‘ACROSS THE RIVER’ SINKS BUT HACKMAN STILL BUOYANT

“We spent weeks in Italy last winter working on the script,” Gene Hackman said. “And we were set to start shooting in three weeks’ time. Now I just found out it’s been canceled.”

Ernest Hemingway’s “Across the River and Into the Trees”--probably the most on-again, off-again movie in film history--due to begin filming in Venice, Italy, under John Frankenheimer, has once again collapsed.

Half a dozen stars and directors have been named by producer Robert Haggiag for this project over the years--most recently, Burt Lancaster was set to do it. Twenty scripts have been commissioned. Each time the project has foundered.

“It’s really depressing,” Hackman said this week. “I worked hard with John on the script revisions and we did some good work, I think. And he tested Mariel Hemingway for the girl.

“She was very excited at the idea of being in something of her grandfather’s. We were going to film in winter to get that wonderful, gray look of Venice. Now it’s all off.”

It’s the first time this has happened to Hackman and he finds the experience sobering. Fortunately, though, the gloom is somewhat relieved by the praise he has received from some critics for his work as a small-town basketball coach in “Hoosiers.” And his most recent venture--once again playing the comic villain Lex Luthor in “Superman IV” with Christopher Reeve--apparently proved an enjoyable experience. It opens July 17.

“It’s funny,” he said. “The first time I went off to do ‘Superman’ I was a bit snobbish about the whole thing. I did it because the money was so good. And when Christopher Reeve came on the set that first day in his Superman costume, I stood there thinking: ‘What in the world am I doing here? What can I do with this role?’ It was a week or two before I got into the fun. This time I plunged straight in.”

Away from the set, Hackman likes to fly planes and motor-race at Daytona. Since taking up residence in Florida after his divorce last year from his wife Faye, he’s also bought a 76-foot boat.

“The plan was to live on it,” he said, “but I don’t know if I can cut that. I may sell it--I haven’t been there since last June, I’ve been so busy working.”

The planes, the cars and the boat are “just toys,” he said. “My life really is dedicated to this acting game. And the longer I’m in it, the more I realize how little I know; how many areas are left to explore.”

MORE PLEASE: Dr. Ruth Westheimer makes a lucrative living as a sex therapist with her show “Ask Dr. Ruth.”

So what is she doing working as an actress in the movie “One Woman or Two,” which opens here Feb. 13 starring Gerard Depardieu and Sigourney Weaver?

“Enjoying myself,” she said this week. Daniel Vigne, the director, wanted Linda Hunt for the role (Madame Heffner, director of an American foundation) but she couldn’t do it, so a casting agent suggested me. I loved the script and said yes.

“And it was great, going back to work in Paris. I was a student there for five years, very poor but happy. This time I was staying at a great hotel and working with Gerard Depardieu. Hard to believe.”

Dr. Ruth, who has never acted before, did her own deal.

“They offered me $20,000, and I called William Morris and said, ‘Don’t you dare ask a penny more. I want to do this.’ In the end they got $22,000 for me, which took care of their 10%.”

Now what?

“What do you mean, now what?” she laughed aloud. “I want to make another film. . . . “