Tattle: He'd look spiffy in surgeon-general uniform

CNN says President-elect

Barack Obama

has approached its medical correspondent,

Sanjay Gupta

, to be the country's next surgeon general.

The cable news network said yesterday that it has kept Gupta from reporting on government health-care policy since learning he was under consideration for the post.

The surgeon general typically isn't much involved in shaping an administration's policy, but it can be an effective bully pulpit. Past surgeons general have proved instrumental in battling tobacco and AIDS.

Having a TV personality in the post could also elevate the profile of the position, and be helpful for Obama, who is personally very health-conscious.

Yeah, except that he smokes.

NBC, meanwhile, has yet to announce that Obama's choice to replace Bill Richardson as secretary of commerce is the banker from "Deal or No Deal."

Travoltas return to Florida

John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, have returned to Florida with the remains of their 16-year-old son, Jett, who died at the family vacation home in Grand Bahama.

The couple received an urn with his ashes and left the island chain Monday night, according to Obie Wilchcombe, a member of the Bahamas parliament and a family friend.

"Everything was in place, the cremation was completed, and they decided to leave," Wilchcombe said yesterday. He said the family is back in Ocala, Fla., where they have a home.

Doctors in the Bahamas performed an autopsy on Jett on Monday but did not release results. However, a Bahamas undertaker said the teen's death certificate had "seizure" as the cause of death.

Funeral plans have not been announced.

In Ocala, Mayor Randy Ewers said the city sent the Travolta family condolences and will give them space and privacy.

"They're fantastic people, really family oriented," Ewers said. "We want to respect their privacy as much as possible."

Paparazzi issued no such

statement.

Tattbits

* When Nigel

Pike, father of

Will Pike, a 28-year-old victim of November's Mumbai terror attacks, wrote Eddie Izzard asking the comedian to send a note to his injured, bedridden son, Izzard came up with a better idea.

The comedian did a 90- minute stand-up routine over the holidays at the London hospital where Pike was recovering.

Pike broke three vertebrae, both his arms and shattered his pelvis after falling from a makeshift rope he'd made from bedsheets when terrorists took over the Mumbai hotel where he and his girlfriend were staying.

Pike had tickets to one of Izzard's recent performances, but had to miss it.

* Filmmaker Roman Polan-

ski's bid to have a three-decade-old rape charge against him dismissed was challenged yesterday by prosecutors in documents that included the most graphic account yet of his sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl.

Prosecutors say Polanski's motion should be denied outright, adding that his claims of judicial misconduct cannot be heard in court unless he returns to the United States.

As a fugitive, Polanski could be arrested if he entered the country. He fled in 1977 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He has lived in self-imposed exile in France since then. His lawyers have suggested the matter can be argued without his presence.

Too bad he had to be present for the sex.

* "Late Late Show" host Craig

Ferguson held his left hand up to the camera Monday night and announced that he'd gotten married to art dealer Megan Wallace Cunningham.

He suggested that he and Megan be referred to as "Cragan," like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are known as "Brangelina."

This is Ferguson's third marriage. He has a 7-year-old son Milo from his second marriage.

* Adam Shankman, who did

such a great job directing the movie version of "Hairspray," is going to try his musical hand at remaking "Bye, Bye Birdie," the Hollywood Reporter reports.

With a dated story and only a few memorable songs, this is going to be a challenge.

* The Hollywood Reporter also

says that Jimmy Hayward, who directed the animated "Horton Hears a Who!" will go way in another direction, making his live-action debut with the post-Civil War western "Jonah Hex."

Josh Brolin is attached to star as the badly scarred bounty hunter.

* Rihanna, who may have the

longest legs in R&B, will leave the short skirts home when she performs in Malaysia next month. She becomes the latest international star affected by the Muslim-majority country's strict rules on performers' dress.

Under government guidelines, a female performer must be covered from her shoulders to her knees.

When the Pussycat Dolls flouted Malaysian decency regulations in 2006, they were fined nearly $3,000.

Seems like a small price to pay for a group that wouldn't exist but for flouting decency regulations.

* Us Weekly reports that Alyssa

Milano has become engaged to Hollywood agent David Bugliari.

No date set yet.

"I've gotten such s--- about my dating choices," she told Details in 2007 of her penchant for romancing Major League pitchers. "Like, every single article . . . is about how I'm 'the chick that dates athletes . . . . ' " She added, "I'd love to just find a good plumber or doctor."

So she picks an agent?

Once Tattle's mom saw Milano wasn't engaged to Tattle, she lost interest in this item. *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com