NEWS LITE : ROCK STARS SPLIT ON ROCKIN' CHAIRS.

Tina Turner's ready to hang it up, but Paul McCartney - forget about it. ``I'm just going to keep rocking,'' the ex-Beatle, 57, told a Brit TV show. ``No, I'm never going to retire. I probably should, because I am over 50. But that doesn't mean anything to me. I'm holding onto the idea of how good Muddy Waters was when he got older and how good Ray Charles is.''

The just-turned-60 Turner, however, said, ``There comes a point where it is just undignified to be a rock 'n' roll star.'' About to start one last tour, she said, ``I don't want to be dragging myself on stage year in and year out until someone else tells me it is time to go. There are certain birthdays that make you revalue your life. I never drink, and I have never done drugs. All I have ever done is work, work, work my entire life.''

Foster plans movie on hated filmmaker

Jodie Foster plans to produce and star in a biography of Leni Riefenstahl, the German filmmaker acclaimed for her work but accused of glorifying Nazism in her 1934 documentary ``Triumph of the Will.''

``There is no other woman in the 20th century who has been so admired and vilified simultaneously,'' Foster said Tuesday. ``She was perhaps one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and yet her name will forever be linked to the horror of Nazi Germany.''

Riefenstahl is now 97 and lives in Germany.

Jackson says Elvis also got nose bob

Michael Jackson doesn't know why everyone is always picking on his nose.

Jackson said in the latest TV Guide that lots of celebrities have plastic surgery, and he insisted the only work he's had done has been to his nose.

``All of Hollywood has plastic surgery. I don't know why they point me out,'' Jackson said. ``The press exaggerated it. It's just my nose, you know. They want it to be everything. Just the nose isn't enough.''

One of those altered celebrities, Jackson said, was his former father-in-law, Elvis Presley. ``Elvis had his nose done. Lisa Marie told me,'' Jackson said.

Aging Brit singer still topping charts

Cliff Richard, Britain's ``Peter Pan of Pop,'' has confounded the music biz by topping the singles chart this week with a record he accused Brit radio stations of boycotting. His ``Millennium Prayer,'' which is the Lord's Prayer set to the tune of ``Auld Lang Syne,'' wasn't considered fit for radio, but his fans made that judgment irrelevant. It gives Richard 132 hits in the last 41 years, and he remains the only Brit to top the charts in every decade since the '50s.

``I have just been astounded by the knives that have come out on a personal level,'' said Richard, 59, who was knighted in 1995 for his charity work. ``I cannot understand it. I am the one who had been dubbed the Nice Boy of Pop. Suddenly, I found myself hated. Ageism must come into it. I think it is a shame, as there is room for all of us.''

Panda gets official name

It's not a moniker found in any of those baby name books, but for the giant panda cub at the San Diego Zoo, Hua Mei is the perfect identity.

Chinese for ``China USA,'' Hua Mei was the name formally given during a ceremony Wednesday, 102 days after the cub's birth to giant pandas Bai Yun and Shi Shi, who are on a 12-year research loan from China.

Hua Mei is the first giant panda born in the Western Hemisphere since 1990, and the first in the United States to survive past four days.

The cub's name was a closely held secret for weeks. It was selected by the Chinese State Forestry Administration and approved by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Although Hua Mei translates into ``China USA,'' the Chinese words have several other meanings. ``Hua'' also can be interpreted as magnificent or splendid. ``Mei'' signifies pretty or beautiful.

Three giant scrolls were unfurled revealing the Chinese characters, the English translation and the Chinese pronunciation of the appellation during a ceremony called ``Celebration of 100 Days.''

Hua Mei was visible via video during the ceremony. She likely won't go on public display until January, Zoo spokeswoman Georgianne Irvine said.

Stowaway salamander gets ticket home to Oregon

A salamander that apparently hitchhiked across the country aboard a Christmas tree has been dubbed creature-non-grata in Newport News, Va.

The squishy tourist, curled up in a moist spiral beneath the tree, was discovered Saturday at a local hardware store by shopper Laurel Glasco, who alerted her son Jeremy.

``He's brown, and my son thought he was a pile of animal poop,'' said Glasco, a gardener who likes snakes and lizards and took the creature to the Virginia Living Museum.

John Kleopfer, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the museum, said the creature is native to Oregon, which turned out to be where the Christmas tree had been shipped from.

``My theory is some trees were cut and stacked and laid overnight, and he climbed in, and the next morning they were picked up and away he went. The next thing he knows, he's in Virginia,'' Kleopfer said.

Not for long. The museum has been feeding the salamander and plans to ship it next week by Federal Express to the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

Record price

``Polo Crowd,'' a 1910 oil painting by George Bellows, sold at auction Wednesday to a private collector for $27.5 million - by far the record amount for any American painting.

The painting was sold by the Museum of Modern Art to an anonymous telephone bidder.

Bellows was best known for his paintings depicting American sporting life at the turn of the century. ``Polo Crowd,'' with large splashes of blue and white, shows spectators - mostly women in long flowing white dresses, fancy hats and parasols - watching a polo match in Lakewood, N.J.

News Lite is compiled from Daily News staff and wire reports

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Photo: San Diego Zoo's giant panda cub, 14 weeks, yawns during her weekly veterinary exam.

Associated Press