People

By Michele Orecklin

CAN BAD BOYS BE GOOD CITIZENS?

You may disagree with their politics, but you have to admire their pluck. Last week four actors with combative reputations lent their thuggish personalities to the bully pulpit. Expressing his antipathy to impeachment, JACK NICHOLSON appeared at a Los Angeles rally with Barbra Streisand and Ted Danson, while ROBERT DENIRO lobbied Republican Congressmen Jim Ramstad of Minnesota and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on behalf of the President. Meanwhile, in a Los Angeles courtroom, the voluminous MARLON BRANDO joined the volatile SEAN PENN to protest prosecutors' efforts to send former Black Panther Geronimo Pratt back to jail. Pratt was released last year after spending 27 years behind bars for a murder he says he didn't commit.

MAYBE JOE BLACK STOLE HIS SOUL

Last week SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS called acting a "tiresome, disturbing and distasteful" profession, not to mention a "complete waste of time." Apparently years of accolades, knighting ceremonies and Academy Awards have left Tony a little bitter. In an interview with the British tabloid News of the World, Hopkins announced he was "getting out of this ridiculous business," adding that "acting is bad for the mental health." Once a mainstay of Merchant-Ivory productions, Hopkins has more recently appeared in such claptrap as the critically reviled Meet Joe Black. He says his project Titus Andronicus, currently filming in Rome, will be his last (his publicist confirmed his words but expressed hope that he would change his mind). In the interview Hopkins also revealed that his 25-year marriage is not preventing him from spending time with a woman who is not his spouse. "It's all part of the understanding with my wife that I'm a wanderer," he said. "But I still go back to London to see her from time to time."

PRINCE OF HEARTS

When even having a proper name is too conventional, surely having a proper marriage is out of the question. But in 1996, apparently swept up in a fleeting wave of sentimentality, THE ARTIST BORN AS PRINCE married girlfriend MAYTE GARCIA in Minneapolis, Minn., on Valentine's Day. Finally coming to his senses, the artist last week rectified the oversight and announced that he is planning to annul his marriage, not because he doesn't love his wife, but because he believes "contracts are made by man to guarantee the possibility of divorce." At a Madrid press conference, the nameless--and occasionally pantless--one offered this provocatively convoluted explanation: "Mayte and I are joined for life, and the best way to demonstrate it is to do away with the legal bonds that people demand." The musician and Mayte will re-pledge their commitment in a "symbolic" ceremony in Spain on Valentine's Day 1999.

FEUD OF THE WEEK

NAME: CHER, FORMERLY "THE NOSE" AGE: 52 OCCUPATION: Singer, used to act in movies BEST PUNCH: Held up other performers at an all-star charity concert in New York City by arriving late, explaining, "I couldn't get my sequins and s___ together"; sang only three songs, all seemingly lip-synched

NAME: BETTE, FORMERLY "THE ROSE" AGE: 53 OCCUPATION: Singer, used to act in movies BEST PUNCH: Finally taking the stage after midnight, Midler took a thinly veiled swipe at Cher's canned performance, quipping, "I feel like Grace Jones, except I'm singin' live, babe"

THE WINNER Bette, because in the world of divas, mockery trumps tardiness