NEWS LITE : NETWORKS URGED TO POOL TV NEWS.

Television networks should combine forces in a video news service, similar to newspaper wire services, and spend some of the money they save to put news back into news magazines, the founder of ``60 Minutes'' said Thursday in New York.

Don Hewitt, executive producer of ``60 Minutes,'' is a frequent critic of television news magazines, other than his own, for worrying more about making money and entertaining viewers than serious journalism.

His proposed solution, offered as part of the Frank Gannett Lecture series at the Freedom Forum, may seem like heresy to hotly competitive ABC, CBS and NBC.

``Each network doesn't have to have its own man or woman on the scene at every river that overflows its banks, every border where there's a skirmish, every town up and down the coast battening down for a hurricane,'' Hewitt said. ``If the same wire service reporter showed up on Rather, Brokaw and Jennings, who'd know?''

`Meditating' model starts fire in room

Supermodels are more dangerous than you think.

Discharged Tuesday from the $500-a-day Priory Clinic in London, where she checked in because she said she wanted to assess her life and future, Kate Moss left behind a fire-scorched room. Seems when ex-boyfriend Johnny Depp sent her a $100,000 BMW as a get-well gift, Moss immediately took the car for a spin. She forgot she had left meditation candles burning - right next to a scarf sent by her mum. The scarf ignited the room and the clinic was evacuated by firefighters, but no one was hurt.

President returns missing report card

A fourth-grader has proof for any teachers who didn't believe her when she blamed President Clinton for her lost report card.

Desiree Wilson's grade card arrived Tuesday in the mail at Greenwood School in Tahlequah, Okla. It was signed, ``To Desiree, from President Clinton.''

``I was really excited to have it,'' Desiree said. ``I got to pass it around and show everybody.''

She lost the card Nov. 6 after handing it to a Secret Service agent for Clinton to sign during an airport dedication in northwest Arkansas. The president and agent moved on through the crowd without returning the card.

Desiree and her mother waited several hours in an attempt to retrieve it. Agents said they would mail it to Tahlequah if they found it.

School district policy requires a student to return the card to school after a parent has signed it. Some teachers were skeptical of Desiree's story until the card arrived at the school office in mail from the White House.

Desiree's mother, Doris, said a teacher handed the card to the fourth-grader. ``Everyone believed what had happened then.''

`STOP IT'; Perelman, ex-wife get a big hint

Ron Perelman and his ex-wife, Patricia Duff, who are carrying on a nasty and very public battle over custody of their daughter, Caleigh, 3, got a two-word message in 2-inch-high letters on the front page of Thursday's New York Post - STOP IT.

``What good is money when the richest man in New York is revealed to be the poorest excuse for manhood,'' writes Post columnist Andrea Peyser. ``A guy who'd risk the well-being of a small child just to get what he wants. Of what use is beauty when a legendary, frequently married New York socialite is revealed to be the ugliest shrew: a woman willing to destroy that same child in order to win.''

The case, originally under wraps as ``Anonymous v. Anonymous,'' roared into public this week with lawyers for both sides airing dirty laundry to reporters in courthouse corridors. She says he repeatedly beat her when she was pregnant with Caleigh. His lawyer denies it. He says she slapped him around three times in front of their marriage counselor. Her lawyer calls that ``poppycock.''

His lawyer accused Duff of not being able to keep help, of being so manic, she has fired more than 18 nannies and 25 housekeepers in the last two years. Her lawyers accused Perelman of being an absentee dad who has gone through dozens of nannies himself. His lawyer said there has been testimony that Duff told her daughter that Perelman and a nanny were planning to kidnap her. Her lawyer says he's a control freak.

Perelman married Duff - his third wife - Dec. 12, 1994, the day before she gave birth. They had a well-publicized split in August 1996 at the Democratic National Convention. Duff's been wed four times.

London judge rules who's boss in court

Bruce Springsteen won a battle against music pirates Thursday when a London judge blocked the release of an unauthorized collection of songs recorded early in his career.

The rocker argued that release of ``Before the Fame'' would damage his artistic integrity because the songs don't meet his high standards.

``I came over here to defend the ownership of my music,'' Springsteen said outside the courtroom. ``It's something I fought for since I was young, and I'm really satisfied.''

London-based Masquerade Music said it had a license for the songs recorded between 1972-74 from Jim Cretecos, a member of Springsteen's former management team who claimed to own the rights.

But Judge Francis Ferris ruled that Springsteen owned the 19 songs and ordered Masquerade to pay his legal costs, estimated at $825,000. Masquerade's Ronald Winter said the company will appeal.

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

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

PHOTO (1) Bruce Springsteen leaves court in London with his entourage.

(2) Winter

(3) Hewitt