Daily News from New York, New York • 881

-4 'Heine's wfoarit goes wifflh a fuDne Brasiciy pT randy definitely knows what she likes in a man. jj The super-hot singer-actress wants her man to be tough, but sensitive and rNN that's not all. "I don't want anybody that's dumb," she tells author Karu F. Daniels in the new bio "Brandy: An Intimate Look." "I like affection. I just like a gentle person, a gentleman who likes to open doors.

I like flowers. I'm young, but I am old-fashioned. I like a person to stand up for what he wants and for himself. Don't let me run 1 1 1 3 wii il i if" DIANE COHEN Real and make-believe spinmeisters Michael J. Fox and George Stephanopoulos Wednesday at Museum of Television Radio over you.

Brandy also finally sets the record straight about the countless men she has been linked to over the years, from Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris to Mase and Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. ON MORRIS: "That was my first love. Wanya was a lot older than me. I was only 18. I didn't know what to do in a relationship.

I needed to go out and date and see what life was all about." ON BRYANT: "I liked Kobe. He had that confidence and innocence about him that attracted me. It was like he had never been through nothin'." ON MASE: "No, we were not lovers. I think it's a little bit to soon to be in love with anybody right now." But Brandy may not be so happy to have her love life bared for all. Word is that she and her mother are steamed that Daniels Brandy's former media coach has spilled the beans in the unauthorized bio.

Daniels, who now works as entertainment reporter for Launch media, maintains that Brandy has known about the project for some time and even approved it. "I've worked with Brandy for five years. I meant this book to be a tribute to her," said Daniels. "I love her like the little sister I never had. But he concedes things are tense between them.

"I don't know where things stand right now," he said. Another reason Daniels may be on the outs: He contends that her mother and manager, Sonja Norwood, holds tight rein on her daughter and watches her every move. the woman behind all of it," Daniels quotes Norwood as saying. "'I tell her all the time that I've invested a lot in The book, which is being published by Andrews-McMeel, hits stores next month. Brandy's reps declined comment.

KEVIN BACON TUNES OUT The music will have to wait for Kevin Bacon. The actor says he and his brother, Michael, are postponing their plans to tour with their rock band, the Bacon Brothers, now that Kevin has had to work overtime to complete his next movie, the "The Hollow Man." Of course, that doesn't mean he's about to let his music career slip away. "It's a juggling act," Bacon said at Wednesday night's party for his new movie, "Stir of Echoes." "But I get something different from both acting and music. Movies are my day job, they're what I do to support my family. But rock 'n' roll is my dream." METS DO A CHEX SWING he great New York chant "Let's go Mets!" may soon be heard at the breakfast table.

over a looming contract dispute. But Herman says she has no plans to intervene. "I wouldn't necessarily characterize it as union-busting," Herman told reporters yesterday. "I'd call it a complicated way to do SEN. CHUCK Schumer's daughter, Jessica, got a walk-on role when the senator and his family visited the set of Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe's new TV show, "The West Wing," in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Surveillance AL GORE must be trying to burnish his image as a rockin' guy. The veep and wife Tipper got down and boogied at Bruce Springsteen's concert at Washington's MCI Center on Tuesday CRISTYNE LATEGANO, Mayor Giuliani's former communications director, has been showing City Hall reporters the engagement ring that fiance Nick Nicholas gave her. The golf writer is "a great guy," she says. With Marcus Baram and Marc S. Maikin Itemizing GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS presided as his TV equivalent, Michael J.

Fox, talked about what it's like to play a political mouthpiece at a forum on "Spin City" at the Museum of Television and Radio on Wednesday. Chiming in was new cast member Heather Lock-lear, who plays a character someone described as "a prettier Dick Morris." The "Spin City" crew will be onhand Sept. 14 for the debut of the ESPN Zone complex at Times ROD STEWART kept Up the search for the perfect blond, grinding away on the dance floor at a club in Spain with a long-legged beauty Saturday night. Add another notch in the wrinkled rocker's list of beauties including Tracy Tweed, Kimberly Conrad and VicW Lee helping him mend his heartbreak after Rachel Hunter walked out on him last LABOR SECRETARY Alexis Herman says she's following the goings-on of 22 Major League Baseball umpires who resigned The Mets are about have their very own breakfast cereal. Amazin' Mets Frosted Rakes are poised to land on supermarket shelves next month, just in time for the playoffs.

Famous Fixins, the company behind Cal Ripken's cereal, Cal's Classic O's, and Sammy Sosa's Slammin' Sammy's, has inked a licensing deal with Mets management to market the morn- ing meal. Team members will be featured on LONG RUN WITH CONAN'S OVER Guess breaking up is not so hard to do. Conan O'Brien's long-time romance with former assistant Lynn Kaplan is over. the hnx The first shiDment is exrjected to disDlav sources say. She's moved out of his upper 11 West Side apartment and into something of Olerud, Mike Piazza and Robin Ventura.

A Mets rep declined comment, saying the 0 Jf deal was premature. fib' 1 i her own downtown. The late-night host is on vacation and was unavailable for comment. Meanwhile, "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner and Now they simply have to make the playoffs. This stuff will taste so much better if they do.

Aim Rebecca Gayheart are QUICK HITS Variety trumpeted a story it cooked. Maybe it has something to do with Ratner being seen around town looking more than chummy with Jennifer Meyer, daugh- V. yesterday saying that Miramax Films had fallen victim to Hollywood's job-cutting virus ter of Universal honcho Ron Meyer. and slashed up to 40 jobs. The correct figure is 12, out of a possible 450 positions on both coasts.

Tennis ace Martina Hingis, who complained so much last year that her Tacchini sneakers were killing her feet, now wears Adidas. With Lauren Rubin Ratner and Gay-heart were engaged, but I hear she was so upset to learn that Meyer was in the picture that she dumped him. Gayheart's rep had no comment. Ratner's says the two remain very much on the same page. O'Brien was unavailable for comment.

Vsa DUSKO DESPOTOVICCORBIS SYGMA Rod Stewart's latest mystery blond must think he's still sexy. The two were at a nightclub in Marbella, Spain, last weekend. CO co co.