Don’t Call Us . . .

Wicked sense of humor: Not long after shooting started on United Artists’ “Rainman” in Cincinnati, 21 judges and lawyers from Northern Kentucky got personal phone calls to appear as extras in the film. They were to play mourners in a funeral scene involving actors Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise filming in Southgate, Ky., just across the river from Cincy.

The would-be extras arrived at the appointed hour, the cast and crew were assembled but . . . there were no roles for the barristers. They’d been “had” by an unknown hoaxster. They stood, watched, took Polaroids, went home.

Judge Neil Lewis, still smarting from the scam, said, “I think a prosecutor was behind it. Most of the lawyers were defense attorneys.”

A week later, one of the victims, Jim Kidney, got a casting call to appear as an extra--this time from the production company, for real. He was paid $50 to play an on-lookers reacting to Hoffman’s fear of flying tirade, shot at the Cincy airport.

“Rainman,” under director Barry Levinson, moves to Oklahoma City tomorrow.