THE BUZZ.

Byline: - Compiled by Evan Henerson

DIRECTOR ON THE VERGE: Pedro Almodovar has been down the red carpet before, but the director said it felt like the first time at the Hollywood premiere of his new film, ``Bad Education.''

``For me, premieres are like when you fall in love,'' Almodovar explained, speaking in Spanish. ``It's like the first time in that it's going to last forever. So, in that sense, this premiere is like the first time I've premiered the movie, and that's the way I'm celebrating it.''

``Bad Education'' teams Gael Garcia Bernal and Fele Martinez in an often gritty examination on the effect of religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends in Franco's Spain.

TRUMP'S IVORY TOWER: Business schools around the nation are including tips from ``The Apprentice'' in their MBA programs.

The show and its star, Donald Trump, have been used in the past to spark debate among students. But now professors are using fundamentals from the NBC hit in the lecture halls.

``Business as a discipline and an academic study area is on the rise,'' Denise Schoenbachler, chair of Northern Illinois University's marketing department told the New York Post in Monday editions. ``And things like this that are innovative and unique get students excited.''

For example, students in Schoenbachler's Marketing Apprentice class competed for scholarship money by selling football tickets and raising money for troops in Iraq.

PURPLE REIGN: It was more regal than most movie premieres - two dames and the queen were in attendance at a showing of ``Ladies in Lavender'' in Leicester Square.

Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith, both 69 and co-stars of the film, were given second billing Monday as Queen Elizabeth II was the guest of honor.

Dench and Smith, who previously appeared together in ``A Room With a View'' and ``Tea With Mussolini,'' portray two spinsters in a post-World War II Cornish fishing village who take in a mysterious young Polish man they find half-drowned on a beach.

Director Charles Dance said the pair were a fantastic double act.

``They made life very easy for everybody. They don't have any airs and graces,'' he said. ``They're there every day at 7 a.m. on the set without an entourage around them or an army of assistants and they do it better than anybody else can do.''

ALL OUT FOR U: Former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee said he's finding his experience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to be a lot of work.

In a news conference Sunday, Lee said he loves horticulture, but finds chemistry to be unbelievably hard.

Another shock: Learning he had to wake at 6 a.m. to be at Memorial Stadium for drum practice with the school's band.

``This is the total fish-out-of-water experience for me,'' Lee said. ``I didn't have the opportunity to go to college. I was busy touring since the age of 17. So this is completely strange and bizarre, but a lot of fun and a lot of work.''

Lee, 42, is attending classes and activities during the filming of an NBC reality show, ``Tommy Lee Goes to College.'' Filming began in early October.

AFRICAN WAKE-UP CALL: Brad Pitt spent four days in Ethiopia to learn more about AIDS in Africa as part of a fund-raising campaign to combat the disease on the world's poorest continent.

The trip was organized by DATA, a Washington, D.C.-based lobby group co-founded by rock star Bono that focuses on Third World trade, debt and HIV/AIDS. Pitt began his first visit to Ethiopia Friday and left late Monday night.

``It was a listening-and-learning visit,'' DATA spokesman Jamie Drummond said Tuesday.

While in Ethiopia, Pitt visited local projects fighting the spread of HIV. The 40-year-old actor also met with eight top Ethiopian singers who have collaborated on songs to educate people about HIV and to raise money for AIDS programs.

Tsedenia Gebremarkos, who has just released a hit album in Ethiopia, said Pitt was keen to know how AIDS had affected the nation, where the average annual income is $100.

``He was very humble and really interested in the situation here,'' Tsedenia said. ``We hope his popularity can raise awareness in the same way we are trying to. We need the support of people like him.''

THE BOSS SAYS NO: Less than a month after the city of Asbury Park, N.J., broke ground on a waterfront redevelopment project, Bruce Springsteen rendered his verdict on a planned condominium called The Rising, the same name as his Grammy-winning album and song.

The Boss called the name a ``mistake.'' Almost immediately the developer agreed to change it, city manager Terry Reidy said Monday.

He said the turnabout was sparked by a letter the rocker wrote to a local weekly newspaper, and praised Springsteen, who lives nearby, for his continuing devotion to Asbury Park.

Springsteen, a Monmouth County native who rose to fame playing Asbury Park clubs as the city's fortunes declined, wrote that he agreed with the newspaper's assessment that ``it's time for a little originality on the waterfront.''

``First, 'The Rising' was written in the shadow of Sept. 11 and should remain connected to the heartbreak and courage of that day,'' Springsteen wrote in a letter to the TriCityNews.

``... I respectfully ask the city fathers and developers to place both my and my song's names out of the running ... as the city moves toward its exciting future.''

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1) SPRINGSTEEN

Evan Vucci/Associated Press

(2) ALMODOVAR

Gina Gayle/Associated Press

(3) PITT

Patrick Gardin/Associated Press

(4) LEE

Jennifer Graylock/Associated Press

(5) QUEEN ELIZABETH II, left, SMITH, DENCH

Richard Lewis/Associated Press