NEWS LITE : SIMPSON ENJOYS BREAK IN BAHAMAS.

O.J. Simpson took a break from his legal troubles to play in a celebrity charity golf tournament and found himself smothered in kisses.

``I've never had so much sugar in all my life,'' said Simpson, laughing. ``I've got lipstick all over me.'' He was quoted Thursday in The Tribune, a Nassau, Bahamas, daily, after locals and tourists thronged him when he arrived Wednesday.

The former football star expressed confidence he would win the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

``My mother told me that the truth will set you free - it has thus far, and I think it will see me through all the rest of this,'' Simpson said later from a golf course on Paradise Island.

Former ``Cosby'' kid Malcolm Jamal Warner and Buffalo Bills defensive end Bruce Smith are also playing in the tournament that began Thursday.

Settling score on duke's behalf

Prince Edward says that his controversial great-uncle, the Duke of Windsor, was not a Nazi sympathizer and that his 1937 meeting with Adolf Hitler was about persuading the Nazi leader not to wage war.

Edward made his comments Friday after a screening of his two-part documentary ``Edward on Edward,'' airing on Brit TV later this month and marking the 60th anniversary of the Duke's abdication as King Edward VIII.

The prince says the Nazis had a plan to put the Duke back on the English throne where they thought he'd be easily manipulated. Edward also discloses that the Duke never expected his marriage to American Wallis Simpson to result in his permanent exile, was shocked that his family didn't go to his wedding in France, and was shattered that his wife was refused the title Her Royal Highness.

Orangutans stop dragging knuckles

on tying the knot

During the few weeks he's known his mail-order bride Susu, Mike hasn't managed to score anything but a few snacks pushed furtively through the bars.

Still, those in the know say the couple's ready for marriage - and their chaste romance has inspired four other couples to join them in tying the knot. That will make two orangutans and eight humans at the altar tonight in Lopburi, Thailand, 71 miles north of Bangkok.

Among those joining 8-year-old Mike and 6-year-old Susu, who arrived just a few weeks ago from Taiwan, will be one of the most important people in Mike's life: Sompong Amfuk, a 24-year-old feeder at the Sa Kaew zoo, who will be marrying his 22-year-old girlfriend Srisuda Chumchit.

Hoping to boost tourism, Kitwatananusont also is constructing a $48,000 house at the zoo for Mike and Susu.

The human couples will have to find their own habitat.

Montel hankers for Oval Office

Picture this: Montel Williams in the White House. The TV talker sees the move as a mere hop from a talk show to the presidency. (Look what being a grade-B actor did for Ronald Reagan!) Williams tells the Leeza show on Monday, ``If you read my high school yearbook in 1974, I said that I would be president in the year 2000. I might have to wait a little longer. . . . The ultimate role and goal would be to serve publicly and make changes.'' Those include doubling teachers' salaries. He also wants presidents to serve six years ``to have a chance to do something.''

Law school real test of Grisham's talent

John Grisham got some early practice writing fiction in law school - while taking a test.

Speaking in honor of new University of Mississippi chancellor Robert Khayat, the best-selling crime author recalled faking his answer to a tough essay question on the final exam in Khayat's class.

``I got clever and I got witty, and I hoped Khayat might appreciate my creativity and give me a break on that one question,'' Grisham said Thursday during swearing-in ceremonies for Khayat.

``My creativity had found its mark. He appreciated my ability to fill six pages with very little legal analysis.'' Khayat's note at the bottom of the page read: ``Though you missed most of the legal issues, you have a real talent for fiction.''

Grisham went on to write such legal thrillers as ``The Firm,'' ``The Client'' and ``The Pelican Brief.''

Yoko expresses panes of artistry

Yoko Ono is using shop windows on Rodeo Drive as her artistic canvas. Her brush strokes are words.

The musings of John Lennon's widow are plastered across high-priced storefronts on Beverly Hills' glitzy answer to New York's Fifth Avenue.

Ono's exhibit is titled ``73 Windows on Rodeo Drive.''

One pane says: ``Step in all the puddles in the city.''

Another reads: ``Polish an orange.''

The Chanel boutique window says: ``You are water, I'm water. We're all water in a different container.''

Ono jumped at the chance to make her artistic statement on one of the best known - and most expensive - shopping streets in the world.

``I loved the idea,'' Ono said Friday. ``It's adding a little color to Rodeo Drive, I hope, and it's very exciting to me.''

SOURCE: Compiled by Terry Murphy Flores from Daily News staff and wire reports.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Newt and reptile encounter

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with the assistance of St. Louis Zoo Director Charles Hoessle, holds a carpet python Friday at the zoo while in town for a Republican fund-raiser.

(2) Dog's eye view 

Golden retrievers Boomer and Fritz watch the world go by their home in Racine, Wis., on Thursday. The curious canines' owner, James Rooney, made the holes especially for them.

(3) Dennis Hopper stands with his new bride, Victoria Duffy, and his 5-year-old son, Henry Lee, in Boston on Friday.

Associated Press