A dung deal

New York — Four years ago, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani blasted the Brooklyn Museum of Art for hanging a painting of the Virgin Mary that was decorated with elephant dung.

An exhibit that opened at the Whitney this week strikes back — with a portrait of Giuliani that has elephant dung painted on it.

“Libertas, De Te Servent!” (Liberty, May the Gods Protect You!), by Chinese artist Zhou Tiehai, is part of an exhibition about America’s global image at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The wall text draws parallels between Giuliani’s stance and that of Communist leaders and says the dung is meant as a reference to the 1999 controversy over Chris Ofili’s work, “Holy Virgin Mary.” Giuliani tried to pull public funding from the Brooklyn museum after it featured the work.

A Fonda revival

Jane Fonda is considering two roles for her movie comeback, reports the New York Daily News — 13 years after she last appeared in theaters with Robert De Niro in “Stanley and Iris.”

In one project, the 65-year-old actress would play the title role in “Monster-in-Law,” a dark comedy about a jealous mother who tries to derail her son’s wedding. Insiders say Jennifer Lopez is a potential co-star.

The ex-Mrs. Ted Turner is also looking at director Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown,” about a circle of young friends in a small Southern town. Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom and Ashton Kutcher also are said to be on Crowe’s wish list for the production.

‘Becker’ crew back to work

New York — Ted Danson and the cast of “Becker” will be heading back to work sooner than expected.

Less than two months ago, CBS announced that it had canceled the comedy after five seasons. Then, the network had second thoughts and said “Becker” would come back as a midseason replacement series.

On Wednesday, CBS changed its mind again: “Becker” will be on the schedule at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday this fall.

Belushi’s touch on ‘Animal House’

New York — Director John Landis says one of John Belushi’s more memorable scenes in the 1978 frat-house comedy, “Animal House,” wasn’t scripted.

On HBO’s “On the Record” with Bob Costas, which aired Friday, Landis describes the scene in which Belushi destroys the guitar of folk singer Stephen Bishop in midsong during a Delta House toga party, and then sheepishly apologizes.

“That’s a good scene. That’s not in the script, we just made that up. But that’s key to Belushi’s character — Bluto is sweet. That’s the thing John was capable of doing,” Landis says in excerpts released in advance by the cable channel.

“I told him he was like Harpo and the Cookie Monster, and both Harpo Marx and the Cookie Monster are about appetites, and what’s unique about Cookie and Harpo is they’re both totally destructive and completely sweet.”

Belushi, a cast member of NBC”s “Saturday Night Live,” died of a drug overdose in 1982 at age 33.