Now for a golden education

Radnor, Pa. — Figure skater Sarah Hughes, who upset Michelle Kwan to win an Olympic gold medal last February, now has her eyes on a different prize: the Ivy League.

Hughes, 17, said she did “very well” on her SATs and is considering Harvard, where she has already been accepted, as well as Columbia, Princeton and Yale, where she has applied.

“I don’t have to decide until May,” Hughes told TV Guide for its Jan. 11 issue.

Hughes of Great Neck, N.Y., hopes to win her first national title when she competes in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Dallas next week.

Back to acting for Clooney

Palm Springs, Calif. — George Clooney’s first directing experience was fun and invigorating, but he won’t be going behind the camera again anytime soon.

“I won’t be directing again for a while,” Clooney said Saturday at a special screening of his new movie “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.” The screening kicked off the 14th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.

“I have to go make a living somewhere,” he said.

Clooney’s directorial debut chronicles the secret life of “The Gong Show” host Chuck Barris, who claimed in his 1982 “unauthorized autobiography” that he was also a CIA hit man.

Hermits no more

Ted Turner and Frederique Darragon, companions since the CNN founder broke up with his third wife, Jane Fonda, two years ago, are raising their public profile.

“I could write a book about what I like about her,” the 64-year-old Turner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She’s beautiful, she’s intelligent, she’s hard-working, she’s cheerful, she’s smart. She lives a very healthy lifestyle. She’s good to me.”

Darragon, a 53-year-old Paris native, said she and Turner met in 1969 while yacht racing. They renewed their relationship after he and Fonda split up, she said.

A ‘Soprano’ stiffs his guests

Former “Sopranos” star Joe Pantoliano stands accused of being a cheapskate by the Hoboken restaurant where he threw a private party, reports The New York Post.

Hoboken Fire Department Capt. Frank Palmisano, whose uncle, Peter Palmisano, owns Anthony’s eatery, says Pantoliano still owes his uncle $1,000 for a family-style Italian feast the actor had there Dec. 28.

Halfway through the party, Pantoliano grabbed the microphone and informed his 150 guests that they had to fork over $50 apiece. Palmisano says Pantoliano collected some cash from his stunned guests — who had thought he was footing the bill — then left without paying.

“Joe is a crumb. He’s always been known as a cheap bleep around here,” seethed Palmisano, who promised to hang a photo of Pantoliano over a urinal in the men’s room of his own restaurant, Biggie’s Clam Bar.

Pantoliano, who grew up in Hoboken and still keeps an apartment there, could not be reached.