Back Track

Teenagers are prone to identity crises, but no one has more reason to be confused than KIMBERLY MAYS, who was switched with another baby at birth. Just seven months ago, the 15-year-old begged a Sarasota, Florida, judge not to return her to her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg. "I hate the Twiggs," she said. Last week Mays, described by her lawyer as having "personal difficulties," left her father Robert Mays, entered a youth shelter and finally went to stay with the Twiggs. "Mom," she said to Regina Twigg, "I love you and I want to come home."

A Grownup Macaulay

There is a seductively boyish mischievousness to HUGH GRANT that one suspects he's worked hard to suppress of late. In three new films, all out this month, Grant plays a priggish minister (Sirens), a diffident commitment-phobe (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and an archetypically repressed British husband (Bitter Moon). Although an admitted John Hughes fan, Grant delighted in working with Bitter Moon director Roman Polanski. "You start at noon, you have a big boozy lunch, and then you'll find his wife--bored on the set--taking off her shirt. It's not like working on a Merchant-Ivory film."

SEEN & HEARD

Having earned $46 million during the past two years, David Copperfield is ready to immerse himself in the role of good provider. Dressing her hand with a very nonillusory bauble, the magician proposed to girlfriend Claudia Schiffer on a remote Caribbean island. Abracadabra, she accepted.

Axl Rose may be even more troubled than he seems. A suit filed by his ex-wife Erin Everly claims that Rose not only beat her repeatedly but is currently getting exorcised because he fears he's possessed. Rose's psychotherapist allegedly told Everly that her actions in a past life made Rose violent in this life.

It's an unsettling prospect: the singer of Half-Breed taking on, say, Embraceable You. Yes, Cher is contributing to an all-Gershwin album. She's got rhythm, all right, but please, let's call the whole thing off.

Time to Vogue

Few sights could be more distracting than that of models wearing edible Issey Miyake hats. And yet during the showing of the fall collections in Paris, it was the cast of Robert Altman's Pret a Porter that provided the real spectacle. Altman shot footage for his fashion-world satire right at the shows, placing his stars (many of them portraying reporters) on the front lines. Players SALLY KELLERMAN, KIM BASINGER, LAUREN BACALL and RUPERT EVERETT took in Christian Dior's wares. "What's going on is a real confusion of the movie and reality," noted Lyle Lovett, also in the film. "What's real and what's not? It makes a statement about fashion."