Daily News from New York, New York • 166

me vs mr. a Iff I os pis umiiimwi El By LARRY SUTTON Tinsel? owners find Big Apple guides Quelqu'un qui parte Consider your act over, Charles O'Conor. For 80 years, a bust of you sat in the lobby of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, greeting New York's legal set with the somber glance of a paragon of justice Francais! Finally! someone who speaks French!" said the Those who bothered to read the I 4- 4 a Y. Jt tl lK 4 writer Colette upon visiting New York City and having a stray cat meow at her on the street. This is just one tidbit from the compendium of feline trivia put together by Lenore Fleischer.

"The Cat's Pajamas" is just that HOLLYWOOD is drifting slowly eastward. The list of talents unwinding from Horace Greeley'i advice to "go west" is being added to daily. Directors, writers and actors are shaking the dust of L.A. from their tootsies and coming back to New York. Director Paul Schrader has bought himself a loft down on lower Fifth Ave.

in Greenwich Village. It is here that, the "Cat People" helmsman is enjoying a glorious new romance with actress Mary Beth Hurt. (Her separation from actor William Hurt is an old story, but their divorce became final only days ago.) Paul and Mary Beth, the "Crimes of the Heart" star, entertained a select group the other eve ICM titans Sam Cohn and Michael Black, Blanca Jagger, Christopher Wal-ken, John Heard, Nancy Allen, Julia Miles, hot young architect Andrew Beatty and his sculptor wife, Anita. Schrader just finished writing the screenplay for "The Last Temptation of Christ," based on the wonderful novel by Nicos Kazantzakls. Shooting 5- Vf -it inscription may have been impressed with your credentials: former United States attorney, post-Civil War counsel to Confederate hero Jefferson Davis, prosecutor of the city's corrupt Boss Tweed ring.

But yesterday, Francis Murphy, presiding justice of the division, discovered another credential that remained hidden these past 80 years or so. Charles O'Conor, you were a bigot. AND BECAl'SE Murphy does not believe that bigots deserve a place of honor in American courthouses or anywhere, for that matter he ordered your bust taken out of the lobby at 27 Madison Ave. and unceremoniously dumped in the basement. Murphy learned yesterday of an 1860 court case.

"Lemmon against the Public," in which O'Conor argued against a state law freeing black slaves. O'Conor's reasoning was less than enlightened, to say the least "The Negroes, alone and unaided by the guardianship of another cannot sustain a civilized social state," he argued. He went on to say that "one single member of his (Negro) race has never attained proficiency in any art or science requiring the employment of high intellectual capacity." That angered Murphy. "O'Conor does not represent what we believe justice is in New York," he said. "He went beyond the law by describing slaves in an embarrassing way." O'CONOR WAS BORN in New York in 1804 and died in Massachusetts in 1884.

How his bust wound up in the courthouse never has been deter- Mary Beth Hurt: glonous romance GENE KAPPOCK DAILY NEWS Bust of Charles O'Conor in lobby' of Appellate Divison of Supreme Court. mined as the inscription plainly states. "This bust was ensconsed on this spot circa 1900," the plaque reads. "How and by whom inquiry has failed to reveal." Murphy said the lobby would have an Alexander Hamilton exhibit next month. For those looking for sculpture, he said, there is still a bust of former Justice Bernard Botein on the other side of the lobby.

"Justice Botein can more than handle the room by himself," Murphy said. i I j- 1 Francisco artifacts, but I guess that is obvious. Love always. Herb." BELLS ring here today for restaurateur George Lang and Washington Post food writer Jenifer Harvey. Lang is well known in gourmet circles for many feats and feasts, especially re-creation of the beautiful Cafe des Artistes on the West Side.

He says of the marriage: "This is a union in which there wUl be two shop stewards!" THE MOST interesting B'way shape- up In months is the "On Your Toes" revival, which has George Abbott as director. He was born in 1887! This nonagenarian's approach to remains as creative as his original youthful selection of Vaudeville hoofer Ray Bolger to first dance George BaJan-cbine'a "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" when the musical Jbowed years ago. Some fcbped to lure Tommy Tune, Lee Roy Reams or Don Correia for this Larry Hart-Dick Rodgers revival, but Abbott dissented. "We need a new young star!" Soon he picked Lara Teeter, a blond six-footer, for the dynamite role. (Teeter hails from Oklahoma and must think he is dreaming.

Not only does he get to dance he'll sing "It Must Be Love," "There's a Small Hotel" and "The Heart Is Quick-er Than the You've read that the ballerina's role (played originally by Vera Zorina) will be danced for half the six-week tryout by Natalia Makarova and then Valentlna Kozlov, pre-Broadway. But did you know Dina Merrill is joining the cast? This good actress made her B'way debut in John Van Druten's comedy, "Mermaids Singing," nearly 35 years ago. Now she is reunited with producer Alfred De Ltagre Jr. The latter is. marking his sixth decade of active producing.

He and Roger L. Stevens are happily reunited in co-producing the. ANTAKennedy Center musical. They did the super successful hit "Deathtrap" together. IT'S A.

BOY for Tommy Lee and KImberly Jones down in New Zealand, where daddy is making a movie. Young Master Jones arrived Nov. 9 and is called Austin Leonard. I told you Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall were reconciling. Let's close with his end-' quotes "I know a lot more about finance and politics than I do about singing!" Find aspirin KOs heart attacks Dallas (UPI) Small doses of common aspirin inhibited enzymes causing heart attacks, reducing deaths by half in the first study of a large group of acute angina patients, heart researchers said yesterday.

"This is the kind of miracle substance that grabs the public's imagination," said Dr. Ricard Conti, chief of cardiology at the University of Florida. "Its results have been positive with this patient group. The drug is cheap and relatively safe." The study of 1.300 heart patients at a dozen Veterans Administration hospitals was reported at the 55th annual Scientific Session of the American Heart Association. It was the first of its kind on a large control group.

Differing from previous studies, the aspirin was given in small, buffered doses only one 324 milligram pill a day, the size of a household aspirin tablet. "WE CONCLUDE," SAID THE TEAM led by Drs. H.D. Lewis and J.W. Davis, "that ASA (aspirin) is highly protective against AMI (acute myocardial infarction, commonly known as heart attacks) in men with unstable angina (chest pains)." The potential for acute heart attack and death decreased by more than 50, the research team said.

It remains a mystery how aspirin works, but researchers believe it somehow reduces the stickiness of blood platelets, which causes dangerous clotting, and dilates the blood vessels. "Results, as reflected in this study, certainly have been dramatic," said Dr. Peter Gazes, director of cardiovascular research at the Medical University of South Carolina. But cardiologists generally were cautious about drawing conclusions. London researcher Attilio Maseri reported Monday that less comprehen-sive controlled aspirin studies at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School produced "entirely negative" results.

Researchers at the convention said recent breakthroughs in pharmaceutical packaging gave them more choices in prescribing heart-medication, Lara Teeter: dynamite role for this movie begins next spring with Martin Scorcese directing and Robert De Niro in the leading role. (Schrader, Scorcese and De Niro were the team who gave us the controversial "Taxi Paul has written also a movie based on Paul Theroux's "Mosquito Coast" and has yet another one set to go in Japan titled "Mishima." Prolific and in love. LETTERS: We do get 'em and don't you just love to read other people's mail? I always like hearing from famous columnist Herb Caen, whose good humor is unfailing. Recently I itemed his marital split and mentioned a new romance. "Hi, Liz! Thanks for the pufflicity, as Winchell might have said.

If you are serious, my new friend is Donna Ewald, a 27-year-old publicist 'America's most beautiful says 9 Gore Vidal, who is not 27. Neither am I. is collector of old San.