NEWS LITE : MISS UNIVERSE MAY BE EYEING HIGHER POSITION.

Mpule Kwelagobe, selected Miss Universe on Wednesday, doesn't sound much like the usual beauty queen. She listed electronics engineer as her ambition but in an interview revealed an even higher goal - like the presidency of her native Botswana. ``My country is a very promising country, very young, and I want to work to help develop it,'' said Kwelagobe, 19.

Asked by judges during the competition what should be done with Miss Universe if she becomes pregnant during her reign, she essentially said leave her be. To cheers from the Trinidad audience, Kwelagobe said Miss Universe ``should celebrate her femininity.''

Cher would like to be part of duo

Celibacy is not Cher's preference.

She said she's been doing without since her relationship with Richie Sambora ended six years ago.

``For me to be single this long is quite strange,'' the singer-actress told Ladies' Home Journal. ``It's the longest I've ever been on my own. I've had a great time, but now I'd like to find somebody again.''

So why doesn't she?

``The truth is, I hardly ever see men that I'm attracted to,'' she said. ``It's easy for women to hang out with men who are famous, but no man wants to be Mr. Cher.''

Couple hopes home houses good genes

A 130-year-old house that Ernest Hemingway once lived in was spared from demolition by a dollar.

The library in Oak Park, Ill., sold the two-story Victorian home Wednesday to Scot and Stacy Sterenberg for that amount - and a promise they will move it.

The city wants the land to expand the library, but nobody bid on the home at an auction last month. The Sterenbergs were the only ones to ask to buy the house where a young Hemingway and his family lived for six months in 1906.

``This is our first home. We though it should be filled with history,'' said Stacy Sterenberg, 29, a free-lance writer. ``Hemingway was an adventurer. I think this is very adventurous of us.''

The couple will have the house moved to a lot about a mile away in the city's historic district. They plan to raise a family there.

``Another writer will be born under this roof,'' said Scot Sterenberg, 31.

Barkin and Byrne finally call a wrap

Ellen Barkin has filed for divorce from fellow actor Gabriel Byrne, nearly six years after they separated.

Barkin, whose films include ``Diner'' and ``The Big Easy,'' married Byrne in 1988 after they starred in the movie ``Siesta.''

According to the divorce petition filed Wednesday in Los Angeles, they have been separated since 1993. They have two children, 6 and 9.

Byrne has appeared in more than 30 films, including ``The Usual Suspects'' and ``Man in the Iron Mask.''

No har har for Jar Jar; Binks stinks, movie fans say

And you thought adults hated Barney. Just listen to what they're saying about Jar Jar Binks, the flop-eared amphibian from the new ``Star Wars'' movie.

Many fans, echoing the views of a number of film critics, see the character as an annoying goofball at best and a racial stereotype at worst.

Since George Lucas' ``Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'' opened May 19, the Internet has been afire with messages - and several entire Web sites - calling for no less than the annihilation of the creature.

``The tally so far is running about 10 to 1 in favor a having a festive Jar Jar-B-Q,'' said a Web site called Jar Jar Must Die.

By Thursday, the Web site deja.com had amassed 15,000 messages just about Jar Jar, with many saying they couldn't stand him.

Jar Jar, a computer-animated character dropped into the frames next to the actors, is a bumbling sidekick who steps in animal dung and says things like ``yousa'' and ``meesa'' for ``you'' and ``me.''

To some, his speech sounds like Caribbean-accented pidgin English, and his ears suggest dreadlocks. With his bell-bottom pants and vest, Jar Jar looks to some like the latest in a long line of African-American stereotypes in movies. (Critics also have complained of Asian and Italian stereotypes in other characters.)

Film critic Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal described Jar Jar as ``a Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit on platform hoofs, crossed annoyingly with Butterfly McQueen.''

Rick Barrs, author of ``The Finger'' column in Los Angeles' alternative weekly New Times, wrote: ``This digit can only hope that Massa George comes to his senses before Episode II and kills off shufflin' Jar Jar among others.''

The vitriol has caught the people at Lucas' production company by surprise. The filmmaker appears particularly stung by the suggestions of racism.

``Nothing in `Star Wars' was racially motivated,'' said Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynn Hale. `` `Star Wars' is a fantasy movie. I really do think to dissect this movie as if it had a direct reference to the world today is absurd.''

As for the criticism that Jar Jar is a grating presence, she said: ``It's a children's movie. Kids love him. He's so childish.''

Newspaper apologizes in photo flap

Britain's largest selling daily issued a groveling apology to royal bride-to-be Sophie Rhys-Jones on Thursday, a day after publishing an 11-year-old photograph revealing one of her breasts.

``Sorry, Sophie,'' read a headline over a full-page editorial in The Sun, which was castigated by Buckingham Palace, the prime minister's office and other newspapers.

``So, okay, we messed up,'' the newspaper told its readers. ``Occasionally, The Sun gets it wrong and this was wrong.''

The tabloid, which has a history of buying stories and photographs that target celebrities, promised to donate profits from the worldwide syndication of the photo to two charities of Rhys-Jones' choice.

``Don't worry, Sophie. There will be no more revelations in The Sun that cause you offense,'' the tabloid pledged.

Rhys-Jones, described by friends as deeply upset about the publication of the picture, braved a pack of hundreds of photographers and television crews to attend the marriage of the designer of her wedding dress.

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

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

PHOTO (1) Jar Jar Binks, right, a computer-generated character who shares screen time with Natalie Portman's Queen Amidala in ``Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace,'' has been called offensive.

(2) Mpule Kwelagobe starts her first day as Miss Universe.

(3) Cher

(4) Rhys-Jones