NEWS LITE : X-RAY VISION WOULD HELP?

Superman's new bride is suing a health club chain for super bucks.

Teri Hatcher, co-star of ABC's ``Lois & Clark,'' sued Bally's Health & Tennis Corp., claiming she's owed $312,500 on a contract to promote the chain.

The suit, filed in state court Wednesday in Los Angeles, claims Hatcher was paid only half the amount promised under a one-year agreement to make TV commercials, print ads and personal appearances for Chicago-based Bally's.

Spokesman Michael Kempner said Thursday that Bally's had not yet seen the lawsuit. ``But I can tell you this. We have met all of our obligations as outlined in the contract. Unfortunately, she did not.''

Ecuador hails Lorena Bobbitt

The news out of Ecuador reads like something out of the ``Twilight Zone.'' First, the nation's newly elected president, Abdala Bucaram, who fancies the nickname ``Madman,'' releases his first rock album. Then, Energy Minister Alfredo Adum says in a magazine interview out Wednesday that he would like to live naked as a cave man and prey on women. ``I'd grab any woman I liked by the hair, take her back to my cave and devour her,'' he said. Then, Lorena Bobbitt, her tresses dyed red, shows up after an 18-year absence and gets a hero's welcome. But it doesn't end there. Bobbitt and Bucaram were chosen as godparents for singer Silvana Ibarra's baby. She was Bobbitt's chief cheerleader when Bobbitt sliced off John Bobbitt's manhood and was declared temporarily insane.

Arts group's dreams come true

DreamWorks SKG, the ambitious new entertainment company headed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, will contribute $340,000 toward new play development programs for the Center Theatre Group's Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

The gift, to be paid over two years, is the first major contribution of its kind by Dreamworks SKG to a not-for-profit arts organization.

Besides signaling Dreamworks' interest in discovering new writers and theater artists, the gift provides further evidence of billionaire entertainment mogul Geffen's determination to be a key player in his hometown's arts community. He is the principal benefactor of the Geffen Playhouse (formerly UCLA's Westwood Playhouse) and the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art downtown.

Initially, the contribution will provide support, in conjunction with the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theatre Inc. and the National Endowment for the Arts, for the Taper Lab '96-'97 New Work Festival, the ninth annual series of readings and open public rehearsals to be held Nov. 7 through Dec. 19 at Taper, too.

Other Taper programs that will benefit include the Asian Theatre Workshop, the Latino Theatre Initiative and Blacksmyths (for African-American writers).

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) Making his day

Clint Eastwood rehearses at New York's Carnegie Hall Thursday for ``Eastwood: After Hours, A Night of Jazz.'' Associated Press

(2) Terri Hatcher:

Sues health firm

(3) Lorena Bobbitt laughs with Ecuadorean President Abdala Bucaram.

Associated Press