A Love That Lasts Through the Ages

OK. Richard Gere as People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive? What were they thinking? He was Modern Maturity’s pick back in September. The 50-year-old karma king should have been named the luckiest man alive for still being able to make a living romancing women more than 20 years his junior, such as Winona Ryder, 28, in the upcoming film “Autumn in New York.” “Gere appeals to females who weren’t even born when he launched his career, and what’s more, he knows it,” the cover story reads.

It’s true the Silver Fox is self-assured. “It’s not that far-fetched,” he told Women’s Wear Daily when asked about the 22-year chasm between the co-stars. “No one would say anything if I was involved with a woman that age.”

We’re thinking Gere’s appeal has got to be more obvious when you encounter him in the flesh (we would happily volunteer).

The choice of Gere as People’s S.M.A. may say more about the magazine’s editors than the rest of America’s tastes in men . . . after all, Harrison Ford, 57, was last year’s pick.

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Pineapple in the sky? Last time we checked, it wasn’t the best idea to offer a sweepstakes prize that hasn’t been invented yet. But that isn’t stopping Dole Food Co. from offering a seat on one of the first civilian aircraft to travel to space--pending its completion, of course.

Just how close are we to such a feat? Well, the deadline to enter the “Win a Trip to Outer Space From Dole” sweepstakes is Jan. 31, 2000, and the flight is planned for 2002. That leaves a little more than two years for engineers at Vienna, Va., aerospace company Vela Technology to design, build and test the aircraft.

“We are currently working to get funding to bend metal,” says Pat Kelley, the company’s president. Hmmm, not too comforting. Kelley believes the project is likely to be finished by the deadline but adds there’s a cash prize alternative just in case. “We don’t want to make anyone a winner who can’t collect.”

The sweepstakes will be launched (even if nothing else is) with an insert in Sunday’s newspaper. Or, visit https://www.dole.com.

A final note: A survey found that 42% of men would want to be among the first civilians in outer space, while only 18% of women did. How does the calypso classic go--”Man Smart, Woman Smarter”?

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Courteney Cox Arquette was dressed for speed at the Marlboro 500 Cart Race in Fontana last weekend. The “Friends” star was sporting a dress with a two-way zipper, made out of Formula One fabric and lined in a flame print. The getup was designed for Hugo Boss by German photographer-fashion designer Sylvie Fleury. Fifty of the dresses will be auctioned later this year to benefit a charity, as yet unnamed.

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Quick Bytes: We got a chuckle out of a recent mass e-mail listing “Signs That You’ve Had Too Much of the ‘90s.” Some favorites:

* You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

* You’ve sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.

* You really get excited about a 1.7% pay raise.

. . . We listened with interest to a recent National Public Radio report on the controversy among college professors about whether to post class notes on the Net. Some profs are concerned it will encourage class cutting, but students are going to cut class anyway, so wouldn’t it be better for them at least to see the notes?