TINSELTOWN SPYWITNESS.

Byline: Elizabeth Snead and Jenny Peters

TUGGING ON HER EAR: Burt Reynolds and Carol Burnett may be well into AARP territory, but that doesn't mean sparks have stopped flying between them. Well, maybe only one way, the same way all the love was flowing on Monday night at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills at the gala tribute to Burnett and her spectacular career.

``I truly have had a mad crush on her forever and ever and ever,'' Reynolds gushed, then revealed why the pair has never been an item. ``I never made my move, because she was married, unfortunately. And yes, that stopped me!''

Burnett, who accepted all the evening's accolades with her third husband, Brian Miller, at her side, ``seemed genuinely surprised that everybody is so in love with her and that everybody came out tonight,'' Reynolds commented with a shake of his well-coiffed head. ``As if, duh, as if they wouldn't!''

Lots of longtime pals turned up for the cocktail party, clip screening, question-and-answer session with Burnett and host Carl Reiner, and formal dinner, from Merv Griffin (who revealed that he has known Burnett since she was at Hollywood High and the president of his fan club) and Dom DeLuise to Charlie Matthau (Walter's son) and ``Everybody Loves Raymond'' power couple Phil Rosenthal and Monica Horan.

The lovefest ended like it began, with Reiner telling the crowd: ``The single most talented human being living in our midst, I would have to say that it is Carol Burnett.''

DOUBLE DAMES: There is nothing like a dame. So just imagine Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judi Dench teaming up as sisters in ``Ladies in Lavender,'' a new film that opens April 29.

``Lavender'' is the tale of two elderly sisters, living in a small Cornwall coastal village in pre-World War II England, who find a mysterious young man washed ashore, take him into their home and nurse him back to health.

Dench plays innocent spinster Ursula, Smith the more pragmatic, experienced widow Janet. And Dench's face magically captures the first flush of young love - excitement, insecurity and anxiety - on the face of an elderly woman in her twilight years.

``In the film, you learn that Ursula nursed her mother, and her father was in the Navy,'' Dench explains. But she's led ``a very cloistered life'' and never had a sexual relationship with a man.

The film is the first directorial effort of another well-known British actor, Charles Dance (``Gosford Park,'' ``Swimming Pool,'' ``Michael Collins,'' ``Hilary and Jackie''), and based on a short story by William J. Locke.

In Locke's story, the women are in their '40s. Dance decided to age the characters and immediately thought of the dames, who, ironically, were already working together in ``Breath of Life'' on a West End stage.

``It's great working with Judi again,'' says Smith. ``We've done a lot of stage and screen together, and we're in the same period of history as the last one we did together. Seems like we're always in the 1930s,'' she says, with a chuckle.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) DENCH and SMITH: Stage and screen royalty.

Dave Hogan/Getty Images

(2) DeLUISE, left, BURNETT, REINER and REYNOLDS: She's the one.