An Australian celebrity magazine says George Clooney is headed back to NBC's ER.

        Variety cites a report in NW magazine saying the 1979 Augusta High School graduate will return to ER for three episodes this season as Dr. Doug Ross.

        “It is thought that he may appear toward the end of the new (season) when Anthony Edwards, who plays Dr. Mark Greene, leaves the medical drama,” Variety says.

        Mr. Clooney's Dr. Ross left the show in February 1999, at the expiration of his original five-year contract. He returned to ER a year later, in a surprise scene, when Julianna Margulies (nurse Carol Hathaway) left the series.

        The 40-year-old son of writer and former TV anchor Nick Clooney has been busy making movies since leaving ER. He has starred in The Perfect Storm, Three Kings and O Brother, Where Art Thou? He has completed a remake of Frank Sinatra's Ocean's Eleven due out Dec. 7. He also produced and starred in CBS' live telecast of Fail Safe in 2000.

        Original cast member Eriq LaSalle also leaves ER before the TV season ends in May.

        ER is bringing Sherry Stringfield, who played Dr. Susan Lewis the first two seasons, back later this year. She and Noah Wyle (Dr. John Carter) will be the only original cast members next fall.

        Game of the week: Volunteers at Waycross Community Video in Forest Park will be videotaping St. Xavier-Elder football game, the hottest ticket in town today, for a delayed broadcast at midnight tonight.

        It will air on Time Warner Cable countywide's public access Channel 24. The telecast repeats 9 p.m. Monday on Channel 24.

        Cheers update: So what would Cliff Clavin, Cheers barfly and minutia expert, be doing today?

        “Cliff became a billionaire,” says John Ratzenberger, who played the mail carrier on the Emmy-winning sitcom. “He started an Internet site called "Ask Cliff.' He's presently anchored somewhere in his yacht, I believe.”

        Nick at Nite's Cheers marathon (9 p.m.-2 a.m. today) salutes Cliff and Norm Peterson (George Wendt).

        By the way, Mr. Wendt says he has asked Frasier producers about having Mr. Ratzenberger and himself on the show based on Kelsey Grammer's old Cheers character. His idea: Having Norm and Cliff making prank calls to Dr. Frasier Crane's radio show.

        “Every year I call those guys over at Frasier,” he says, “but they don't bite.”

        Enquirering Mind: An Enquirering Mind wanted to know: Does Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuslike to watch The Goodbye Girl, Jaws, American Graffiti, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The American President, Mr. Holland's Opus or his other famous films?

        “No,” he replies instantly, “because I made them for you to see — not for me to see,” says the actor, who is starring in CBS' The Education of Max Bickford (8 p.m. Sundays, Channels 12, 7).

        Old hoax: The Touched by an Angel hoax continues to circulate via e-mail, according to a reader's call. The e-mail says that CBS is being forced to pull Touched by an Angel off the air because it uses the word “God” in every program.

        When I wrote about this hoax 18 months ago, the Federal Communications Commission was receiving an inquiry about it at least once a week.

        According to the rumor, atheist followers of Madalyn Murray O'Hair have presented the FCC with 287,000 signatures on petitions “to stop the reading of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior on the airwaves of America.” (Ms. O'Hair disappeared in 1995 and is believed to have been kidnapped, robbed and killed. Her bones were discovered on a Texas ranch in March.)

        The FCC says: “The rumor is not true. There is no federal law or regulation that gives the FCC the authority to prohibit radio and television stations from presenting religious programs.”

        In fact, the Communications Act which created the FCC prohibits the agency “from censoring broadcast material and interfering with freedom of speech in broadcasting,” the FCC says.

        FCC spokesman David Fiske says the false report has been circulating for more than 25 years. The petition number mentioned in the hoax dates back to a 1974 case in which the FCC was asked to look into stations licensed to religious organizations. The petition was denied by the FCC on Aug. 1, 1975.

        Cool news: Bob Backman, host of Cool Bobby B's Doo Wop Stop, celebrates the ninth anniversary of his live call-in show on oldies WGRR-FM (103.5) at midnight Saturday. Mr. Backman, former general manager of WUBE-FM, syndicates a recorded version of show to 28 stations in 17 states.

        Around the dial: PBS' new Life 360 examines food today with Robert Krulwich going into the kitchens of New York's most exclusive restaurants, and comedian Margaret Cho talking about her weight battles (9 p.m. on Channels 48 and 16; 10 p.m. today on Channel 54).

        Contact John Kiesewetter by phone: 768-8519; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com.

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