A Doc Who Specializes in Funny Bones

Patch Adams--the man behind the movie--isn’t content to wring a few tears out of you this holiday season. He’s hoping you’ll put some money where your bawling mouth is and help him build the Gesundheit Hospital--Patch’s dream of a free clinic in Virginia.

Anyone who has passed a patch test can tell you that the real Dr. Adams, who inspired the Universal film starring Robin Williams, has clinically proven that laughter is indeed the best medicine. That must have made him particularly handy last week at a benefit premiere in that hurtin’ town, Washington, D.C. Universal’s fund-raising pros have prescribed a slew of national appearances for Adams to fire up the $20-million campaign.

“Patch is an extraordinary human being,” longtime Patch pal and producer Mike Farrell said at the blowout for “Patch Adams” on the Universal lot Thursday.

Adams didn’t make the L.A. premiere, which came on the heels of the one in D.C. But another American hero was there--Mark McGwire--as well as “Patch” director and executive producer Tom Shadyac, screenwriter Steve Oedekerk, and co-stars Monica Potter and Bob Gunton. Williams’ nutty buddies Billy Crystal and Eric Idle celebrated with the star and his producer wife, Marsha Garces Williams, who had her own news to toast: She’s going to Broadway as one of the producers behind “Not About Nightingales,” an early Tennessee Williams play that opens in February. It will be her first project without her husband.

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What’s sexier than a love bug in the buff?

How about one dressed in Thierry Mugler’s futuristic sex couture? See for yourself in January’s 45th anniversary issue of Playboy magazine. If that’s not pricey enough, then crack open the designer’s new coffee-table topper, “Thierry Mugler: Fashion, Fetish, Fantasy” (General Publishing, $45).

The demure Mugler broke out his African python jacket to break bread with soul mate Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion not long ago. Actually, it had to be broken coffee, because the pajama-ed one is usually scarce before dessert.

You may think Hefner specializes in a state of undress, but Mugler would tell you au contraire.

“I’m completely seduced by Mr. Hefner,” he said later. “He created a look, definitely. His look is a very classy man with a huge touch of sexiness and freedom.”