Seen, Heard, Said

Today would have been Jack Benny's 101st birthday. To put some perspective on this, that makes him only two years older than George Burns.

Happy Valentine's Day. In keeping with the spirit of the day, we offer the results of Harlequin Books' 1995 Romance Report. Harlequin surveyed 100 lifestyle editors in North America on the most romantic men and women. Here are their top 10: Men: 1. Brad Pitt. 2. Daniel Day Lewis and Kenneth Branagh (tied). 4. Kevin Costner. 5. Hugh Grant. 6. Liam Neeson. 7. Ralph Fiennes. 8. Mel Gibson. 9. Tom Cruise. 10. David Caruso. Women: 1. Emma Thompson. 2. Meg Ryan. 3. Andie McDowell. 4. Michelle Pfeiffer. 5. Annette Bening and Janine Turner (tied). 7. Helena Bonham Carter. 8. Meryl Streep. 9. Heather Locklear. 10. Whitney Houston. No offense to some of the winners, but we'd like to see the editors' definition of romantic.

And we have the "Love Boat Kiss and Tell Survey," courtesy of Princess Cruises, who polled 260 women to get this stuff. Anyhoo, 35 percent said they fantacize about kissing Kevin Costner. (No wonder his marriage is on the rocks.) John F. Kennedy Jr. and Brad Pitt both scored 16 percent. The 240 men who responded named Cindy Crawford tops at 22 percent, followed by Michelle Pfeiffer (20 percent) and Demi Moore (18 percent).

Also in the Valentine spirit, we offer an odd report from the new issue of People on the wedding of Beach Boy Brian Wilson. He got married Feb. 6 to car saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter. Among his guests were is first wife. Reportedly he chose the wedding date because it's his first wife's birthday. And, also according to People, Brian left the wedding reception early, leaving Melinda to cut the cake alone. Strange vibrations.

Bordering on the cusp of the spirit, we have couples in transition:

-- Jerry Seinfeld and teen squeeze Shoshanna Lonstein are trying it again. She had balked last fall at having to go to his nightclub shows, and at his flirting and kissing other women on his TV show. But she was at last week's taping and between scenes they were, to coin a phrase, all over each other.

-- Brett Butler's back with her husband, lawyer Ken Zeiger. They had split last spring after eight years because he was in New York, she in L.A. Now he's moved to the coast.

-- Chuck Norris is engaged to longtime girlfriend Monica Hall. It'll be his second marriage, her first.

-- Al Pacino and Lyndall Hobbs: often off-and-on, off again. Reportedly he gave her a going-away present hefty enough to keep them out of palimony court. Word is Al's back with a former flame, Annie Praeger.

-- Bob Geldof, the rocker who started Live Aid, and wife Paula Yates are in a trial separation after 18 years of marriage.

-- Jake LaMotta, immortalized in the film "Raging Bull," wants to divorce Wife No. 6, but nobody knows where she is. Jake and Theresa had been married seven years.

-- We've documented Richard Gere, post Cindy Crawford, dallying with Laura Bailey, Uma Thurman, and back to Laura. Now he's been seen with Vanessa Angel of USA's "Weird Science." No comment.

And finally, Julie Delpy, who is starring in the romantic movie "Before Sunrise" talks in the new issue of People about whether she'd really let a stranger pick her up on a train: "I can see it now. Some weirdo coming up to me, `Hi, honey, would you like to get off the train?' I'd be scared to death. I'd be yelling, `Security!' " This from the woman who told Entertainment Weekly that during the boring times in her hotel, she'd taught herself to balance a berry on a certain part of her anatomy. Yes, we know what it is. No, we're not going to tell you.