RESOLUTION CALMS `STORMS' BETWEEN BEATTY, SORKIN.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Warren Beatty will be heading into outer space.

Beatty, currently shooting ``Town and Country,'' will be producing and starring in the long-in-the works ``Ocean of Storms.'' This is the word from Aaron Sorkin, who's working on the script about an aging astronaut who returns to the space program to recapture his former glory.

The award-winning scribe (``A Few Good Men,'' ``American President'') sued Beatty and Fox last year for not paying him fully for his rewrite and polish services on the script for ``Ocean of Storms.'' But that's all been resolved. ``The two lunatics have gotten together,'' he says with a laugh.

Sorkin, who's busy writing and producing ABC's new ``Sports Night'' series that he also created, is hoping that ``Ocean'' will ``start very shortly after the first of the year ... Phil Alden Robinson will be directing, so essentially it's finding a window when the three of us can do the film. We're all sort of up to our necks with what we're doing right now; and I want to do one more draft of the script.''

Field report

Sally Field and Judy Davis are in Vancouver, British Columbia, co-starring in the Showtime drama ``A Cooler Climate'' for director Susan Seidelman. It's presenting a real challenge, says Seidelman.

She explains, ``Like any cable film, you've got a 20-day shoot, compared to the average theatrical feature's shoot of about 90 days ... I couldn't imagine doing `A Cooler Climate' if I had to worry that the stars hadn't done their homework or didn't know where their characters were going.''

In spite of the limited time and the limited budget, Seidelman says she had no trouble lining up double Oscar winner Fields (``Norma Rae,'' ``Places in the Heart'') and the two-time Oscar-nominated Davis (``A Passage to India,'' ``Husbands and Wives.'')

``It's a two-character piece that the actresses have to carry, and there simply aren't many opportunities today for women over 40 to do that.''

``Climate'' has Sally playing a woman who, after 26 years of marriage, is forced by divorce back into the workplace. She ends up becoming the housekeeper for a wealthy family - and winds up the confidante of the wife (Davis) after her husband leaves her for a younger woman.

Cleaning up

Timing is everything, and one way or another, the current presidential crisis could affect the fortunes of Jay Thomas' ``Dirty Laundry.'' ``I play the dry cleaning king of New Jersey, who's having a midlife crisis,'' says Thomas of his role in the indie movie. ``I'm unable to make love to my wife (Tess Harper), and I go to a quack psychiatrist who tells me to make love to another woman in a dangerous situation to see if I'm still working sexually. I wait till my wife leaves town, and decide to do it at my home. Nothing happens, and I still get caught. It's comedic, but it's also a drama.'' The former ``Love & War'' star returns to the tube midseason in the WB sitcom ``You're on With Kate,'' with Park Overall.

The videoland view

When viewers tune in to TNT's ``CHiPs 99'' next month, they'll see Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox do something they never did on their hit '70s series. ``We get to draw our guns,'' Estrada reveals. He doesn't want to give too much away, but does say, ``It didn't bother me, because it's justified in the scene.'' Estrada says that the ``CHiPs'' reunion telepic ``gets very serious, especially in some emotional scenes with Ponch and Jon (Estrada and Larry Wilcox).'' But it has more campy elements, too - including Johnny Cochran and Judge Judy doing cameos as themselves, and Garry Marshall portraying a bus driver.

Up tempo

``I've danced with The Temptations and sung with Earth, Wind and Fire. I'm in heaven,'' says Robert Townsend of his hosting of the new ``Motown Live'' music series. Townsend's been juggling taping of the syndicated show with production of ``The Parent 'Hood,'' his UPN sitcom, which returns midseason. ``I'm running back and forth, but I'm loving it ... I grew up on Motown.'' ``Motown Live'' debuts Sept. 28 and guests thus far have also included Monica, the O'Jays, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, K-ci and Jo-Jo, and George Clinton. Townsend says each episode of ``Motown Live'' will feature a special segment of ``the young and the old performing together. We've had Wyclef Jean performing with Earth, Wind and Fire, and the O'Jays singing with K-ci and Jo-Jo.''

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1) Warren Beatty

``Ocean of Storms''

(2) Sally Field

``A Cooler Climate''

(3) Jay Thomas

Timing is everything