MOVIE MELTDOWN

The Three Mile Island disaster generated unexpected publicity for “The China Syndrome,” the 1979 Jane Fonda-Jack Lemmon-Michael Douglas film about a crisis at an atomic power plant. Now the tiffing with Libya may provide the same sort of dramatic prelude for Paramount’s raucous “Top Gun,” opening May 16, about training “the best of the best” U.S. Navy jet fighter pilots--officers who eventually engage in combat a la Libya. It could mean a nifty summer for Navy pilot recruiters.

None of this is lost on the folks at Paramount, who plan a national sneak previews Saturday to get word of mouth chattering.

With “Top Gun’s” hard-driving military theme, the expectation might be that it’s a “Rambo” type film that appeals mainly to male audiences. Not so, alleged Par marketing prez Sidney Ganis. The film “played extremely well, equally to women and men” in market surveys taken after Dallas and local screenings. What’s in it for the women? Another Par spokesman attributed the results to the hunky appeal of Tom Cruise.

It doesn’t hurt, either, that Cruise is surrounded by a bevy of other muscled officers in locker room scenes--one particular volleyball scene brought squeals from the Clearasil set at studio screenings last week.