FREEDOM OF SCREECH

So cultivated, yet so given to imprudent rants: Michael Moriarty--actor, pianist, composer--has been attacking Attorney General Janet Reno's campaign against TV violence and has called the nation's top law person"awesomely, frighteningly sick." Charging that NBC was trying to curtail his outspokenness, Moriarty resigned from his role on Law and Order. Free to gripe, he headed for Howard Stern's radio show, where he attacked Clint Eastwood for failing to share his anti-Reno fervor.

SEEN & HEARD

Luckily, Michelle Pfeiffer's next role will not require her to wear a skintight Catwoman suit. The newlywed, set to begin shooting My Posse Don't Do Homework in a few weeks, has learned that she is pregnant. But her condition shouldn't interfere with her work. In Posse, Pfeiffer plays a teacher who favors the oversize look.

He has attained untold wealth and now ecstatic critical acclaim. What is there left for Steven Spielberg to want? His own theme restaurant. The auteur conceived and has invested in Dive!, a submarine-inspired eatery scheduled to open in Los Angeles this spring.

Many have called the AIDS film Philadelphia unrealistic, but the family of the late Geoffrey Bowers believes the movie is too true to life. Like the Tom Hanks character in the film, Bowers leveled an AIDS-discrimination suit against his prestigious law firm. Now his family is suing Jonathan Demme, Philadelphia's director, and TriStar Pictures for allegedly appropriating the story.

FINDING JODIE, FERAL CHILD

Liam Neeson, suave savior in Schindler's List, is about to become Liam Neeson, suave savior in Nell, the improbable story of a small-town doctor who encounters a woman who was raised in a forest and invented her own language. JODIE FOSTER will star as the grownup feral child. She is also producing the film, which she describes as "very pure, not flashy." Foster says she cast Neeson because he has "a kindness and sweetness to him, a vulnerability." She adds, "I didn't want any smoldering types. No Tommy Lee Joneses."

THE TRIALS OF GLAMOUR

Those of us who think supermodeling really is pretty easy work now have Christy Turlington Backstage, an upcoming television documentary, to persuade us otherwise. The grainy film, directed by Robert Leacock, son of cinema verite pioneer Richard Leacock, records the life of the world's most affable runway goddess as she prepares for fashion shows in Europe and New York. "Five days, eight fittings, eight different hair and makeup sessions, photo shoots. All that in five days!" CHRISTY TURLINGTON moans before the Milan collections. How does she cope? She chain-smokes, she giggles and she remains philosophical, saying, "There's just not any way to adjust to this kind of life."