NEWS LITE : NAMES IN THE NEWS `CHEERS' SCRIPT SWIPED AT AUCTION.

An autographed script of the last episode of ``Cheers'' was stolen from a Boston charity auction where many of the guests wore party masks.

George Wendt, who played Norm on the NBC comedy, donated the script to the Handel & Haydn Society, a classical orchestra and chorus. It had been autographed by the entire ``Cheers'' cast.

The script was stolen Saturday night while a hotel security guard took a telephone call. It had received a high bid of $1,000.

``It does appear that an outside person created an elaborate plan to come in and steal it after reading in the newspaper that we had the script,'' said Michael Jendrysik, the society's fund-raising director.

Many partygoers at the Four Seasons Hotel wore masks in keeping with the theme, Carnival in Venice. Security videotape was being studied.

Proceeds were to benefit 7,000 students in the Boston area.

Prince Albert tests new bobsled run

Nothing like swishing down a narrow, icy track at 90 mph, protected by little more than a metal can, to give Prince Albert a sense of fulfillment.

``Bobsledding has been an incredible adventure for me. I've learned so much in terms of my personal development,'' said the 38-year-old heir to the throne of Monaco. ``When you are an athlete competing at a high level, you get to know yourself pretty well. In competing with others, you get to understand other people well, too.''

The prince, who represented his nation on the bobsled team in the 1988 Winter Olympics, on Sunday tested the new bobsled-luge run recently opened at Utah's Winter Sports Park.

Albert also is an international competitor in sailing and equestrian, but his obligations to his tiny European principality will keep him from next year's Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Willis moonlighting as Idaho developer

Bruce Willis is becoming a regular Chamber of Commerce type.

Willis' Valley Entertainment Group has joined the Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce in southern Idaho.

``The people in Twin have supported his businesses, and he wants to do the same,'' Valley Entertainment spokeswoman Michelle McElroy said Saturday in The Times-News in Twin Falls, a city of 28,000.

The 41-year-old actor lives in Hailey and is the largest commercial real estate developer in the small town 100 miles east of Boise and 75 miles north of Twin Falls.

Willis has attributed his passion for improving Hailey's Main Street to watching his own hometown in Penns Grove, N.J., decline.

Valley Entertainment has put $7 million worth of construction into Main Street in two years and also operates a pool hall, diner, office, ski hill and retail complex. It is also a member of the Hailey Chamber of Commerce.

Marathon mariner toast of France

Frenchman Christophe Auguin was handed a magnum of champagne Monday after breaking the record for an around-the-world solo sail, but what he really craved was a hot drink and a chopped veggie sandwich.

Hailed as a national hero, the ex-high school teacher who lived on freeze-dried fare for more than three months completed the 26,500-mile Vendee Globe race in 105 days, 20 hours and 31 minutes, besting the 1990 mark by four days and his nearest competitor by 2,000 miles.

Among the thousands greeting him at the port town of Les Sables d'Olonne were his wife, Veronique, and their son, Erwan, 1-1/2. Auguin, 38, said he steered his vessel, Geodis, through waves as high as 35 feet and twice felt in danger around Cape Horn.

Uprooting a symbol

Felling of arbor irks Southern author's kin

There's a sound and fury in William Faulkner's hometown of Oxford, Miss., these days, all because the mayor cut down a magnolia tree to make room for another symbol of the Deep South - a statue of the author.

``Outside looking in, it beats worrying about drive-by shootings and things,'' said retired physician Chester McLarty, Faulkner's personal doctor. ``People do take things serious around here.''

Even some relatives of the Nobel Prize-winning author have turned against the plan by Faulkner's hometown, a model for his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth.

``I'm against it particularly since they cut down that magnolia tree,'' Faulkner's daughter, Jill Faulkner Summers, wrote in a letter presented to city officials by Faulkner's nephew, Jimmy Faulkner. ``Tell them I do not want the statue of my father put on the square or anywhere else.''

Mayor John Leslie persuaded the city aldermen to contribute $25,000 to the project last fall and then helped raise an additional $25,000 in private funds. He insists that the life-size bronze statue be placed in front of City Hall and nowhere else.

City Hall was formerly a post office frequented by Faulkner, and it overlooks the picturesque square where the author used to sit or stand alone in contemplation. Faulkner died in Oxford in 1962.

Nominees for least-acted roles

Movieline suggests an additional Oscar category, Performance in Which the Actor Is Most Completely Playing Him- or Herself. And the nominees are:

Madonna as Eva Peron in ``Evita''; Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire in ``Jerry Maguire''; Courtney Love as Althea in ``The People vs. Larry Flynt'';Goldie Hawn as Elise in ``The First Wives Club''; John Malkovich as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in ``Mary Reilly.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) WENDT

(2) Christophe Auguin of France gestures on his boat after winning the Vendee Globe challenge.

Associated Press