NEWS LITE : PATIENT PUP; HEART DOCTORS PLAN PET PROJECT.

A team of top heart doctors in South Africa has volunteered to perform a heart operation on a puppy in order to practice surgical techniques that could be used on children.

Milo, a 6-month Jack Russell terrier, has defects in all four chambers of his heart.

Milo was flown into Cape Town from Boksburg, near Johannesburg, on Tuesday via a donated British Airways flight.

``Not only do the doctors have the chance to do something special for Milo's owner, they also get to practice their skills in case of an emergency operation on a child,'' said Chris de Jongh, Milo's veterinarian.

Heart specialist Johan Brink will lead the operation in the animal laboratory at the University of Cape Town. All the doctors are working for free. The procedure could take up to eight hours.

``It's a learning and training process, apart from wanting to help the dog,'' Brink said.

Cape Town is home to some of the world's top heart specialists. In 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard carried out the world's first successful human heart transplant at the city's Groote Schuur hospital.

Van Gogh exhibition gets `Irises' blooming

It could be a case of van Gogh envy.

Large crowds at the Vincent van Gogh exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art prompted another museum, the Getty Center, to put its only van Gogh on display. That painting, ``Irises,'' just happens to be one of the painter's most famous.

Some 900,000 people are expected to view the rare van Gogh exhibit at the county museum during the next four months.

The Getty Center owns ``Irises'' and holds two other paintings on loan. All three were put on display Tuesday. The loaners include ``Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin'' and ``Iris.'' The three will be on display at the Getty Center until March 21.

``It's a small installation in celebration of the LACMA exhibit,'' said a Getty Center spokesman who refused to identify himself by name.

The county museum's van Gogh exhibit, one of the world's most comprehensive, includes 70 of the Dutch impressionist's works. The paintings were allowed out of the country during renovations to the Netherlands museum that houses them.

President buys slice of history

President Clinton made a half-hour stop at D.C.'s Politics and Prose bookstore Monday. He came away with David Baldacci's ``The Simple Truth,'' James Patterson's ``When the Wind Blows,'' Harold Evans' ``The American Century'' and Peter Ackroyd's new bio on Sir Thomas More. Congressman Henry Hyde mentioned the 16th-century British statesman in connection with an oath's sanctity, noting that More chose beheading over taking an oath demanded by King Henry VIII that severed English church ties with Rome.

Former mayor gets bagel, milk ads job

Pittsburgh's favorite Jewish grandmother has found a new career: pitchwoman for bagels and milk.

Former Mayor Sophie Masloff is on television and billboards hawking Bruegger's Bagels and Schneider's Dairy's 64-ounce Mighty Mouth milk carton with the screw-off top.

``I'm no movie star. I'm a long way from being, how should I say, beautiful or photogenic,'' the 80-year-old Masloff said Monday. ``And then my voice is squeaky and recognizable, but certainly not desirable.''

Masloff served as mayor from 1988 to 1994, referring to herself as Pittsburgh's favorite Jewish grandmother. She was famous for such malapropisms as referring to Bruce Springsteen as Bruce ``Bedspring.''

Masloff said she has donated her $1,400 in fees to her favorite Jewish organizations.

Hayek studies Kahlo in Mexico

Mexican actress Salma Hayek has returned to her native country to research her upcoming film role as the fiery painter Frida Kahlo, a Mexico City newspaper reported Tuesday.

Hayek visited the Dolores Olmedo Patino Museum on Monday to speak with Olmedo, a renowned art collector who was close to Kahlo and the artist's husband, acclaimed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, the daily Reforma said.

Hayek declined to speak to reporters waiting outside the museum in southern Mexico City.

Production on the film is to begin in February, Reforma said.

Kahlo, a staunch leftist activist, died in 1954 at age 47 after a long series of illnesses.

Before Rivera's death in 1957, he made a list of paintings he wished Olmedo to acquire. The Olmedo museum now holds the largest collection of works by Kahlo and Rivera.

Dench gets queasy seeing own acting

She appears on screen as a regal, commanding, even frightening presence - the kind of character who ``if she just glanced at you, you'd be pretty dodgy.''

But watch how British actor Judi Dench - who plays Queen Elizabeth I in ``Shakespeare in Love'' - quivers on the other side of the screen.

Dench, 64, tells Time magazine that she can barely stand watching her own performances.

``I'm very squeamish about it. Once I see it, I regret what I've left undone.''

Dench also confesses that after 41 years on the stage, she still gets butterflies.

``It's anxiety and fear that create adrenaline, which for me is petrol.''

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

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

PHOTO (1) Dr. Kenneth Joubert arrives in South Africa with heart patient Milo.

Obed Zilwa/Associated Press

(2) Dench

(3) Hayek