MARILYN BECK & STACY JENEL SMITH: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen

While Ted's been here toiling away on his soon-to-debut "Becker" series for CBS, Mary's been in Australia working on Robert Halmi's "Noah's Ark" miniseries. Ted tells us they're now talking about her doing a guest appearance on "Becker." He says it would be fun to have his wife play "some kind of street person."

Ted, who did get Down Under to visit Mary a couple of times, admits he was surprised CBS decided to premiere "Becker" on Nov. 2 -- rather than go with the original plan of putting it on in January. While he's happy the network is so high on his half-hour show about an abrasive Bronx doctor, "I was hoping for January, because there's more of a free grace period to go out there and test the waters creatively. But this is fine. ... The writing on the show is joyously wonderful."

Danson describes his Dr. Becker as "a guy who's incredibly passionate and caring and has no idea of how to deal with people, and can't help shooting his mouth off about things that bother him in society." A couple of those things are the shape of the environment and "Second Amendment lunatics." Don't expect to hear Becker making remarks about Bill Clinton or his pursuers. "I doubt we're going to get too specific on the show. That dates you," says Ted. "If you pick up on headlines, by the time you're in reruns, who cares?"

On the other hand, as close friends of the First Couple, Ted and Mary have been in touch with Bill and Hillary by letter and phone, "of course." And, of course, they continue to back the Clintons all the way.

MAN ON THE MOVE: Word is starting to get out that The Artist Formerly Known as Prince is soon to become The Artist Formerly Based in Minneapolis. Yes, the mercurial music star, who has been based in Minnesota throughout his career, is now, we understand, making plans to move -- not just off the fruited plain, but out of the United States. The ex-Prince is set to do something extraordinarily rare for him -- an hour-and-a-half live interview -- Tuesday on "BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley." Perhaps Smiley will get him to talk about his and his wife's plans to leave our shores. And, of course, he'll have to ask The Artist, who gave us the megahit "1999" back in 1982, if he plans to party his way through 1999.

TURKEY TIME: It's that time of year again, when we invite readers of our column -- and those who catch us on E! Entertainment Television -- to take part in our annual Tacky Taste Awards. Which products or personalities do you think have been the tackiest, the most tasteless of the year? Send your submissions to us at P.O. Box 11079, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210; we'll reveal the winners Thanksgiving week.

MAN ON THE RUN: With his gritty "Late Last Night" indie feature premiering at the current AFI Festival, resurgent career guy Emilio Estevez is getting ready to start work on "Killer's Head," in which he'll star with Fairuza Baulk, for filmmaker C.M. Hawkington ("Love & A .45"). As soon as he completes acting in the thriller, Estevez expects to begin preproduction on "The Big Bang Club," his feature about photojournalists in South Africa prior to Nelson Mandela's election. "It's going to be a lot of work," notes Estevez. "I'm producing, acting and directing. ... We'll go to South Africa to shoot it." The feature is being written by Shawn Slovo, who wrote "A World Apart" -- the searing 1988 Barbara Hershey feature about a female journalist imprisoned in South Africa. "Politically, she's right on to tackle this subject matter," says Emilio.

HERE 'N' THERE: Scott Baio's rolling up his sleeves to work behind the cameras -- he's directing an episode of "Guys Like Us."

With reports by Stephanie DuBois. ... To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. Distributed by Creators Syndicate Inc.