STALLONE ET AL. ENJOY SUITE DEAL DURING 3-MONTH SHOOT IN ROME.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Director Rob Cohen, who just wrapped Sylvester Stallone's "Daylight" drama in New York, reports that during the 91 days the saga shot in Rome, most of the cast and execs opted to stay in rented homes. Not Sly. He decided to live in the Royal Suite of the five-star Excelsior Hotel.

The going rate for that suite is $3,600 per night - or $327,000 for 91 nights!

"His needs are different than most," said Cohen.

Cohen has only the highest praise for Stallone's work in the movie, in which he sets out to save survivors sealed in a collapsed New York tunnel. "It was an absolute no-stress shoot," said the filmmaker.

He added that during their long stay in Rome, "most of us had our families with us. Sly's intended, Jennifer Flavin, the mother of his future child, was there. And his son Sage was there."

Cohen was there, here - and everywhere - with editing paraphernalia for "Dragonheart," the Universal epic that went into production in mid-'94 - and is still going through post-production. The 10th-century saga features Dennis Quaid, Pete Postlethwaite, David Thewlis and Julie Christie - plus Sean Connery as the voice of the 18-foot-high, 43-foot-long dragon that's still being brought to life by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic effects wizards under Cohen's long-distance supervision.

"All the time I've been making 'Daylight' I've been finishing 'Dragonheart' via satellite hookup," he said.

Cohen expects to have the highly anticipated "Dragonheart" done in plenty of time for its May 31 release.

"Baywatch" barometer: There have been a lot of rumblings around town that "Baywatch" beauty Yasmine Bleeth and her fiance, Ricky Paull Goldin, are splitting up. Yasmine told us, "We have our ups and downs, but it's true love. Everything is fine." As for the breakup rumors, "People just like to make trouble."

People will get to see Yasmine and Ricky acting together in NBC's March 11 "A Face to Die For" movie, in which she plays a woman disfigured with a horrible scar in a childhood accident. It was a strange feeling, she noted, to be stared at as she walked from the set to her trailer in makeup. "I'm used to people looking at me, but not people looking at me because I have a big thing on my face," she said.

Bleeth is continuing to spin off her "Baywatch" success with more varied roles. She revealed that she's just closing the deal to star as a prostitute in an independent feature "that explores the theme that people aren't always what they appear. Some who seem good on the outside are corrupt hypocrites, and some you would judge as bad really aren't." The movie's being produced by the Cineville film firm that brought us such alternative fare as "Mi Vida Loca."

On the move: Marianne Faithfull, fresh from a Montego Bay respite after her monthlong gig at New York's Rainbow & Stars nightclub, is moving on to Europe for a string of club dates. Meanwhile, producer Judith James is figuring production is a year and a half away on the movie adaptation of the singer's "Faithfull" autobiography. That's the Richard Dreyfuss co-production with James, to which Michelle Pfeiffer is attached - pending script approval. James told us there won't be any junior actress playing Marianne as a teen. In fact, her heyday as Mick Jagger's love and leader of the '60s rock social scene in London might just wind up in flashbacks "under the opening credits."

James stressed: "We're telling the story of the woman Marianne Faithfull" - the woman who came back from crash landing in heroin addiction and attempted suicide to become the mythic rock figure recently described by the New York Daily News as the modern-day equivalent to Tallulah Bankhead.