THE POOR GET RICHER

That’s no celebrity impersonator wishing us “champagne dreams and caviar wishes” on those California Lottery radio spots: It’s the real Robin Leach, if there is such a real person as Robin Leach. He’s picking up pocket money--a flat fee of $10,000--for his 13-week contract for several 60-second spots.

The deal forbids use of the phrase “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” (Leach’s syndicated show about the disgustingly wealthy), so “soon to be rich and famous” is used instead.

Mike Faulkner, the Dailey & Associates creative director who conceived the spots, said the screaming Leach popped into his head when he was approached by the Lottery commission to create a campaign for its win-a-trip-to-Tahiti “Lotto Fever” promotion. (Said Faulkner: “(Leach) represents the life styles that people who play the lotto want to have.”)

In the first spot, Leach gushes about how he chose his six digits--”my flight number, my room number, the last number in my passport, my age, my real age and the tiara size of the Queen Mother.”

A new spot in August will feature Leach at the gates of a fictional lotto winner’s digs--in Bev Hills.