SINGER FOR THREE DOG NIGHT PENS HIS SOBERING STORY.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

``Three Dog Nightmare,'' the autobiography of Chuck Negron, isn't due to be published until September, but there's already film interest in the story. No wonder. Negron fell from the pinnacle of rock success - playing stadium dates and selling 50 million albums with Three Dog Night - to living in an abandoned building in South Central Los Angeles with another junkie.

He was a slave to heroin for 23 years.

Negron didn't start writing his book ``until I had five years of sobriety in. I've seen so many of my peers show up in this magazine and that, talking about going through rehab - when I knew some of them were already using again,'' says Negron, who went sober in 1990 and devotes much of his time to anti-substance abuse programs.

The singer, who is stepping back into the limelight with his ``Joy to the World'' Christmas single and album, will spend Christmas Eve at L.A.'s Union Rescue Mission, performing a free concert. He'll spend part of Christmas Day performing at Burbank's Cri-Help facility, where he lived for nine months and finally made it back to the real world after, he says, failing at 37 other rehab units.

``This is what I do. It's payback time. The fact that I am alive is a gift from God,'' says the performer, who got married and fathered a daughter after straightening out. ``This is something I can give my three older children - some pride in what their father is doing now,'' he says. ``I'm embarrassed and ashamed to admit my children lived in hell because of my celebrity and my addiction.''

The Dandridge chronicles

Got a kick out of this week's newspaper report ``announcing'' that Whitney Houston has commissioned a screenplay from Donald Bogle based on his ``Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography'' book - and therefore Houston might play Dandridge. Fact is, Houston made a film rights deal for the book - and a screenplay from Bogle - in October 1995, before the tome was published. Bogle turned in his first draft last July, about the time Houston started saying she might limit her involvement to producing the Dandridge story, opening the way for another actress to star in it.

So what is happening now on the project? It's moving from Touchstone Pictures to a different studio, according to Houston's production company chief, Debra Martin Chase. (Expect an announcement in a few days.) ``Once that's done, we'll probably do another draft of the screenplay, and Whitney will make her final decision based on that draft. As you know, she's now leaning toward not playing the role, but we'll see.''

In addition to Whitney Houston, Vanessa Williams, Janet Jackson and Halle Berry have been talked up as potential leads for Dorothy Dandridge movie biographies. Now, Lynn Whitfield is offering her services. ``I want to put my name in the running,'' says Whitfield, who co-stars with Samuel L. Jackson in the big-screen ``Eve's Bayou,'' which has been generating lots of Oscar buzz. ``I would love to bring all Dandridge's complexity, glamour and fragility to the screen.''

Whitfield certainly managed to breathe incredible life into the lead role in ``The Josephine Baker Story,'' for which she earned an Emmy in 1991.

Stone and Lumet

Sharon Stone seems to be reveling in working with director Sidney Lumet on ``Gloria.'' The Hollywood siren and gritty N.Y.C. filmmaker have what setsiders describe as ``dynamic chemistry.'' In fact, Sharon has said more than once, ``If Sidney Lumet asked me to do a scene standing on my head, I'd do it without question.'' Production wraps Wednesday.

The big-screen scene

William Katt expects to make his feature film directorial debut next year with ``Descendants.'' ``It is the story of the House of Poe,'' says the former ``Greatest American Hero'' star, who recently appeared in Robert Halmi's ``Mother Teresa'' biopic on the Family Channel.

``We've got a healthy budget, and we'll start in March in Connecticut,'' Katt says of the ``Descendants'' project.

Casting has just begun, but he says, ``Anthony Michael Hall has expressed an interest in it.''

Katt, who also recently wrapped the indie film ``Hyacinth,'' says he has no intention of giving up acting in favor of directing. ``It's just that now that I'm in my 40s, like many of my contemporaries, I want to experiment with other things.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Chuck Negron

Kicked heroin habit

(2) Whitney Houston

Might not play Dandridge