ENLISTED: Florida resident Rosie O'Donnell, 39, will host a fund-raiser for that state's Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, a campaign spokeswoman said. Tickets for the Dec. 30 event are $250 per person. It was not disclosed where the reception would be held, a Reno campaign spokeswoman told the "Orlando Sentinel" on Friday . . . ANNOUNCED: Elton John said that his newest CD, "Songs From the West Coast," will be "the last record that I ever make," the pop star, 54, told a sold-out crowd at the Verizon Wireless Arena in New Hampshire Friday. "I'm fed up with it. I like playing to you guys, but I hate the record industry. I've made 40 albums and its about time for me to get out" . . . PLEADED: Ex-"Baywatch" babe Yasmine Bleeth, 33, on Friday pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while impaired and a cocaine-possession charge, avoiding a possible four-year prison sentence, a Wayne County, Mich., prosecutor told reporters. She had been arrested in September after she smashed a rental car outside of Detroit. She will be sentenced Jan. 9 . . . DIED: "A Separate Peace" author JOHN KNOWLES, 75, died Thursday after a short illness at a convalescent home in a Fort Lauderdale suburb. He leaves behind a legacy that included nearly a half-century of writings and nine novels, but none matched the success of the novel that's been read in high schools nationwide practically since its publication in 1959. Movie costume designer DANILO DONATI, 75, who won Oscars for his costumes in Federico Fellini's "Casanova" and Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet," has died in Rome, film production officials said Sunday. At the time of his death, he was working on Roberto Benigni's upcoming "Pinocchio." ROBERT TOOLS, 59, the first person to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart, died Friday of internal bleeding and organ failure. He had lived with the device for 151 days.