Newsday from New York, New York • 107

IA-- 4 i IPRESS1PACKIINIG00SEICHASE1F0RIG0TTIINUP.TIALS Where Comes The Bride? By Michael Powell Paulette Goddard and ese, the Avife-to-be, were big news. Its crime as style, notes Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, fascination is not with the actual gang-Dut with the movie image. the tracking of the wedding day was a jne cops affair from beginning to end. there was The Fiancee, the former Miss lese. Where was she, who was she, what she look like? The answers, as revealed er hundreds of digged manhours, were: in Charlie Chaplin in Chaplina The Great There is something in tny character of the barefoot gamine, she said.

Charlie understood me. Chaplin used her again four years later, as the poor Jewish laundress Hannah in The Great Dictator, (in which he himself played two roles, as a Jewish barber and the Hitler-like dictator for whom hes mistaken). She was one of the few women who could hold their own with Chaplin, Haskell said. She was opposite him, not beneath him She was sort of a soulmate in Modem Times. Goddard also gave great performances in films in which other women were the stars, Haskell said.

She men-(1939), an all-star film whose cast includ- Dictator1 (1940) WAS wedding day for the Gotti family, and the Gotti women were returning from the hairdresser with dicks of the heels and mountainous coifs. A reporter ambled over in the mid-morning drizzle outside the Howard Beach home. How is the son, Mrs. Gotti?" the scribe asked. Just how is the wedding day? Victoria Gotti, wife of a reputed mafia don, half-turned toward the pop of paparazzi flashbulbs and a dozen reporters hanging on her every word.

Quietly, quickly, she suggested the reporter commit a physically impossible act. The heels clicked again and she swept into her house. Reporters scribbled furiously in her wake. It was that sort of weekend for the dozens of reporters, photographers, cameramen and television producers who tracked the every movement of the greaser Don and his entou-rage. For reasons known only to assignment editors and Mario Puzo wannabes, Gotti and Junior, his thick-chested son, and Kim Alban- Valley Stream, L.I.; the daughter of a carpet installer; a dolled-up, married-to-the-mob special.

Then there was John Gotti, Jr. The Daily News found him hanging around Ozone Park with hiB boufanted buddies, where he coughed up a few verbs and nouns that passed for witticisms. And then there was the blue-haired Don, primping for the cameras, ever-careful to speak to the press in one-liners, so as not to strain his vocabulaiy. The wedding day itself began with a fetching display of courage. The Please see WEDDING on Page 17 tioned The Women ed Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell, and So Proudly We Hail (1943), a depiction of nurses during World War II that starred Claudette Colbert.

Among Goddards mqjor films after her 1942 divorce from Chaplin, Haskell said, was The Diary of a Chambermaid (the 1946 version directed by Jean Renoir), in which the actress played Celestine, a chambermaid whose ambition is to marry a wealthy man. Commenting also on that film (not to be confused with a 1964 remake directed by Luis Bunuel), Graff said, I loved it. To me, he said, she was great with a line; she had great wit about her. Among the lesser Goddard movies, his own favorite is the 1946 Kitty. In that nearly forgotten film, Goddard had the title role, a poor Cockney girl in 18th-Century England who rises to become a duchess.

Then, of course, there was the role that got away. Goddard was the leading contender to play Scarlett OHara in Gone With the Wind until Englands Vivien Leigh showed up. Had she gotten the role, Goddard might have gone on to achieve the kind of stardom that is unencumbered by linkage to a famous husband. II of his own work (of course). There will be 30 mannequins displaying the costumes hes designed for the opera, ballet, theater and a preview of what hes creating for the San Francisco Operas production of Richard Strausss Capricdo next fall.

The opening bash, which is being hosted by Vanity Fairs Tina Brown, promises to be an haute smart mob with appearances by Leo Castelli, Suzy Frankfurt, Christie Brinkley, Ian Shrager, Anna Wintour and that Italian clothes horse, Sly Stallone. Not to mention Versaces sister Donatella and brother Santo, whos president of Versace enterprises. All in all, more than 600 people are expected for drinks during the three-hour marathon. Wear your sneakers. Afterwards, Versace is hosting a little dinner for 75 of his best pals at the Mayfair Regent Hotel and we dont mean Le Cirque.

CO Idle Chatter Saloon singer Bobby Short opens his 23rd season (count em) at the Cafe Carlyle next Tuesday. He got his start there in 1967 when he was hired for two weeks to replace society pianist George Feyer. On May 1, Short will be Binging to a roomful of his best pals, including Gerry Slutz, Pat Buckley and Gregory Hines. Should be a mqjor fun-fest Southamptons Parrish Art Museum holds its Mad Hatters -Ball next Saturday night. Therell be a a hat auction of designs by, among others, Eric Javits and Harry Striebel and a hat contest with Henry Geldzahler judging the entrants.

Its $25 a person and goes until 1 a.m. And next Sunday, Phil Donahue hosts the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamations (GLAAD) First Annual Media Awards at the Time-Life Building. Tix are $125 a dip and can be had by calling 966-1700 mart designer Martha Stewart wants to build a pool on her East Hampton estate, and famed violinist Itzhak Perlman wants a tennis court on his property, but it doesnt look good for either of them. Both requests met with heavy resistance at the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals last week. II ttfb asi eQptbb 001? GteotiiHflteB te ana mttlb (fin aBttmfl Ihrtl mftlh fftro ffitmfto QnuiSUfa0 JO ournalism professor.at Newjf or University 5EECEB3i.