NEWS LITE : NEUWIRTH SACKED IN PLAY DISPUTE.

Bebe Neuwirth's role in the play ``Over and Over'' is over.

The two-time Tony Award winner was dropped from the production, which was scheduled to begin Jan. 6, artistic director Eric D. Schaeffer said this week.

``It's that cliche `artistic differences,' but it really means something in this instance - and not something negative,'' Schaeffer said.

Neuwirth played Lilith in TV's ``Cheers'' and won Tonys for ``Sweet Charity'' and ``Chicago'' on Broadway.

A replacement has not been named. ``Over and Over'' opens at the Signature Theatre.

Role makes actress feel 3 feet off ground

For Sharon Lawrence, there have been TV movies, three Emmy nominations for ``NYPD Blue'' performances and her own sitcom. But it's on stage that her career is taking flight. Literally.

``I only flew about 3 feet off the ground today. I'll be 30 feet up when the play starts,'' the 36-year-old actress said after her first session in a harness for her role in the drama ``Tongue of a Bird.''

The play will run Jan. 14-Feb. 7 at the Mark Taper Forum.

Lawrence plays a long-dead mother being remembered by a search-and-rescue pilot who is hunting for a missing 12-year-old girl.

Flying is not so tough for Miss Lawrence. Acting while flying is.

``Any time you're doing something so new and so unique physically, you want to make sure you've got enough time to get that in your body, so you're not thinking about that when you're supposed to be thinking about acting,'' she said.

Say cheese to enter ex-guitarist's house

Dave Navarro, ex-guitarist with Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is putting together a memoir with a gimmick. It'll contain the photos of every soul who visited his house over a year. Navarro had a photo booth set up at his Hollywood pad and insisted that everybody who entered his house - not just friends and lovers but everybody, including housekeepers and deliverymen - submit to photography.

``It's almost like a year in the life of this home,'' Navarro said, ``as opposed to a year out of my life.'' The book is titled `Trust No One,' a testimony to his mind set after witnessing the murder of his mother when he was 15 and battling a heroin addiction.

Sugar coating, Flutie make flakes go faster

Million-dollar quarterback Doug Flutie has a million-selling cereal.

The millionth box of Flutie Flakes rolled off the production line this week. The Buffalo Bills manage the sale of the sugar-coated cereal and have mailed boxes to all 50 states and every continent except Antarctica.

Some of the proceeds benefit the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism.

Lewinsky's moniker on chocolates

A Ukrainian candy factory is fond of President Clinton and really sweet on Monica Lewinsky.

On Thursday, the Khmelnytsky factory in its namesake town named its newest chocolate confection after Lewinsky.

The rectangular chocolates, bearing the name Monica, are intended to show support for Clinton, plant officials said.

Clinton visited this former Soviet republic several years ago and tasted its candies. He later wrote a letter of congratulations after the plant won an international prize.

``We keep this letter as a precious relic,'' factory director Vasyl Liubovetsky said.

The plant is hoping its Monica chocolates will find a huge market. Its Israeli partner has already ordered a large batch.

Michigan artist sculpts religious art from lint 

The life-size Madonna sculpture at the First Reformed Church of Grandville in Grand Rapids, Mich., is a labor of love - and a lot of dryer lint.

Artist Amy Greving used ``bags and bags'' of the wispy stuff collected from fellow members of the 750-person congregation to fashion her tribute to the real meaning of Christmas.

She spent more than three months of weekends and spare time sculpting the Virgin and Child.

This was her first time working with dryer lint.

Greving treated the fuzz with a solution to create a papier-mache-like substance, wrapped it around a chicken wire frame and applied metallic paint.

``From a distance, it looks like a metal sculpture, but when you touch it has more of a papery feel,'' Greving says. (And she says the sculpture is light enough to easily be carried by two people.)

She turned to the congregation for help finding lint this summer after her husband accidentally threw out two big sacks she had saved from the family laundry. But she didn't tell people what the lint was for.

``Frankly most people thought it was a joke at first,'' recalls Associate Pastor James Karsten, who contributed a bag. ``Now that they see what lint can be turned into, we've had to tell them to stop bringing it in.''

Greving used the hair and fuzz but had to pull out the bubble gum wrappers in some of the contributions from the congregation.

``The finished product is incredible considering what she started with,'' says Jenny Henderson, a congregant.

Online poll lists celeb picks, pans

Can 30,000 E! Online voters be wrong?

In a year-end survey, they picked Tom Hanks and Cameron Diaz as best screen performers; ``Psycho'' as worst remake; ``Blues Brothers 2000'' as worst sequel; ``The Wedding Singer,'' best soundtrack; Neve Campbell (``Wild Things''), ``biggest performance by a `Party of Five' girl''; Natalie Imbruglia's ``Left of the Middle,'' best debut album; and Hanson, most annoying boy band.

George Michael's restroom indiscretion was chosen as best celebrity scandal, followed by Dr. Laura's. Rose McGowan topped the best-undressed list. Anne Heche, as romantic lead in the movie ``Six Days, Seven Nights,'' and Brad Pitt, as Death in ``Meet Joe Black,'' won for the least convincing film performances.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Amy Greving of Jenison, Mich., used bags of donated dryer lint to craft a sculpture of Mary and Jesus.

Dave Raczkowski/The Grand Rapids Press

(2) NEUWIRTH