THE BUZZ

Diane Werts, Kevin Amorim and Robert Kahn

August 27, 2006

A high-quality image - um, digital, that is

Howard Stern in HD - dream or nightmare? You decide, now that the cable channel INHD is showing weekly highlights of Stern's on-demand premium service in high-definition for all INHD homes to see. (That's pretty much all this area's high-def cable subscribers.) You don't see everything, though. There's blurring and bleeping, even though the half-hour airs late - Fridays at 11 p.m. (and again at 2a.m.) and 11 p.m. Saturdays. The show is just one big tease, designed to whet the appetite for Stern's uncensored pay-per-month subscription channel.

Maybe appetite isn't quite the right word. Last weekend's highlights included the ever-popular Fart Olympics. What HD brings to this aural event remains unclear. Oglers hoping for high-def skin didn't get much worth seeing, either, unless you count lumpy guys and Howard's tattoos.

The format's clarity also showcases clothing wrinkles and studio equipment brand names.

Still, hard-core fans will enjoy seeing proof that Stern's show is indeed being taped in HD, for that future day when cable has enough bandwidth to make the subscription channel's uncensored skin available in high-def. For now, though, that's just a dream.

-Diane Werts

Cobra Starship snakes its way in

The things we do for The Buzz.

No sooner than the day after we see "Snakes on a Plane" we fly home. On a plane. There are no snakes, but just in case - we forgo a visit to the lavatory (think of the third victim). We did the same thing the night before in a Miami movie theater, not because we were afraid of snakes in a urinal, but because we wanted to see/hear Cobra Spaceship's video/song of the summer, "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)," as the credits rolled.

The lead single on the "S.O.A.P." soundtrack grabbed hold of us like that giant python in the movie. We can thank Gabe Saporta for that. The former Midtown singer has dumped the emo for dance-pop, and for this track, at least, picked up some impressive hired help - William Beckett from The Academy Is ..., Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes and Maja Ivarsson from The Sounds. And the song is about as campy as the film: "Honey, I'm gonna make it out alive/I can see the venom in your eyes."

Unlike Samuel L. Jackson and those snakes, both of whom make cameos in the song's video, you won't tire of this -- song from that -- movie.

- Kevin Amorim Cobra Starship plays the Knitting Factory in Manhattan on Sept. 19.

’Gardens’ star has curtain call on East End

Christine Ebersole picked up a slew of Off-Broadway honors for her turn as an eccentric Long Island recluse in the musical "Grey Gardens," which transfers to Broadway in October. Until last weekend, though, the actress had never set foot in the East Hampton mansion where the action takes place.

That changed when the home's owners, former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, columnist Sally Quinn, invited Ebersole to celebrate Bradlee's 85th birthday at the real Grey Gardens. Ebersole made the jaunt from her New Jersey home, spending the evening hobnobbing with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jimmy Buffett, Barbara Walters, Bob Woodward, Charlie Rose and Lauren Bacall.

Ebersole, who portrays Edith Bouvier Beale in Act I and daughter "Little" Edie in Act II, regaled Bradlee with two standards, accompanied by pianist Billy Stritch. Afterward, Bradlee gave her the grand tour, which included a visit to the backyard gravesite of the Beales' beloved pooch, Spot.

To mark the release of the "Grey Gardens" cast recording, Ebersole, co-star Mary Louise Wilson and their colleagues will sign CDs Monday at Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St., Manhattan, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

-ROBERT KAHN

QUOTABLE

'Hollywood is the Sodom and Gomorrah of today. It's a world I avoid because it's destroying our culture.' - "Lost's" EVANGELINE LILLY, to British Glamour