ON THE NOSE
It has been reported that Roseanne Arnold has a new, tinier nose, but we want to tell you why the sitcom star remodeled her honker. It seems Arnold had a deviated septum, which interfered with her breathing. Her compromised huff-and-puffing began to bother her after she started working out regularly 18 months ago. This summer she decided to fix her problem proboscis and get it trimmed at the same time.

QUITTING TIME

We know that you know that Harry Hamlin and Nicollette Sheridan have separated and that there are reports that she is seeing singer Michael Bolton. But when did Hamlin know? Two weeks ago, when we ran into a solo Harry at a tennis tournament and asked him about the breakup rumors, he just pointed to his gold wedding band and said, "Look."...

Also on the dashed romance beat, we're hearing from a source close to Richard Dean Anderson that the reason the MacGyver star and Olympic ice-skating queen katarina Witt iced their nascent relationship is that there was simply too much distance between them. He lives in Los Angeles, she in Germany.

UNTYING THE KNOT

Despite press reports that Joan Van Ark, who played Valene Ewing on CBS's Knots Landing for 13 years, left the show of her own accord, we hear that she was booted after doing an NBC pilot, Spin Doctors, last spring without telling knots' producers. "It didn't sit too well when we found out. We felt, after 13 years, she could have at least told us," says Knots executive producer Michael Filerman, who wants it on the record that he has great respect and fondness for Van Ark.

The word from the Van Ark camp is that she told the producers she wanted to leave because she figured it was time for a new challenge. Either way, there are obviously no lasting hard feelings, since Van Ark is planning to return to the Knots set this fall to direct an episode. As for Spin Doctors, NBC took a pass.

MADONNA, FOR $500...
Jeopardy's producers plan to air the show's first celebrity tournament (participating stars will donate their winnings to charity) during either the November or February sweeps. Although there will be special categories for the stars, the VIP contestants will still have to pass the same rigorous admittance test that regular contestants take. No word yet on who has signed on.

ALEC BALDWIN'S STILL MAD

We hear that Disney recently tried to extend an olive branch to Alec Baldwin, but Baldwin told Disney to stick it. The actor and Disney have been at odds ever since they clashed over attitude and production costs on the comedy flop The Marrying Man (1991), in which Baldwin starred with Kim Basinger.

A source says director Sidney Lumet wanted Baldwin for a role in Beyond Innocence, a murder mystery. "Alec found out that Disney was distributing it and quickly bowed out," says the source. Baldwin's agent, Ron Meyer, says only, "It wasn't a role Alec wanted to play." Don Johnson apparently did, as he is now set to costar with Rebecca De Mornay. Shooting begins this fall.

Mitchell Fink is on vacation.