WASHINGTON INSIGHT

HELP WANTED: The job of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations may be open soon; the incumbent, Bill Richardson, is likely to be nominated as secretary of Energy. But despite the job’s many attractive features--indoor work, first-class meals and a free Manhattan apartment in the swank Waldorf Towers--President Clinton’s having a hard time finding the right candidate. Former Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Maine), who just completed work on a peace agreement in Northern Ireland, turned it down, according to a close friend. “After Northern Ireland, he’s looking for some peace and quiet--and he didn’t think he’d find that at the U.N.,” the friend said. And former Assistant Secretary of State Richard C. Holbrooke, who negotiated peace in Bosnia, reportedly isn’t sure he wants the job, either. Any takers?

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JOB REVIEW: White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, who for months has been bombarded almost daily with questions about various alleged Clinton administration scandals, realizes that his daily press briefings sometimes deteriorate into “completely ridiculous theater.” And it’s not just persistent, sometimes hostile, reporters who are to blame, he told The Times on Monday. “I think that by standing up there and doing that briefing every day and sort of watching the belligerency of it all . . . I probably . . . allow that ambience to persist when I could do something to alter it,” he said. Conceding that the briefings put reporters in a bad light with much of the public, McCurry said that was partly because journalists are preoccupied by things people don’t understand and partly because people don’t understand the “customs and traditions” of the journalism profession or why reporters “have to beat the president up if he hasn’t answered a question.”

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DINNER WINNER: At last week’s official White House dinner for Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, there was the usual array of head-turners and power pumpers among the 158 guests. There was, of course, the Big Guy, the president, and his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, wearing a full-length, black Donna Karan dress topped with a full white coat. Among the Italian American luminaries were HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, Italian American Foundation Chairman Frank Stella, Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Assn. and Massimo Ferragamo of the Italian leather dynasty. But not even Sophia Loren, dressed in red satin with decolletage everywhere, caused the stir created by actress Susan Lucci. The tiny soap star’s entrance into the State Dining Room had the operatic effect of sucking the air right out of the room; virtually every head turned for a look at the little lady who never wins an Emmy for her daily appearances in “All My Children.” Lucci, wearing a low-cut pink gown, and her husband, Helmut Huber, a New York businessman, said they were just thrilled to pieces to be at the White House, and said they’d love to return when they’re next in town. Which might be very soon. Their son, an accomplished golfer, will be attending the president’s alma mater, Georgetown University, next fall.