TELEVISIONA Football Player’s Story: Shooting begins today...

TELEVISION

A Football Player’s Story: Shooting begins today on “Rise & Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story,” in Byrd’s native Oklahoma. The Fox TV movie, expected to air during the February sweeps, stars actor Peter Berg (“A Midnight Clear,” “Shocker,” “Late for Dinner”) as Byrd, the New York Jets linebacker who collided with a 280-pound teammate during a game against the Kansas City Chiefs one year ago. The impact shattered Byrd’s neck and spine and left him paralyzed from the neck down. Most experts thought Byrd would never walk again, but he proved the naysayers wrong.

Capitol Christmas: Kirstie Alley will host NBC’s 12th annual “Christmas in Washington” show, which will be taped at the National Building Museum on Dec. 12 for broadcast on Dec. 15. President and Hillary Rodham Clinton are expected to attend. Among those set to perform are Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Patti LaBelle, Wynton Marsalis, Ricky Van Shelton and Aaron Neville. The program benefits the Children’s National Medical Center.

Remembering 1993: Actress Blair Brown will host “Life Remembers,” a TV version based on Life magazine’s year-end issue, airing Dec. 19 on cable’s TNT. The hourlong special will focus on prominent figures who passed away during 1993--including tennis star Arthur Ashe, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, country legend Conway Twitty and baseball’s Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella--as seen through the eyes of those who knew them and were touched by them. It also features tributes to actresses Audrey Hepburn, Helen Hayes and Lillian Gish; labor leader Cesar Chavez, and dancer Rudolph Nureyev. TNT says it will include a tribute to actor Bill Bixby, who died recently of cancer.

MOVIES

Falling in Love: In December’s Cosmopolitan, some two dozen of Hollywood’s leading men admit they love love. “You can write a book or a play or do almost anything, but you cannot make a movie if you don’t appreciate women,” Jack Nicholson said. French film star Gerard Depardieu, married 23 years, admitted that he may enjoy “a little seductive” teasing on a movie set with a beautiful woman, but goes no further. “Conquest is not heroic,” he said. “What’s heroic is to make love last.” Sylvester Stallone thinks about endless love: “I want to be romantic forever, to be cryonically frozen with a box of chocolates under my arm, and some flowers, and then thawed out in 200 years so I can propose to someone.”

Write On: The PEN Center USA West’s 1993 Literary Festival and Auction Sunday will feature the presentation of its first Lifetime Achievement Award in Screenwriting to the legendary Billy Wilder. Jack Lemmon will give the award on behalf of the West Coast branch of the international group of writers. In addition, the festival at the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles will include an auction of literary memorabilia. Among the items on the block: Wilder’s “Sabrina” script and a signed first edition of “Bart Simpson’s Guide to Life.” The group’s Freedom-to-Write Awards will also be given out; David Geffen is one of the recipients. Tickets to the event are $50 each.

POP/ROCK

Shakur Update: A lawyer for rapper Tupac Skakur’s road manager said a woman seen having sex with Shakur on a videotape seized by police wasn’t intoxicated and isn’t underage. Shakur and two other men, including road manager Charles Fuller, were charged in the alleged sexual attack on a 20-year-old woman at his Manhattan hotel last week. The tape shows Shakur in the same room, having sex with a different woman. The New York Daily News, citing an unidentified law enforcement source, said the woman on the tape looked like a minor and seemed to be on drugs. Attorney Robert Ellis, who represents Fuller, denied the tape included anything illegal. He would not identify the woman.

Gimme Five: John Tesh will be on the move on Saturday. The musician/co-host of “Entertainment Tonight” will perform five Christmas concerts in five different cities--the first one in Seattle, then San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego and a final concert at the Long Beach airport at 8 p.m.--all in one day as part of a Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America event. Mattel Toys has donated more than 1,200 wrapped toys to be given to the participating little brothers and sisters who attend the concerts. Tesh will perform classic holiday tunes.

QUICK TAKES

CNN’s “Moneyline With Lou Dobbs” will originate this week from Los Angeles as it explores California’s economy. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan will be a guest on today’s edition of the business show, which airs at 4 p.m. . . . Phil Collins will perform an acoustic concert at this year’s Fire & Ice Ball, a fund-raiser for fighting breast, ovarian and other women’s cancers, on Dec. 6 at the Beverly Hilton. The event will also feature poet Maya Angelou as keynote speaker. . . . Also on Dec. 6, the cast of “Guys and Dolls,” now playing at the Pantages Theatre, will give a cabaret performance to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at 9 p.m. at the Gardenia, 7066 Santa Monica Blvd.