NO 'LOVE' LOST OVER DOVE'S CONTROVERSIAL HOOKER EXPOSE.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Dove publisher Michael Viner is suddenly acting very iffy about reported plans to follow up "You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again" - in which prostitutes give details of the sexual habits of Hollywood heavies - with books exposing notables in New York and Washington, D.C.

Asked about such upcoming projects - including "I, Mistress," a reported Dove text in which ex-mistresses of VIPs would name names and tell all - Viner refused either to confirm or deny they were in the works. He simply said, "There are books we're looking at. But there's nothing announced or set."

"You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again" has made it to the best-seller lists. However, many feel that its success does not justify its publication.

Highly respected author Sidney Sheldon, Viner's close friend and a financial backer of Dove, told this column he has informed Viner he doesn't approve of "You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again" and that he was "absolutely against it." He wants us to know, "I am not a principal in the firm, I am simply a stockholder. I was on the board, I'm off the board - and I have no control over what is done in the company."

It is a company that has brought out works any publisher would be proud of, and hopefully Viner will veer away from his latest course before there are more innocent victims - wives and children of men smeared for the sake of the buck.

The inside track: Big news for punk rock devotees. Today in London, the original Sex Pistols are expected to announce a world concert tour to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the band's inception. How, you may ask, can the original group tour, considering the absence of the late Sid Vicious? Well, before Sid, there was Glen Matlock, who was thrown out of the safety pin-sporting band just before they achieved worldwide notoriety - purportedly for liking the Beatles. Matlock's back now, along with John Lydon - a.k.a. Johnny Rotten - Steve Jones and Paul Cook. Sources tell us they're planning a U.S. leg of their trek for summer, and, likely as not, will be playing their infamous anthem, "God Save the Queen," that predicted the downfall of British royalty.

Interestingly, as influential as the Sex Pistols were, they only played a total of eight American dates in punk's late-'70s heyday.

And speaking of people who like the Beatles, the chart-topping Oasis - a k a the hottest band in England - were just dealt a blow to the ego by George Harrison in a London interview. The group has gone so far as to name a song after Harrison's old solo LP "Wonderwall," and dress up a la Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to express its admiration for the Fab Four. English DJs have been calling Oasis "the new Fab Four." Not Harrison, who was quoted as saying, "Relative to music in the '60s, they're pretty average ... musically not bad, but we've heard it all before." Ouch.

After their seemingly endless touring of the past year, the Rolling Stones are taking the rest of this year off.

Hello, again: Cindy Williams, who pops up in a special May sweeps edition of NBC's "Hope & Gloria," said she's "actively exploring" doing another sitcom. However, added the one-time "Laverne & Shirley" star, "The politics of show business are such that getting a show on is not a minor miracle. It's up there with fishes and loaves."

Garry Marshall's proposed feature version of "Laverne & Shirley" is "still in the works," according to Williams, with no estimated time of production. In the meantime, Cindy said she's happily tending the home fires with husband Bill Hudson and their daughter and son.