FIRST OFF . . .

The actor’s life is a roller-coaster ride, as Lorraine Bracco is learning. Production on NBC’s “Miami Vice” was shut down Monday night when Bracco--who’d been hired to star in a multi-show episode about Sonny Crockett’s marriage--caught the flu. A spokesman for Universal Studios said Bracco arrived in Miami from her home in New York to prepare for the role opposite Don Johnson, but shooting was delayed first by rain and stalled further when several crew members, including Bracco, developed flu symptoms. “They’re now in a position where they have to reschedule and shoot around Lorraine,” Robert Crutchfield, publicist for the series, said Tuesday. “And the more they do (that), the more behind they get. If worse came to worst, we’d have to recast the part.”