PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Are the very last pictures of Elvis finally going to surface?

Since Presley’s death in Memphis 10 years ago this month, there’ve been sporadic reports that autopsy photos had somehow made their way from Baptist Memorial Hospital to the scandal sheets. Maurice Elliott--former Baptist Memorial assistant administrator--told us that he was recently contacted by someone claiming to represent the National Enquirer.

“They asked if they could come by and have some Elvis autopsy photos authenticated,” Elliott said, adding somberly: “It’s not impossible--though it would be unfortunate--for such photos to have made their way out of the hospital. There were a lot of color slides taken, which is not unusual for an autopsy. Maybe some really were spirited out. . . .”

National Enquirer editor/president Iain Calder insists his publication has no such photos, figuring the phone call to Elliott was the work of a crank or another publication using the Enquirer name.

Stressed Calder: “Even if we had those photos, we wouldn’t publish them. If someone walked in right now and waved them in front of me, I’d say, ‘Take them away.’ ”

Reason: “It’s a question of taste”--and the possibility of a lawsuit, he said.

Calder added that while the Enquirer ran the coffin pic of Presley (titled “The Last Photo,” it ran on the cover Sept. 9, 1977), it chose not to rerun it in its newest issue, which will include a six-page Presley spread.