Kathy Bates

Small, trivial things can sometimes add up to large, important ones. That's the message of "Frankie & Johnny," an ingratiating romantic comedy currently playing nationally.It's only a little thing, for example, that Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Johnny (Al Pacino) have names which, taken together, form the title of a popular song. But trivial though this coincidence is, it's not nothing.And as Frankie and Johnny get to know each other, the little things start to add up: She's a waitress and he's a cook.

MOVIESA bridge through time Joanne Woodward was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in ''Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,'' and the honor was well deserved. Ms. Woodward stars with her husband, Paul Newman, as a Kansas City couple who make it through the Depression era '30s into the '40s. Many of us like to think that life was simpler back then, and maybe it was. But that doesn't mean Mr. and Mrs. Bridge were spared the familiar agonies. The film, sensitive and moving, is showing at the Rotunda and Westview cinemas.

Kathy Bates, the all-too-attentive fan of writer James Caan in ''Misery,'' is the clear favorite for Best Actress among Evening Sun readers and other callers to Lou Cedrone's SUNDIAL Oscar Line. We'll know for sure when the Academy Awards are announced next Monday night.Forty-four percent of the 196 respondents in a telephone survey conducted last Wednesday chose Bates, followed by Julia Roberts for ''Pretty Woman'' (30 percent), Joanne Woodward for ''Mr. & Mrs. Bridge'' (13 percent), Meryl Streep for ''Postcards From the Edge'' (7 percent)