It's legit

Kelsey Grammer and his "Frasier" co- stars David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney are going to Broadway. They're just now signing a deal to star in the hit "Art" -- in which Alan Alda, Victor Garber and Alfred Molina currently headline -- for a three-month run beginning next May.

Right now, Mahoney is trodding the boards at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in "The Man Who Came to Dinner." The man who plays the father on "Frasier" maintains a home in the Windy City and says, "It's great working at the Steppenwolf. I've been in 30 plays here. This one's a sellout." He adds that they've been invited to take the show to London after it closes in Chicago in late June.

Couples

The Matt Perry-Neve Campbell thing has heated up after both shed previous loves since their fateful meeting late last year. He, Sarah Michelle Gellar. She, Matthew Lillard. Conveniently, the two are now making a movie together, "Three To Tango.

Gold in his heart

Tough guy Mr. T is fighting his most dangerous foe yet -- a rare form of lymphoma. The burly star of TV's "The A- Team" and "Rocky III" has undergone chemotherapy and radiation. "If I get depressed, it's because I let my human side take over. Just as sure as I'm born, I know I'm going to go. But they say it's not how long a man lives. It's how well he lived," he said Tuesday on "Entertainment Tonight."

Mr. T said he has no desire to act again, preferring to spend his time speaking at churches or hospitals. He also said he has abandoned the trademark gold chains he used to wear around his neck. "I don't wear gold no more. The gold is in my heart. The gold couldn't save me," he said.

Wedding bell blues

Anne Heche has asked Ellen DeGeneres for her hand in marriage, the couple revealed on ABC's "Prime Time Live" Wednesday. They say they'll nuptialize the moment it's legal for same-sexers. DeGeneres, 40, says the two are talking about "me having a kid. And if I do that, I'm going to have to do it . . . like in the next five minutes. I'm getting old."

It's a joke

A Connecticut college is refusing to pay Norm MacDonald "one nickel" for an appearance last month, contending he was smashed on stage. Lynn Bushnell, vice president at Quinnipiac College in Hamden, said the ex- "Saturday Night Live" comic "was clearly under the influence of something" at an alumni- reunion do before 2,000 people.

"His speech was slurred; he was mumbling; and even one of his own people tried to get him offstage." A witness said MacDonald cursed the school, the audience, and "all your friends," adding that if he lasted onstage "for another five minutes, you guys have to pay me. So let's talk about the weather." The witness said he had to be helped offstage.

MacDonald counters that it was the audience that was drunk. "They'd obviously been in the beer tent all day," he said. "I told a few jokes; they started screaming and throwing things at me. I didn't want to leave before 45 minutes were up so they couldn't use that as an excuse not to pay me. They swore at me, so I swore back at them. . . . I'll never perform for drunk people as long as I live."

Today's birthdays Actor Darren McGavin is 76. Singer Teresa Brewer is 67. Senate Budget chairman Pete Domenici,R-N.M., is 66. Football Hall-of-Famer Johnny Unitas is 65. Singer Jimmy Ruffin is 59. Singer Johnny Maestro is 59. Actress Robin Strasser is 53. Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff is 52. Actor Robert Hegyes is 47. Movie writer-director Amy Heckerling ("Clueless") is 44. Actor Michael E. Knight ("All My Children") is 39. Rock musician Phil Campbell (Motorhead) is 37. Rock musician Chris O'Connor (Primitive Radio Gods) is 33. Actress Traci Lords is 29.