. . . The Ghosts of Outtakes Past

Memories are made of these from this year:

Of the 15 babies hired to play the quints in “Raising Arizona,” one was fired. The offense: learning to walk during filming.

“No Way Out” producer Mace Neufeld let us peek at rejections his project had garnered on the path to production. From one film financier came: “After having this for a couple of months, I just found it in my lower right-hand drawer.”

The debut of glitzy Premiere mag featured a Q&A; with producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson by Tony Schwartz--who not only once had a script optioned by the duo and had been hired to write the script, but whose wife (Deborah Pines) runs the mag!

Michael Jackson bought his much-publicized buckled “Bad” outfit . . . off the rack!

Sean Penn hitchhikes all over town because he can’t get car insurance.

“A tough authentic screenplay” is what Newsweek’s David Ansen called Neal Jimenez’s script for “River’s Edge.” Four years earlier, when that same script was competing in the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards competition, Ansen--one of the judges--deemed “none of the scripts” to be “up to Goldwyn standards.”

Solar eclipse: The folks at Amblin Ent. asked novelist J.G. Ballard not to discuss his “Empire of the Sun” with the press while secrecy-minded Steven Spielberg was filming his version!

Of “Jaws: The Revenge,” Universal chief Sid Sheinberg predicted: “Somewhere down the line somebody will say there’s a demand for another one.”

It was the Italian Stallion vs. Grappling Gary Franklin at the tribute to Barbara Stanwyck. Franklin told us he was unnerved when Sly Stallone took him by the arm and said, “When you review my movies, Gary, why don’t you just review the movies and not my personality?” We were relieved to report the guys worked things out at a friendly afternoon meeting at Sly’s office--where Sly offered Gary a tuna fish sandwich.

Michael Caine claimed he’s not in every movie made. The honor, he said, goes to Gerard Depardieu: “I’ve never seen a French film he wasn’t in, except ‘La Cage aux Folles,’ and he might be in the chorus for all I know.”

KNBC-TV newsie Kent Shocknek became “Kent Aftershocknek” to his colleagues when he dived under his news desk on camera during post-earthquake tremors.

When director John Milius and the rest of the “Farewell to the King” cast/crew invaded Sarawak on the island of Borneo, the restaurant in the local Holiday Inn paid tribute by adding to its menu the John Milius Burger.

Positive thinking: A press release from David Brenner’s publicist gushed that he was taking his first vacation in a year and “declining any new offers” following his “nonstop work schedule.” Nary a mention the free time was courtesy the axing of his “Nightlife” late-night show.

Positive thinking II: An article in American Film surmised that the (then unseen) “Ishtar” might be worth its $40-million plus budget because it “will doubtless be around for years and will probably entertain millions.”

A Christian magazine praised “Blue Velvet” because it portrayed evil realistically.

MGM changed the title of “Dying for Love” to “Masquerade” because of the AIDS epidemic.

Mascara rockers Poison, in a heavy-metal feud with glam-rockers Guns ‘N Roses, allegedly dumped beer and champagne on the latter band’s female publicist.

Pu Yi, the central and quite romantic heterosexual character of “The Last Emperor,” was actually gay.

One of the headlines of the year: The San Fran Chronicle for “Police Academy 4”: “HALT! ARREST THAT MOVIE.”

One of the better quotes of the year: After showing clips of Burt Reynolds blowing away bad guys in “Malone,” “Today’s” Gene Shalit quipped, “There are plenty more varmints where that one came from--but not many more wigs where that one came from.”