PEOPLE WATCH

Star Power: Nicolas Cage, already an Oscar winner for “Leaving Las Vegas,” will add another accolade when he receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year. Cage is among 16 celebrities selected for star-dom in 1998. Other motion picture honorees are Mike Nichols, Joe Pesci, Stuart Whitman and Bruce Willis, while Dick Enberg, Leeza Gibbons and Tony Randall will be recognized in the television category. Other 1998 recipients are Kenny G, Ruben Blades and John Lee Hooker (recording); KLOS-FM deejays Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps and KLON-FM’s Chuck Niles (radio); and jazz man Miles Davis and composer George Gershwin (posthumous). The recipients, chosen from among several hundred nominees, will be honored individually throughout the year.

RADIO

KUSC Fortunes Looking Up: KUSC-FM (91.5) is beginning to put its fiscal house in order, although it still has a $1-million deficit accumulated over eight years to pay off, officials reported Monday. The debt includes $500,000 incurred in the 1995-96 fiscal year under former general manager Wallace A. Smith, who resigned last September. However, since its return to a classical music format last October under changed leadership, KUSC has--for the first time in recent years--broken even for the 1996-97 fiscal year, which ended Monday. The station, whose $3.4-million budget stays the same for the coming year, raised $1.1 million in on-air fund-raising, while an additional $2.3 million came in from donors, members, foundations and other sources. “We have never raised more than a million dollars from on-air fund-raising in any prior nine-month period,” said Steve Lama, KUSC’s acting general manager. “This is strong testimony to our listeners commitment to, and enthusiasm for, our return to a classical music format.” Meanwhile on-air pledges were received from nearly 14,000 members--including more than 6,300 new ones. Jane Pisano, vice president for external relations at USC, where KUSC is based, said the station intends to pay off its debt in about five years.

VIDEO

Spicy Treat: As a follow-up to their triple-platinum-selling album “Spice,” the Spice Girls will release “Spice: The Official Video Vol. 1” on Aug. 26. The long-form video, which promises “a raucous hour of girl power,” will include behind-the-scenes footage tracing the British quintet’s rise to the top of the pop charts. Also included are the music videos for the group’s No. 1 hit, “Wannabe,” and other songs. The video will sell for $19.98. Meanwhile, the Spice Girls are also working on an upcoming theatrical movie, which they’re filming in London.

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Must-See Tape?: NBC is releasing the 3-D episode of “3rd Rock From the Sun” on home video in July. The video will include an alternate ending not previously shown, as well as “blooper” outtakes from the episode, called “A Nightmare on Dick Street.” NBC spent more than $1 million on special effects for the episode, which was televised during the May sweeps. The video, accompanied by four pairs of 3-D glasses, costs $17.95, and can be ordered by phone, (800) 680-1800, or over the Internet (https://www.3rdrock.com).

TELEVISION

Coming Cable Fare: MTV will kick off the sixth season of its series “The Real World” on July 16, with back-to-back half-hour episodes at 10 p.m. The series this season is set in Boston and features seven young adults who not only live together but also work together as volunteers in a children’s after-school program. . . . TNT will premiere a new weekly half hour for movie buffs, “Rough Cuts,” on Aug. 7 at 7:30 p.m. Dedicated to the film industry, the newsmagazine will be hosted by former MTV reporter Juliette Hohnen, former MTV “veejay” Karyn Bryant, and journalists Charles Fleming and Tom Brown. . . . TBS has acquired the off-network rights for a series from each of the fledgling broadcast networks, with the UPN hit “Moesha” and WB’s “The Parent ‘Hood” scheduled to begin showing on TBS in the year 2002. Other series recently acquired by TBS include “The Drew Carey Show,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Roseanne” and “Friends.”

QUICK TAKES

“Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored” won the best picture award over the weekend at the first Black Film Festival, held this year in Acapulco. Other festival award winners included Queen Latifah (best actress, “Set It Off”), Ossie Davis (best actor, “Get On the Bus”) and F. Gary Gray (best director, “Set It Off”). . . . Brian Stokes Mitchell, who plays Coalhouse in “Ragtime” at the Shubert Theatre, missed Sunday performances because of a family illness and was replaced by understudy Duane Martin Foster. A spokesman said Mitchell is expected back tonight. . . . For the second summer in a row, David Letterman has taken his “Late Show” to movie theaters, with the release over the weekend of “The Late Show’s Kids on Film II,” a 72-second vignette, that is showing before the featured movie on 13,000 screens nationwide.