Daily News from New York, New York • 95

happened in generations: As the convention opens, there's no clear candidate. This is where dark-horse Santos (Jimmy Smits, gallops and Russell (Gary Cole) and Hoynes (Tim Matheson) seek support. 10:30 p.m. (13) "Character Studies." Here's a really interesting idea for a monthly series. Fictional characters are profiled as if they were real people, and given the full biographical treatment including interviews with several people who have played the part on film or stage.

The opening subject: Amanda Wingfield from Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," featuring Joanne Woodward, Olympia Dukakis, Julie Harris and others. SERIES PREMIERES 10:00 p.m. (MTV) "Meet the Barkers." Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and former Miss USA, Playboy Playmate and "Pacif ic Blue" co-star Shanna Moakler are shown planning a wedding and pursuing their celebrity careers and lifestyle. If that entices you, we're very different people. SERIES 8:00 p.m.

(ABC) "Lost" Locke is losing his ability to walk, Claire is having her baby, and Boone is hovering near death after being caught, improbably, in a second plane crash on the island. MOVIES 8:00 p.m. (TCM) "Sullivan's Travels." Everyone who cares about movies should see this Preston Sturges film at least once. David Bianculli 0) J3 A yf 7 By MARISA GUTHRIE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER i et ready for the Kevin and Britney show the i official version. After months of being dogged by supermar ket tabloids and paparazzi, the celebrity couple have sold their homemade video tapes to UPN to serve as the backbone for a reality series to air later this season.

TALE OF THE TAPES: UPN will air home videos of Britney Spears and husband Kevin Federline. "It's quite intimate," said UPN President Dawn Ostroff. "It's them shooting each other, from early in their courtship, on tour in Europe up until their wedding. You'll see their wedding footage in the final." The video, she added, had been sought by other outlets. "This series will show us falling in love and all the adventures that went on overseas during the European leg of my Onyx Hotel Tour," said Spears.

"It's going to be an exciting ride." The series is the latest twist in the wild relationship between Spears and the former backup "From the day that Kevin and I met, there have been constant rumors and inaccurate speculation about our life together," Spears said in a statement. "I feel that last year the tabloids ran my life, and I am really excited about showing my fans what really happened rather than all the stories, which have been misconstrued by journalists in the past." UPN has edited the footage, most of it shot by Spears and Federline, into six episodes that will include wraparound interviews with the couple. dancer. Since they got hitched, their every move, every pound gained and lost and every hair-style change has been analyzed and examined. The latest rumor is that Spears is pregnant Representatives for the couple have previously denied such talk.

Federline, who met Spears while employed as a dancer on her concert tour, was succinct in his summation of the project, saying in a statement only that "it is a documentation of love." Ostroff declined to say whether there would be a second season of the show, this time filmed professionally. She also quashed speculation that the duo have cooked up a carefully calculated publicity maneuver. "I don't believe they shot this initially with the intention that it would be something the public would see," said Ostroff. "The two of them were shooting each other as they were getting to know each other. It's very raw and very intimate." There will be five half-hour episodes and an hour-long finale.

Each episode will get a second run on either MTV and or VH1. Said Ostroff: "This is a way for Britney and Kevin to communicate with their fans in a more direct way." A deceptive 'Con' doesn't do the trick In a TV world where victimizing unsuspecting people for entertainment is fair game a world including the benign "Candid Camera" on one end and the elaborate pranks of "Punk'd" on the other Comedy Central's new "Con" fits right in. It does not, however, stand out. premiering tonight at 10:30, stars Skyler Stone In "Con," Skyler and his co-conspirators call a limo service and talk their way into a free loaner. They call a salon and get their participation by pretending to be a production crew shooting a TV pilot.

Trouble is, the final credits of "Con" suggest there's very little reality to this reality show. "Some telephone calls as a prankster who purports to guide viewers on how to con their way to free things. In the pilot, this includes stealing from the soda machines at McDonald's (save and reuse your old and other event sicy have been reenacted or re-created," it says. It also says, "The producers have reimbursed persons for the value of some goods and services," which sort of re CON. Tonight at 10:30, Comedy Central.

VJ talking a Beverly Hills salon into Am. offering Stone a free head-to-toe makeover. The success of such shows depends a lot on both tone and execu Afttnr- V- moves the con from "Con." Another part of the deception may be Stone himself, an actor and comic whose resume includes being a contestant on "Dog Eat Dog," as well as appearances on "Scare Tactics" and "Flipped." Is Stone a con artist, or is he just playing one on TV? "Viewers are reminded," tonight's show says at the end, "that con is only the first syllable of consequences." Yes, and pro is only the first syllable of provolone which fits, because Comedy Central's new "Con" is distinctly cheesy. E-mail: davidbiancullicomcastnet SCAMALOT: Skyler Stone stars in new reality show. root against, people so sweet that they cry at the plight of a homeless man.

For me, that doesn't work just as a closer look at "Con" makes it likely that anyone who tunes in and accepts the show at face value is being similarly victimized and manipulated. tion. With "Punk'd," there's always a friend who sets the trap, so it's all in good fun. And in the just-concluded "Invasion Iowa," the attention to fulfilling the modest wishes of the victimized townspeople of Riverside, and William Shatner's emotional attachment to them, gave that miniseries a sweet ending. But with "Con," we're being asked to laugh at, and.