TINSELTOWN SPYWITNESS.

Byline: Elizabeth Snead and Joel Stratte-McClure

BLUE-RIBBON BACON: Nobody played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon at the 20th Santa Barbara International Film Festival last weekend.

Maybe because Bacon was so close you could almost smell him.

``I'm sorry about the white socks,'' said Bacon, outfitted in a black shirt and suit for his Q&A with Leonard Maltin. ``It was a tossup between black socks that really smelled horrible and these socks that don't really work but are clean. I think we're all happier this way.''

The actor/director/producer was happy to pick up the fest's Riviera Award from director Ivan Reitman and to screen his new film ``Loverboy.'' But the self-deprecating actor won even more fans for his down-to-earth attitude.

``Watching myself on a big screen is 1,000 times worse than listening to my squeaky outgoing voice-mail message,'' Bacon confided after seeing clips from 30 past films. ``I hate my voice and I'm ugly and I can't act. I have my TiVo set up so that it won't record anything with me in it.''

Bacon's still skeptical about his ``Footloose'' fame.

``While I loved the movie, I felt like a joke, a teen pop star. People still come up to me and say 'I loved you in ``Footloose.'' ' I'm like, 'Thanks, but have you been to a movie in 20 years? I've done others.' ''

Bacon's made movies a family affair. His daughter Sosie has a role in ``Loverboy,'' starring his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, and scored by his brother Michael Bacon.

What's Bacon cooking next? ``I don't strategize much,'' said Bacon, who next stars with Queen Latifah in ``Beauty Shop.'' ``I just go from gig to gig to gig. It's fun to put on different hats rather than be a celebrity.''

OK, maybe he doesn't consider himself a celebrity. But Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon fans, take note: Bacon's fellow festival-goers this year included Annette Bening, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Martin Scorsese.

RESTORATION PIECE: Clint Eastwood is sweeping up awards for his ``Million Dollar Baby.''

But months ago, there was one film that had him worried. Seems ``The Big Red One: The Reconstruction'' was on 10 of the top 12 critics' Best of 2004 lists, right next to his ``Baby.''

The original film, released in 1980, was directed by Sam Fuller, based on his World War II experience. It centered on an Army Infantry division's exploits from the deserts of Africa to the beaches of Normandy and the snowy forests of Germany.

The film starred Lee Marvin as the grizzled sergeant, with Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco and Kelly Ward as his young guns. But Fuller's original was badly edited by the studio. Film critic/producer Richard Schickel worked for years restoring the film, adding 40 extra minutes, using Fuller's own scripted notes, making the new version a complex mix of brutality, humor and pathos.

Before the Saturday screening at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, one of the film's producers recounted Schickel's run-in with Eastwood at the National Board of Review in New York.

``What the hell's going on here?'' growled Eastwood. ``I can't believe that a 25-year-old movie is giving me a run for my money.''

The new version has even surprised the actors. ``I don't remember shooting a lot of the scenes in the new version,'' said Carradine, who appeared with other cast members at the festival. ``The new footage really underlines the manic energy of battle and camaraderie created during the craziness of war.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) BACON: Can't bear to watch.

Rod Rolle/Getty Images

(2) 'THE BIG RED ONE': Marvin and Co. putting up a fight.

Lorimar Studios/Getty Images