Daily News from New York, New York • 96

Kbom at fiSie tp Gracie Mansion chef gets attic apt. UiiL By BOB HERBERT City Mall lunta CMtf IViN hey waffs to the 'Merry VJidow'? OSSIP'S PRIMARY motive "7 is to tell an interesting or amusing story about some Mayor Koch, who has had a tough time keeping cooks at Gracie Mansion, has spent $67,000 in city funds to turn the mansion's attic into living quarters for his latest chef, 27 year-old Mitchell London. It has four rooms and is rent free. The attic was renovated over nine months by workers from various city agencies, said Diane Coffey, administrative assistant to the mayor. "It's beautiful, it's a lovely said London, who was at City Hall yesterday to cater a wine and cheese buffet He acknowledged that the mayor's promise of a new apartment was a key reason he accepted the Gracie Mansion post last month.

Coffey says the apartment consists of a bedroom, living room, study, kitchenette and bathroom designed to accommodate two people and could be used in the future by a married couple working at the mansion. City records show that $19,869 was spent on construction items and $4,603 on furnishings, Including $894 for designer rugs, $500 for coffee and end tables, $745 for lamps, $918 for chairs and ottomans, $479 for a sofa and $363 for "accessories" described as "pillows, sheets etc." Coffey says labor costs were calculated at $42,000. one behind his back," says Dr. Maury Silver of Johns Hopkins University in Family Weekly. Barbra Streisand and Placldo Domingo? Well, they do know each other and they have enormous mutual respect And they have actually discussed making a film together, say "The Merry Widow," at MGM.

This would be far in the future, but what a fabulous far in the future thought. Domingo is that rare opera singer; he can act. Co-starring with Streisand would help him emerge from the long shadow that has been cast on his career by the explosive publicity for Luciano Pavarottl. i 'I 4T I iff 3 Ellen Burstyn: to play Annie Sullivan it fx- FIRST GUESSING: Next spring's Broadway production of William Gibson's sequel to "The Miracle Worker" has been announced. Titled "Monday After the Miracle," it will be directed by Arthur Penn and produced by Ray Katz and Sandy Gallln.

They've just confirmed my guess that the fabulous actress Ellen Bur-styn will be playing the role of tl 4 t- "i r- If' If Xi Placido Domingo: respects Barbra 1 it iinf'1 1 'ir teJ IB tl This means that you and I really loved those boffo actresses in the first real example of two women as devoted friends in a tough, demanding racket. We've had one-woman cop heroines before and we've had "Charlie's Angels" where a lot of beauties let some guy on the phone tell them what to do. But this was the first example of cooperation, brains and loyalty between women. Ms. magazine, sensitive to such matters, approved of "Cagney Lacey" so much that they showed the movie to New York policewomen who gave a thumbs up.

Then the magazine put Swit and Daly on one of their year's best-selling issue covers, another first for a TV movie. SIDE-SPLITTING: There are lots of laughs at the Joe Orton play, "Entertaining Mr. Sloane," at the Cherry Lane This has to be one of the best productions going on anywhere in the world at the moment The tug of war between an English brother and sister for the divine sex object "Mr. Sloane" was too raunchy for the public when it first bowed on Broadway for only 12 performances in 1965. Now the play seems simply hysterically funny.

It boasts some of the finest acting I've ever seen in the unusual persons of Joseph Maher and Barbara Bryne. Their timing alone is worth the trip to the Village. Maxwell Caulfleld, now gone Hollywood for "Grease II," was impossibly attractive and ingenuously amusing as the title character, but I'm sure his successor has been directed to be just as good. GO FOR IT: Lorna Luft put herself on a crash diet, lost 18 pounds, and paid her own way to Hollywood to screentest for "Grease II." P.S. She got one of the plum roles.

Nikkl Haskell will provide the cake and candles and Peter Firth will provide the breath in honor of the actor's birthday at The Underground, after a performance of "Amadeus," on Sunday. The v.ip.'s will really be crunching in through that old V.I.P. entrance on E. 18th A "Nine to Five" TV series, based on the Jane Fonda-Dolly Parton-LUy Tomlin movie, will co-star Rita Moreno and Dolly's own little sister, Rachel Hairpiece expert Charles Alflerl has his favorite new sign. It reads "Hurry.

Only six more Reagan Budget Cuts Till Christmas!" ENDQUOTE: Elizabeth Taylor to Eddie Fisher, circa 1962: "Get me my lip gross!" ,4 Another First Lady portrait Helen Hayes, honorary chairman of the National Theatre Board, and First Lady of the American Theater, stands before a portrait of herself that was unveiled In Washington yesterday. The painting will hang permanently in the Helen Hayes Lobby of the National Theatre. ,3 "teacher Annie Sullivan. My other guesses, say they, are premature. But I think we'll also see Karen Allen, the girl from "Raiders of the Lost Ark," as Helen Keller and John Heard in a leading male role.

Sounds good to me. AILING? The European papers and the National Enquirer have reported Carlo Ponti dying of cancer. He and his son, Alex, firmly deny this. Maybe those tales got started because Ponti has been in and out of a few French hospitals lately and has taken to going around his house murmuring, "I'm dying! I'm dying!" The reality is that the tycoon husband of Sophia Loren is in a serious depression brought on by the fact that he is unable to return to Italy, due to tax problems. As a true Italian, he is pining away for his native land.

HOORAY! We'll see those appealing policewomen, "Cagney Sc Lacey," again. The CBS movie starring Loretta Swlt and Tyne Daly was such a smash hit that now everybody concerned wants to turn it into a regular series. CBS would have been happy with a 30 share of the ratings for the movie, but got 36-30 in the overnight reports; and a big 42 for the entire A dome for ruins of Pompeii? Pompeii (AP Italy began an international "Project Pompeii" yesterday to build a giant dome over the ruins and save one of the world'! most popular tourist sites from the ravages of nature and mankind. Announcement of the $100 million plan coincided with the retrieval in West Germany of six marble and bronze statuettes stolen three years ago from the often plundered city. Trying to drum up Interest and funds for the project.

Culture and Environment Minister Vincenzo Scotti set out yesterday on a weeklong trip to Introduce major exhibits from the ancient Roman city in Washington, in Lille, France, and in Mexico City. In 1748, archaeologists unearthed the city and Germany's classic writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe declared prophetically: "Of al! the world's catastrophes, none has provoked so much Joy to successive generations." But since then, the brilliant reds and blues of frescoes preserved for centuries under airtight seals have faded in the exposure to the sun and rain. Plants and trees pressing up among the houses have widened cracks la the walls. Thieves also have plundered the city at night 2.