The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 63

TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2000 The Palm Beach Post SECTION Di ACCENT 1 am so not the party animal that it's kind of Readers will have to dig deep to, like, find meaning in Britney's new book, Britney Spears' Heart to Heart. PAGE 4D South Palm Beach County Living ttkf If 1 fW New role for The Breakers: A movie star After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she decided not to submit to treatments that would ravage her body and mind. She would accept death and live her remaining life on her own terms. That noble-sounding ideal proved very hard to sustain. She'd It's sounding better all the time.

Yep, it looks like a movie may be shot in Palm Beach in mid-July. It's had at least three working titles Heartbreakers, The Breakers and most recently just Breakers. Chances are, it'll be something different when it hits the screen, although anything with Breakers carries a nice double-entendre. The movie is about mother-daughter con artists (Sigoumey Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt) who prey on wealthy, older men (Gene Hackman) in Palm Beach. They're "breakers," as in heartbreakers, and they set up shop at a luxury hotel.

Producers have rather Before the diagnosis, my wife and I considered ourselves smart party people. We listened to Cole Porter songs, identified with Noel Coward's "superficial" characters and admired George Sanders, the sardonic British actor who put a stop to his own party when he felt that life had lost its savor. Then 57 and 60 respectively, Carol and I told one another that we had led full enough lives. We had no desire to try to prolong them with medical or surgical interventions, should some disaster strike. rlip.

reached an agreement with Breakers representatives to use the hotel. The producers also have asked to be placed on the agenda for the June 13 town council meeting to ask permission to shoot at The Breakers and on Worth Avenue. Sources report that they have met with beautiful Thorn Smith In fact, we were less than impressed with modern a medicine, even though I had been a writer and spokesman for By James Stacey The Washington Post -0 the American Medical Association for two decades. We had seen too many family members and friends undergo surgery and debilitating chemotherapy only to experience painful metastatic cancer and death afterward. Better to let nature have its short way with terminal disease, we thought Looking back, I think we felt the adolescent's sense of invulnerability: We were too full of life, and ourselves, to die.

Then, in 1995 Carol had a mammogram that showed alarming calcification. She went to a surgeon recommended by our internist, Raymond Scalettar, a former AMA chairman who was a colleague and friend. The surgeon studied the films and said that only a surgical biopsy would definitively determine whether Carol had breast cancer. Carol didn't like that option. The biopsy sounded too much like major surgery.

Finally, the surgeon admitted that it was a judgment call and that more often than not a film like this did not indicate cancer. We decided to wait and see town officials to work out the logistics. In addition to the already announced cast of Weaver, Hewitt, Hackman and Jason Lee, two have been added: Ray Liotta and, speaking of heartbreakers, Anne Bancroft. McKinney mansion unveiled More lights, camera and action from Manalapan tonight at 7 p.m. on Deco Drive, the chatty and catty local show on Miami's WSVN-Channel 7.

Developer Frank McKinney is showing off the oceanfront home he bought for $15 million from Lois Pope last June and then renovated. The house was built by Pope's late husband, National Enquirer publisher Generoso Pope. Hot fund-raiser in the summertime Most charities schedule fund-raisers in the winter when most of the people with deep pockets are here. So what, say two groups that will have bashes this week. Plenty of year-rounders are in a giving mood.

The Alzheimer's Community Care Association is hosting Summerfest 2000 Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in West Palm Beach. The "Exotic Escape" features steel band music, island-style buffet, a raffle and silent auction. And, get this, tickets are only $20. Call 683-2700.

For 27 years, the American Heart Association has been holding summer events. The theme of this year's black-tie "Affair of the Heart" at The Ritz-Carlton on Saturday is The Winners Circle, and one raffle winner will claim a lease on a Porsche Boxter. For tickets call 655-8155. Familiar face at Channel 12 Good news at 12. Viewers who tuned in to WPEC-Channel 12 last weekend saw a familiar face at the sports desk Marc Goldberg.

He filled in for Pat Murphy, who was working the Children's Miracle Network telethon. Once considered the best sports-caster in Miami, Goldberg was the first sports anchor at WPBF-Channel 25 before his contract wasn't renewed in 1996, then did spot duty at WPTV-Channel 5. He's teaching in the radio-TV magnet program at Palm Beach Gardens High School but will dp fill-in when needed at WPEC. thomsmithpbpost.com Please see CANCER, 4D i ss. MARK BUZEKStaff Artist As 'hip, new unfunny is DOA 'Longevity is here, it is inevitable, it is good' Our task is to stop resisting the inevitable and to embrace the Theodore Roszak, author of 'America the Wise' fmmm i i By Kevin D.

Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer I At the end of M.Y.O.B, NBC's dead-on-arrival comedy, the show's Lolita-like vixen purrs in one of her many voice-overs, "I bet you were hoping this wasn't going to be your typical TV show." Well, not really. But we were sbrta praying that M.Y.O.B. (short for mind Did you know that two-thirds of people who lived to be 65 in the history of the world are alive today? It's true. And we're talking to YOU. So, what's interesting to those people of a certain age? if ting edge and irreverent There are far too many irony-dripping voice-overs (though some do hit the mark) and snide references to other TV shows.

And it's not cool or wise to make fun of shows that are better than yours. M. Y.O.B., created by Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex), tells the tale of Riley (Katharine Towne), a street-smart, sex-kittenish runaway searching for her birth mom. But if this 16-year-old is so street sawy, why, for instance, would Riley hop in an airport cab and go to a hotel room with a total stranger? Just asking. Riley's journey takes her to a small California town where she meets Opal (Lauren Graham), a prudish assistant high school principal.

But Opal, you see, may be Riley's aunt Before you can say The Odd Couple, wisecracking Riley is moving in with uptight Opal. While Towne, the daughter of screenwriter Robert Towne is mildly engaging as Riley, her sarcastic barbs at those skirts. Who dresses her, and pouty sneers get tired fast M.Y. O.B. doesn't look like your average sitcom since it's shot on film and uses a single-camera format But it certainly plays like one.

kevinthompsonpbpost.com ONTV M.Y.O.B. i Today: 9:30 p.m. I Watch It on: WPTV-Channel 5 The verdict: A mostly lame comedy that tries too hard to be hip and irreverent. your own would prove that NBC hasn't forgotten how to make funny sitcoms. No luck there.

NBC remains clueless. You can't expect much from a show dumped on the schedule Irwin Spivak knows. Like many retirees here in South Florida, Spivak's on his second (or third, or fourth) career. He's been a professional musician, photographer and the president of a very successful company. Starting today, he's got a new job: creator of a new Post feature, A7 SECOND TIME AROUND'; 14.

Hell tackle serious stuff like Medicare, useful stuff like great Internet sites and fun stuff like musical memories. Plus, hell interview local people who have something to After all, they weren't born yesterday. Turn to page 3D in June. NBC doesn't have much confidence in it, so why should we? The obvious problem with M.Y.O.B. is that it isn't very funny.

That's not good when your show is designed to rpake people laugh. The reason it's not very funny is that it tries too hard to be hip, cut- Chris HastonNBC Photo Katharine Towne (left) plays runaway Riley and Lauren Graham is Opal, an assistant principal, in M.Y.O.B..