KIMORA LEE - NO DOPE - COPS A PLEA

Kimora Lee Simmons has worked out a deal with prosecutors that could let
her beat a year-old drug charge.

We told you first how cops in Saddle River, N.J., busted the wife of
hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons in July 2004, charging her with careless
driving, eluding a police officer and possessing a small amount of marijuana.

On Tuesday in Bergen County Superior Court, the 30-year-old Baby Phat
fashionista pleaded guilty to the traffic violation. She also agreed to
serve six months probation on the other charges.

Prosecutors agreed to let her into a pretrial intervention program for
nonviolent first offenders. If she successfully completes the program, all
charges will be dropped.

Assistant Prosecutor Wayne Mello told us, "She has to report to a probation
officer as directed. If a probation officer requires drug and alcohol
testing, she must comply. Failure of any of these conditions means a
dismissal from the pretrial intervention program."

Kimora's lawyer, Stacey Richman, initially denied there were drugs in
Kimora's Benz. But Kimora later admitted in Vanity Fair that there was pot
in the car, "but it was not mine. I didn't know it was there."

In another probation parable, an L.A. Superior Court judge yesterday
ordered Courtney Love to appear in court on Aug. 19 to respond to
accusations that she has been taking drugs.

Prosecutor Gina Satriano said at a hearing that Love, who has been in
court-ordered rehab, may have violated her probation by using "some sort of
narcotic" last month.

As we told you then, the widow of Nirvana rocker Kurt Cobain was taken by
ambulance to a hospital after she fainted at a Hollywood party.

Love swore to us at the time that she was not under the influence of any
substance. "I didn't work for a year on sobriety to blow it," she said.

But yesterday, Judge Rand Rubin ordered her to be in court or face arrest.
Said the justice: "I'm certainly not happy with what's going on."

Liam is Abe, honest

Break out the beard and the stovepipe hat. Liam Neeson is ready to play
Abraham Lincoln.

Though Steven Spielberg first considered Tom Hanks for the role, Spielberg
plans to have his "Schindler's List" star freeing the slaves by next spring.

"We're definitely going to do it," Neeson tells us. "We've been working on
it since November."

The story of a nation rent by war "speaks to our time," says Neeson. (Even
if the first Republican President's eloquence surpasses that of the current
one.)

Neeson won't say much more about the project. And he has obviously sworn
his wife, Natasha Richardson, to secrecy.

Asked if she might play Mary Todd Lincoln, she told us, "I don't think I'm
allowed to talk about that. It is definitely not me. The role has been cast."

Richardson did say that, after starring in the psychosexual drama "Asylum"
and playing Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire," "I need to take a
break from crazy, alcoholic, chain-smoking, sex-addicted ladies and try to
concentrate on my boys and my family for a few months."

Pfeiffer sister act

Michelle Pfeiffer's sister Dedee is feeling another twinge of exhibitionism.

The not-as-famous Pfeiffer still regrets a risque interracial shoot she did
for Playboy in 2002 - but only because "I wasn't able to do any press for it."

"By the time the issue came out ... I was married and pregnant," she says.
She thinks the right kind of sex scandal could still catapult her into the
spotlight.

"My husband and I did a [sex] video four years ago, when we first met, and
I know he's got a copy of it!" the "Wanted" star tells Steppin' Out's
Chaunce Hayden. "I always think if he gets really mad at me or wants a
divorce, he'll put it on the Internet. If that does happen, I'll say,
'Thank you!'"

Speaking of sex tapes, agents David Hans Schmidt and Paul Nash have
suffered a setback in their bid to distribute that explicit video of Colin
Farrell and Playmate Nicole Narain. A federal judge has rejected the porn
brokers' motion to have the case transferred out of L.A. Superior Court,
where a state judge ruled an order barring the tape's sale will remain in
effect. Phoenix-based Schmidt says, "I'm still looking forward to a victory."

Photogs 1, Reese 0

Those paparazzi who hounded Reese Witherspoon last April have eluded
criminal charges.

L.A. prosecutor William Hodgman said that the lensmen clearly scared the
"Legally Blonde" actress when they "besieged" her, but he couldn't find
enough evidence to make false-imprisonment charges stick.

Witherspoon had told cops that photographers tried to force her off the
road, and surrounded her outside her home.

But Hodgman told the AP: "We couldn't prove any criminal behavior."

Side dish

Christy Turlington and Ed Burns may have another one on the way. The
supermodel told friends at the recent Super Saturday shopping event in
Watermill that she's expecting again, Us Weekly reports. Turlington, 36,
and actor Burns, 37, have a 22-month-old daughter, Grace ...

Producers at MSNBC were among those gulled by British and Internet reports
that rap mogul Sean Combs and girlfriend Kim Porter got in a fight that
left her with a broken nose. The cable network issued an apology after P.
Diddy's reps confirmed the two are happily on family vacations ...

Diane Von Furstenberg shows off her $242,000 green Bentley and divine
Parisian apartment to editor Dominique Browning in September's House &
Garden. "English cars have a certain smell I love," says the designer. Car
and pad were both gifts from husband Barry Diller.

With Jo Piazza and Chris Rovzar