NEWS LITE : ROSIE IN NO HURRY TO SHED POUNDAGE.

Don't expect Rosie O'Donnell to pull an Oprah Winfrey and lose weight.

``I'm the fattest I've ever been. I'm like 208 pounds, and when I stepped on a scale it shocked me,'' the daytime talk host says in the February issue of Ladies' Home Journal, which goes on sale Tuesday.

But O'Donnell isn't headed to a doctor-prescribed diet any time soon. Instead, she has started the Chub Club on her talk show - encouraging groups of people to create a diet-and-exercise support group.

``If you think it's what you put in your mouth, you're wrong,'' she said. ``It has to do with why you do it. If I could lose 67 pounds like Oprah did, I would do it.

``I'm not there yet. She's obviously there and then some.''

Lauryn Hill's hubby has scary moment

Things got a little tense when Bob Marley's son went to warm up the car for his wife, Grammy nominee Lauryn Hill.

Rohan Marley apparently had fallen asleep inside his car while waiting for Hill to leave a New York recording studio early Friday when an electrical malfunction caused a fire.

The malfunction prevented Marley, 26, from opening the locks or windows. Police broke a window and pulled him from the car.

At about the same time, Hill came running out of the studio, police said.

``She was hysterical,'' Officer Jose Segura said. ``She thought he was still in the car.''

Marley was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.

Shania Twain puts hard times in past

Shania Twain's life could be a country song - with a happy ending.

The Grammy-nominated singer was raised in a small town 500 miles north of Toronto in a family so poor that she and her sister sometimes ate mustard sandwiches ``just to have something between the bread,'' she says in Cosmopolitan magazine's February issue.

When she was 21, Twain put her career on hold when her parents were killed in a car crash. She stopped touring and got a steady job so she could raise her sister and two younger brothers.

After her youngest brother graduated from high school, she immediately got to work on a demo tape. That self-titled CD was released in 1993.

Five years later, her third album, ``Come On Over,'' was a smash hit. Last week, it was nominated for six Grammy awards.

``It's like going to war and coming back,'' Twain said. ``Every once in a while, someone has to slap you on the back and say: Hey! The war is over!''

Diocese using MTV, Net to draw men to priesthood

Catholic officials are looking for new priests in some unlikely places: MTV and cyberspace.

Hoping to boost recruitment for the priesthood, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, R.I., has begun running local ads on the cable music network and created a Web site (www.catholicpriest.com).

The Rev. Marcel Taillon, recruiting coordinator for the diocese, came up with the ads after asking high school students how the church could reach teens.

``They said, we do two things, father: We surf the Net, and we watch cable,'' Taillon said.

Taillon did some market research and determined one of the best places to reach young males is MTV. The diocese also is running commercials on comedy and sports channels.

The commercials began airing Jan. 1 and include a telephone number to reach Taillon.

One of the commercials features a telephone ringing but nobody answering. Taillon says it's Jesus calling.

Taillon joked that the commercial and its endlessly ringing telephone is a little annoying but already has resulted in several calls.

``One guy said, the number was right on the screen, so I figured it was time to call,'' Taillon said.

Other dioceses have run TV ads, including ones in Rockford, Ill., and Milwaukee, but the Providence diocese is the only one to specifically target audiences of MTV and cable networks watched by young men, Taillon said.

Perfect 300s bowl over small town

Bowling perfection struck twice, just minutes apart, at an eight-lane alley where the similarities didn't end with flawless 300 scores.

The bowlers who rolled their perfect games Thursday in league play in Belmont, N.Y., are both 41, and both made all strikes on their second games of the night.

Scott Osgood of Cuba, N.Y., bowled his 300-game less than five minutes before Kevin Ross of Belmont finished off his perfect frames.

They pummeled the pins at Community Lanes in Belmont, about 60 miles southeast of Buffalo. The alley has seen just four perfect games in the last three years, so Thursday's show really amazed the town.

``Scott finished his 300, and everybody stopped to congratulate him,'' said John Greene, alley manager. ``Not even five minutes later, Kevin stepped up and finished his perfect game.

``I don't think people realize that this probably doesn't happen much anywhere in the country, especially in a small eight-lane house like this.''

Each bowler will receive $300 from an American Legion post along with several prizes from the American Bowling Congress.

Osgood finished the night with an 826 series on games of 247, 300 and 279. Ross had a 791 series of 278, 300 and 213.

Osgood almost did it again in his third game, when he had strikes in his first nine frames.

News Lite is compiled from Daily News staff and wire reports.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

PHOTO Hidden treasure

(1--2) Above, the Texas Comptroller's Office discovered what appears to be a 16th century receipt detailing a transaction with Michelangelo. At left, the office's safe deposit box administrator, Jackie Schroeter displays the ancient document, discovered during a check of inactive boxes.

(3) O`DONNELL

(4) TWAIN