini says she had always wanted to adopt a child because it's ``like falling into a pool of love.''

Six years ago, the actress adopted a baby boy; she also has a 16-year-old daughter.

``When I was young, I always knew I wanted to be a biological mother and an adoptive mother,'' she said Sunday at an adoption fair in Central Park. ``When you adopt, you reach out and bring a lot of joy, warmth and love.''

``A big question was, Would I love an adopted child, who doesn't carry my genes, as my own child?'' she said. ``Adoption is magical because it does make you feel genetically connected to the child.''

Stars to come out for Radio City gala

Tony Bennett, Billy Crystal, Patti LaBelle, Wyclef Jean, 98 Degrees, Natalie Cole and Rosie O'Donnell will star in a Monday gala show reopening Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall after a $70 million face lift. NBC will tape the show at the 67-year-old theater and air it as a Dec. 1 special. Part of the proceeds will go for pancreatic cancer research.

Snack wrappers drown out meditator's mantra

The biggest problem with getting into the routine of daily meditation, writes Berkeley's Oscar London of healthcentral.com, is finding a place to do it. Office and home are accessible by telephone - not peaceful enough.

London said a nearby hospital, however, has a ``small, nondenominational chapel which would be perfect, except that I have to share it with people who use the sanctuary of the chapel to cheat on their diets. These closet gluttons huddle in the darkest corner of the chapel and painstakingly unwrap their candy bars and Doritos Nacho Cheese Chips.

``The deafening crinkle of paper drowns out my mantra. Even God cannot hear the prayers of the few devout chapelgoers through all that crackly static.''

Cigarette maker tries

lighter tack

Love is in the air at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., which professes its affection for adult smokers on a customer telephon The line that has industry critics fuming.

The toll-free number is listed on packages of Lucky Strike cigarettes. The B&W brand once went to war with American GIs and now is at the heart of a marketing campaign to project the company's softer side.

Once nonsmokers and callers younger than 21 are shooed away from the telephone message, the company gets right to the point.

``It may be a little soon but, well, it just feels right,'' the male voice says as soft mood music begins.

``We, the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., are in love with you. Yep, you heard right. Brown & Williamson Tobacco is in love,'' the voice says, as the music crescendos. ``We're a giant corporation and you make us feel like a little kitten. Thank you, lover.''

Brown & Williamson spokesman Joe Helewicz said Monday that the company wanted to have fun with the number, which connects callers with the B&W consumer-information center at its Louisville headquarters.

Tobacco industry critics contend the courtship is motivated by Brown & Williamson's desire for smokers' money.

`Sabrina' shows her grown-up side

Melissa Joan Hart, fresh-scrubbed star of TV's ``Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,'' is suddenly emoting bodily in and on the current issues of Bikini and Maxim mags. The latter promises: ``Your favorite witch without a stitch.'' Shouts Maxim: ``Sabrina's all grown up . . . and she has something to show you.'' What gives with the 23-year-old? ``It makes me a little uncomfortable,'' admits her mom, Paula Hart. ``But as executive producer of the show, maybe it will bring in more male viewers. What we're doing is just showing people that she is a grown-up.''

News Lite is compiled from Daily News staff and wire reports

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Mechanized monster

Sergio Santizo, exhibit coordinator for Creative Presentations Inc. of Valencia, checks a giant robotic praying mantis at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls, S.D. In real gardens, the small mantis is virtually an eating machine, avoided by other insects.

Christopher Gannon/Associated Press

(2) MALKOVICH