Damon Wayans

The audience is hootin' and hollerin'. It's time for America's No. 1 television show, "Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show," featuring those masters of the shuffle, shuck and jive, in their black-faced, red-lipped, bug-eyed glory, Mantan and Sleep 'N Eat. Spike Lee, America's No. 1 cinematic provocateur, aims squarely at his own medium, and the results are sure to get people talking. His exhilarating, audacious new satire, "Bamboozled," presents an America where the most offensive racial stereotypes pass for entertainment.

"Celtic Pride" is about men who know what's important in life: not careers, which they've blown, or families, which they've abandoned, or happiness, which eludes them forever. No, what's truly important is the success of 12 mercenary millionaires playing a game for sheer profit and shoe company commercials. Is this a great country or what?The movie, which makes some nifty points about the irrationality of passion devoted to professional athletics, is only semi-funny, however, and only semi-convincing.

A black, male version of white bread Mary Richards?That's exactly who David Preston (David Alan Grier), of the new Fox sitcom "The Preston Episodes," is supposed to be. If you don't believe me now, you will by the time tonight's premiere episode ends -- with Grier running onto a city street and throwing his hat in the air while the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" theme song plays and the lyrics say, "You might just make it on your own."Only instead of the show ending on the upbeat image of the hat soaring skyward, the camera follows it down into the handsof a homeless man, who refuses to return it to Preston.

Paris 36 ** 1/2 (2 1/2 STARS) Paris 36, a period piece about a working-class music hall from writer-director Christophe Barratier, has a script that's like a grade-school intelligence test. The characters come in such bold, goofy shapes there's only one place each of them can fit into the narrative - as reluctant champion of the poor, working-class hero, hissable villain or sacrificial clown. What gives it all some nutty charm is the way Barratier plants the plot - about the struggle to save a vaudeville stage called the Chansonia - in the 1936 heyday of the French Popular Front.

Jennifer Aniston, 37, is about to sign an endorsement deal with Nike, which will pay her the largest sum the company's ever paid to a celebrity, Adrants .com reports. The global ad blitz also may include a spot during the Super Bowl in February. Aniston, reportedly, has vowed to donate a large chunk of the Nike money to cancer charities. Meanwhile, the sportswear goliath, which has been embroiled in controversies stemming from charges it uses sweatshops, has a design deal with rapper Eminem, who is designing an autographed line of Air Max training shoes, with proceeds from the sales going to charities in Michigan.

Anne Heches marries Laffoon Saturday Actress Anne Heche, 32, married cameraman Coleman Laffoon, 27, on Saturday during a ceremony held at a villa near downtown Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press. The couple met while Heche was making a documentary about then-girlfriend Ellen DeGeneres' return to stand-up comedy, following the cancellation of her ABC sitcom Ellen. Heche and DeGeneres parted ways in August of last year, after having been together for three years. Hope remains in hospital Comedian Bob Hope will remain in the hospital for at least a few more days as he fights to recover from pneumonia, his physician said yesteraday.

Another film festival is being added to Baltimore's burgeoning film scene, this one dedicated to African-American cinema. Captivity, a four-day festival slated for July 5-8 at the Heritage Cinema House, will showcase somewhere between 15 and 18 films either made by African-American directors or featuring predominantly black casts, says Heritage founder Michael Johnson. Noting the success of other niche-oriented festivals, such as the Jewish Film Festival and MicroCineFest, Johnson says it's time Baltimore staged a film celebration geared toward its predominantly African-American population.

More than a decade into the AIDS crisis, relatively few American films have dealt substantially and dramatically with the reality of the disease.Most have been small, independent films that garnered mainstream attention along the way, among them Bill Sherwood's 1986 "Parting Glances," Craig Lucas' and Norman Rene's 1990 "Longtime Companion" and Gregg Araki's recent "The Living End."Sure, Hollywood celebrities show up at awards ceremonies wearing red ribbons in support of people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and during the '80s occasional "safer sex" scenes in movies might include condoms.

''Look Who's Talking Too'' proves that you shouldn't let success go to your head. It proves, rather conclusively, that you shouldn't go back to the cameras before you are prepared to do so, before you have any idea of what you hope to do.''Look Who's Talking Too'' is the sequel to the supremely successful ''Look Who's Talking,'' the comedy that gave John Travolta a needed career boost. The sequel won't nullify all that, but it certainly won't help. With this one, Travolta may be back to, well, square two.''Look Who's Talking'' was a charmer, a novelty in which a child, with the voice of Bruce Willis, spoke before and after his birth, while his mother took up with a cab driver who wanted to be a pilot.

I received letter recently from a woman angered when I noted, more cynically than sympathetically, Kelsey Grammer's recent post-rehab appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." She was upset that I didn't support Grammer's brave attempts to conquer his substance-abuse problems publicly. My problem is that these "mea culpa" TV appearances always occur during ratings sweeps months, allowing TV to use, if not abuse, the former users and abusers. I mention all this because of tonight's latest sweeps-month example: Robert Downey Jr., making his first post-rehab appearance, as guest host of "Saturday Night Live."