SHORT TAKES : Eddie Fisher: Work Comes First

As Eddie Fisher counts them, he’s well into his ninth comeback this month. But his marriages still number only three.

Fisher, 61, talks about his loves and his work with equal alacrity. They affect each other, he’s convinced.

“All those romances took too much energy,” said the graying singer, who underwent a liposuction operation last fall to avoid having to go on stage with a potbelly.

“I was only married three times (to Debbie Reynolds, Connie Stevens and Elizabeth Taylor) for a total of 6 1/2 years,” Fisher said. “But living with a woman is just like marriage.”

Among the women he’s been involved with, but not married: Judy Garland, Ann-Margret and his current sweetheart, Betty Lin.

“It’s good to be romantic,” Fisher said. “But before you do anything, you’ve got to work. Romance is for kids. There are times when everything is perfect, but it doesn’t last.”

These days Fisher, who divides his time between homes in San Francisco and New York, would rather work than romance.

He did 15 Florida concerts last month and has six more appearances scheduled there later this month. Then he’s off to tour England, Scotland and Wales in February before heading for Rome, Israel and Philadelphia, where he’ll make an album of Hebrew, Yiddish, Israeli and Yemenite Jewish songs.