PEOPLE : BACALL HOPES `COMEBACK' CONTINUES.

This was the year Lauren Bacall was, ahem, ``rediscovered.'' Aside from lending her deep voice to cat-food and cruise-ship TV commercials, the 72-year-old actress-legend hasn't had an opportunity to use her God-given acting talent in some time.

But her performance as Barbra Streisand's oh-so-vain mother in ``The Mirror Has Two Faces'' has Hollywood whispering ``Oscar.'' And she appears in ``My Fellow Americans'' as a no-nonsense first lady. Just maybe, she hopes, more quality scripts will land on her doorstep.

``I'd like to work like I did this year,'' she tells Premiere magazine. But she notes in Entertainment Weekly: ``I'm still auditioning. I mean, not literally, but I am still having meetings and things with people. And I'm still rejected.'' The gall of 'em

Bacall also sets the record straight on the age-old rumor that Andy Williams dubbed her singing voice in ``To Have and Have Not,'' her first flick. ``Absolutely not,'' she says in Entertainment Weekly. ``If he contributed anything, it might have been one note, if there was a high note. It was me singing, if you call that singing.''

Trump says he defied odds

The Donald claims he won $20 million when Evander Holyfield knocked out Mike Tyson, but even the gamblers are betting it's a tall tale.

``I made the million-dollar bet even though I thought Holyfield would actually lose,'' Trump told the N.Y. Daily News. ``You don't put 20-1 odds against a champion. I have to admit that I was surprised when Holyfield won. I bet the odds.''

Bookmakers doubt the claim and Las Vegas gamblers said they hadn't heard about the bet, which the real estate tycoon said he placed in Las Vegas, the News reported Wednesday.

``It's pretty preposterous,'' said Michael ``Roxy'' Roxborough, who sets the lines for the top Las Vegas sports books. He said his survey found the total loss in the state from the fight was only about $4 million.

``As time goes by, there are more and more legendary stories of that night,'' said Vinny Magliulo of Caesars Palace.

Holyfield got $11 million for winning Tyson's World Boxing Association heavyweight title with an 11th-round technical knockout in the Nov. 9 fight. Tyson got $30 million.

Hi, Madonna, bye, Madonna

Madonna made her first public appearance since becoming a mother, at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas.

A svelte Madonna whisked into the Aladdin Hotel's theater from her limousine just in time to accept her artist achievement award, then hurriedly departed.

She said she hadn't wanted to spend much time away from her daughter, Lourdes, ``But then they said that Tony Bennett was going to give it to me, and I said, `All right, she won't miss me for a few more hours.' ''

Clinton told to give voice rest

Shut up, Mr. President!

That was the doctor's order Wednesday after probing President Clinton's inflamed vocal cords and concluding that he can get his voice back only if he keeps his trap shut.

``The doctors say, `No more yak,' '' said Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary.

Or, to be more clinical: ``complete vocal rest'' for three or four days, McCurry said.

Dr. Connie Mariano, the White House doctor, had told Clinton after he returned from a Thanksgiving weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat that he needed to rest his strained vocal cords, which have reduced his voice to a weak whisper.

That didn't work.

``There is at least some evidence that the patient is not following doctor's orders,'' McCurry said with a grin. With Clinton's condition worsening this week, Mariano called in an ear, nose and throat specialist Wednesday.

Dr. James Y. Suen, who has monitored Clinton's voice problems in the past, performed a fiber optic probe of the president's throat in the medical clinic at the White House residence. McCurry said Suen confirmed what Mariano already had found in the vocal cords - ``that they have been overused mightily.''

Solution: Stop talking.

Clinton's response: dash out to the Virginia countryside for a round of golf. He didn't take a partner, so maybe he managed to play in silence.

McCurry said the throat exam took about 20 to 25 minutes and turned up no evidence of other problems. Asked for a layman's description of the malady, McCurry replied, ``The president has lost his voice. It is missing in action.''

Besides asking that he not use his voice, the doctors said he should continue taking throat lozenges and drinking hot tea to try to loosen the vocal cords.

Suen also made a slight adjustment in some of the medication the president takes, McCurry said.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Lauren Bacall: ``Rediscovered''

(2) President Clinton, touching his strained throat, gives a speech.