SPIELBERG AND HANKS ENLIST FOR `PRIVATE RYAN' : HE JUST GOT BETTER.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks will be summering on the Continent. Locations are being scouted there now for ``Saving Private Ryan'' - the first film that will combine the talents of the longtime buddies and neighbors.

With both top-of-the-top industry talents mulling several different projects earlier this year, ``Ryan'' gets the grand prize for name-value productions that made it off the ground in '96. Producer Gary Levinsohn, who developed the World War II action-drama with his partner Mark Gordon (``Speed''), acknowledges they were sweating out Hanks and Spielberg's decisions for quite a while.

Levinsohn, who is just finishing production of ``The Flood'' with Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman, informs us that all of ``Private Ryan'' will be filmed in Europe, in keeping with the story line about a soldier who must go deep behind enemy lines to save a trapped private during the Allied invasion. Casting has yet to begin for the actors who'll fill the ranks of Hanks' co-stars in the Spielberg-directed piece.

Reportedly, neither Spielberg nor Hanks is taking any cash up front on the picture - which is being produced under the auspices of Paramount and Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG - so that Spielberg can keep the budget within reasonable range. They will, of course, get percentages of the gross. Of course.

``Batman and Robin'' director Joel Schumacher refers to his leading man, George Clooney, as ``a champ, just wonderful to work with, terrific.'' And when it's suggested that Clooney's handling stardom with such grace because he had to knock around the business waiting for a break for so long, the filmmaker notes, ``I don't think it's that. Waiting for a break has made some actors bitter - they blame the industry for not acknowledging them earlier. Woody Allen once told me something I believe is very true: `Success gives people permission to be exactly who they were supposed to be anyway. The good get better, the bad get worse.' ''

The videoland view

Patti LaBelle will be introduced as Jamie Foxx's mother on the Christmas episode of the WB sitcom, ``The Jamie Foxx Show.'' Says the comic/actor/singer, ``She plays the kind of mother who doesn't show up on time or doesn't show up at all on Christmas. She hasn't seen my character for a while because she's got her own singing group. She's been trying to do her own thing, but everything's just kind of falling apart for her.''

Foxx's character is an aspiring entertainer, and he says that provides the perfect opportunity for him to duet with LaBelle. ``We'll sing a song I'm writing, called `Still I Wish You a Merry Christmas.' ''

McCartney update

Paul and Linda McCartney are being honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at this Saturday's star-studded gala hosted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) at the Paramount studio. The McCartneys' presence, however, will be limited to an acceptance video - which still marks the first public appearance for Linda since she was struck by breast cancer a year ago. According to PETA's Dan Mathews, she's feeling fine and, he says, the video will show she's looking fine, too. Mathews also says McCartney's deep, deep, deep into work on his latest album. ``He's desperate to have it finished by Christmas.''

Our town

It'll be a hot old time on Hollywood Boulevard Thursday when country star Clint Black receives his star on the Walk of Fame and later entertains his pals at a reception at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Among the crowd expected to see Clint and his wife, Lisa Hartman, make their arrival in a horse-drawn stagecoach are Garry Shandling, Michele Lee, Kevin Eubanks, David Hasselhoff, Jose Eber, Polly Bergen and RCA Records president Joe Gallante.

Pretty boy?

When Harry Connick Jr. was contacted to guest on the Dec. 14 Christmas episode of ``Mad TV.'' ``I told them I would do it only if I could play a woman,'' he says. ``A lot of times they have a celebrity guest in the Cabana Chat sketch, but the other characters are so funny the celebrity guest really doesn't get much play.'' So is the handsome crooner in drag a sight for sore eyes or a sore for sight eyes? ``I'm just nasty,'' he says with a laugh. ``I'm playing a woman of about 60-65 and I'm wearing a blond wig and red pantsuit.'' Connick will come out of drag to perform ``It Must've Been Ol' Santa Claus'' and ``This Guy's in Love With You'' from the soundtrack of the coming Michelle Pfeiffer-George Clooney movie, ``One Fine Day.''

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