NEWS LITE : RICCI CASTS HERSELF AS FLAWED ROLE MODEL.

Surviving the transition years from child actress co-starring with a ghost in ``Casper'' to doing sex scenes with Johnny Depp in ``Sleepy Hollow'' was the toughest role Christina Ricci, now 19, has had to play.

``I stopped feeling fabulous around age 11,'' Ricci tells Rolling Stone magazine in its Dec. 9 edition. ``I got much less confident and more angsty. I think it had to do with boys not liking me.''

In high school, she said, she became anorexic and dropped to 80 pounds, in part to get attention. The scars on her forearms are from soda tops and her own fingernails. She said she did it because the pain calmed her down.

``I didn't really stop feeling like a failure until after `The Opposite of Sex,' '' she said. It was the movie that turned Ricci into a sex symbol.

Now, she considers herself healthy and a good role model, partly because of her view of what a role model should be.

``I think role models should be extremely flawed,'' she told the magazine. ``So then people who are striving, they don't have to strive for perfection.''

Doves take wing for Ono art exhibit

Reflecting her message of peace through art, Yoko Ono released white doves to mark the opening of her exhibit in the Arab town of Umn el-Fahm in Northern Israel.

A mix of Israeli artists, local Arab townspeople and diplomats made their way through Ono's conceptual exhibit, ``The Open Room.'' It features linen canvases painted with single words such as ``Imagine'' and ``Feel.''

``I feel that through art we can all get together and communicate and express our love to each other and we can change the world,'' Ono, the 66-year-old widow of John Lennon, said Saturday.

Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres said he was pleased to see such a high-profile exhibit in the town recently marked by clashes between Israeli Arabs and police.

``I think it is a great day in Israel to see Umn el-Fahm in a different light - not in a light of misunderstanding but of renewed understanding,'' he said.

Dickens heir keeps tradition with fans

His great-great-grandfather may have created the character Ebenezer Scrooge, but there's very little ``humbug'' in Gerald Charles Dickens.

The 36-year-old descendant of Charles Dickens is touring in a one-man performance of ``A Christmas Carol,'' but the show doesn't stop after Tiny Tim's observance, ``God Bless Us, Every One

''

Dickens of East Sussex, England, gives audiences post-show handshakes and chats about his beloved, novelist ancestor.

``In keeping the world of Charles Dickens alive, what I do on the stage is one thing,'' he said. ``It's afterward that's the most special. I love to talk about Charles Dickens and hear about people's questions, or their memories of a special time or a family tradition of listening to `A Christmas Carol.' ''

Thailand hosts 11th Monkey Feast

Scores of simians gobbled mounds of fruits and vegetables - graciously served them on a vast round table - for the annual Monkey Feast held Sunday in Thailand's central Lopburi province.

About 1,200 Thais and foreign tourists watched as the monkeys, ignoring all table manners, swooped down from their perches in ancient temples to enjoy the feast hosted by local businessman Yongyuth Kitwatananuson - Thailand's ``Monkey King'' since 1989.

Good fortune came to Yongyuth's family when they moved years ago to this central Thailand town, where monkeys have long been accepted as respected citizens rather than brazen food snatchers.

So in 1989, he started the monkey feast as a gesture of thanks. Tourists now flock to his Lopburi Inn for the spectacle.

The monkeys enjoy a religious connection in Lopburi, 70 miles north of Bangkok. They are regarded as disciples of Chao Pho Prakarn, a four-armed deity whose likeness is enshrined in the heart of the town.

The long-tailed macaques are allowed free rein in the town, where they parade down main streets and deftly grab food from inattentive vendors and snacking tourists.

Australians bare it all for charity

Several hundred people ran naked through the streets of the tiny Australian outback town of Weipa early Sunday to raise money for charity.

About 2 a.m. Sunday local time, about 200 men and a few women stripped down to their shoes only and ran through Weipa, a bauxite mining town in Queensland state, about 990 miles northwest of the state capital, Brisbane.

The run began eight years ago as a spontaneous celebration of the tropical wet season's first rainfall following months of dry heat in Northern Australia. It now raises money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a nonprofit organization that provides medical services to the Australian Outback.

The annual run, known locally as the ``running of the bulls,'' raised around $1,900 this year, said event treasurer Christine Gould. It has taken in about $12,600 since it was founded.

Author claims Dutch royalty wore fake robe

What was believed to be a 184-year-old ruby robe worn by six generations of Dutch royalty and last draped over the shoulders of Queen Beatrix in 1980 is a fake, according a new Dutch book.

The garment now owned by Queen Beatrix is only a poor copy of the original ermine-lined velvet cape with 83 embroidered golden lions, tailored for King Willem I's investiture in 1815, according to media accounts of the book.

Journalist Dieuwke Grijpma, author of ``Clothing for the elite, the Dutch couturiers and their clients,'' writes that the copy was made by a Swiss tailor some 50 years ago.

The tailor, Erwin Dolder, who died in 1970, was alleged to have kept the real item for his own wardrobe and flaunted the royal garment regularly in the cafes of downtown Basel.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Revered monkeys in Thailand's central Lopburi province relish their annual banquet during the Monkey Feast festival held Sunday. Tons of fruits and vegetables were fed to hundreds of long-tailed macaques, which for years have resided in old pagodas at the town's center.

Apichart Weerawong/Associated Press

(2) Actor Gerald Charles Dickens poses next to a hand-painted photograph of his famous relative.

Christopher Pfuhl/Associated Press