Bare-ing Up: Actress Lynn Whitfield was glad...

Bare-ing Up: Actress Lynn Whitfield was glad to be chosen to play Josephine Baker in the upcoming HBO movie “The Josephine Baker Story.” But she was concerned about the scene requiring her to bare her breasts to perform Baker’s famous “Banana Dance.” “I was nervous about what my grandmother would think,” she said, but then she warmed to the idea: “It’s what you think Eve would look like.”

Cooling Down: Despite snowfall mixed with freezing rain, Princeton University sophomores stripped down to only boots and hats Tuesday for their annual “Nude Olympics.” The 300 students--including 50 women--huffed through sit-ups and pushups to the cheers of spectators. There were no injuries, arrests, harassment incidents and “no frozen appendages,” said police dispatcher Gordan Byard.

* Singer-actress Bette Midler is living cleaner these days. She told Longevity magazine: “I’ve stopped drinking because I don’t have a tolerance for it. And I hated the hangovers. I was also afraid of becoming addicted. I did some drugs, too--but no more.”

* Spoils of War: Texas Gov.-elect Ann Richards’ inaugural committee opened a gift shop Wednesday--in the former headquarters of her opponent. “It was a vacant place, it was not being rented, so we rented it,” said a Richards spokeswoman about the location once used by Jim Mattox. Richards is hawking post cards, photographs and other items to raise money for inaugural events beginning Tuesday.