TINSELTOWN SPYWITNESS.

Byline: Joel Stratte-McClure

LOVE, OLDER-AMERICAN STYLE: Is 60 really the new 40? Do widows and widowers actually enjoy getting back into the dating game? Can love be found in a bereavement group in an adult community in Florida?

That's the premise of ``Boynton Beach Club,'' which opens in theaters today. And its mature cast -- including Dyan Cannon, Sally Kellerman, Brenda Vaccaro, Renee Taylor, Joseph Bologna and Len Cariou -- may now know how to thrive during their golden years. What advice did they have for Raquel Welch, Lee Majors, Dick Van Patten and other aging Hollywood stars who attended the premiere and AARP-sponsored after-party at the Pacific Design Center on Tuesday night?

``It will take a burqa and dim lighting for me to get lucky,'' cracked Kellerman, 69, who's topless for a split second in the film.

``The most important thing for people starting a relationship at our age is to be honest from the outset,'' said Cariou, 66.

Do these actors actually care about their advancing ages?

``The numbers aren't important,'' said Cannon, 69, who ``hasn't had a mate for a long time.'

``Instead, focus on kindness, compassion, sincerity, integrity and honesty,''

she says.

Or just love the one you're with.

``Being 60 something is definitely not like being 40,'' said Vaccaro, 66. ``But I'm quite content with a husband 20 years younger than me.''

``The way to stay young in your 60s is to have a 32-year-old wife named Faith,'' added Majors, 67.

And what does Welch think about it all?

``I'm not looking for any answers,'' said the international sex symbol, who will be 66 next month. ``I just came to watch Dyan glow on the screen.''

CAPT. KIRK: The winner of the inaugural Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, presented by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Sunday night, was Kirk Douglas.

``I can see the headlines now,'' Douglas told a crowd at the Bacara Resort & Spa that included presenter Gena Rowlands, Carol Burnett, Christopher Lloyd and Richard Riordan. ``Kirk Douglas gives himself the Kirk Douglas Award.''

Not that the 89-year-old actor was surprised by the accolade at a special summer fundraiser that made $130,000 to support educational programs at next January's festival. ``What took you so long to honor me?'' he jokingly asked festival executive director Roger Durling.

The three-time Academy Award nominee feigned punches at a blown-up portrait of himself from the 1960s as he walked the red carpet. (The photo graced the playbill of Douglas' Broadway run with ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' in 1963.) Then he put his philosophy of life in a nutshell.

``I'm just one speck of sand in the universe and made the most of my life by trying to help other people,'' said Douglas. ``I'm proud of my career and my sons, but the best thing I did was play a role in breaking the Hollywood blacklist.''

Only slightly incapacitated by his stroke a decade ago, Douglas won't get much argument about his superhero humanitarian stature.

``There are lots of people who might be considered for this award,'' said Durling, mentioning Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Susan Sarandon and George Clooney. ``But it will be tough to be as heroic as Kirk was when he put his career on the line to get blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo credit for the ``Spartacus'' screenplay. We need more heroes like him today.''

And the next winner is ...

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 4) KELLERMAN, CANNON, VACCARO, WELCH: Life's a ``Beach'' when you turn 60

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

(5) DOUGLAS: ``I'm just one speck of sand in the universe''