NAMES & FACES

A 1907 portrait by Gustav Klimt has been purchased by cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder for $135 million, the highest amount ever paid for a painting, the New York Times reports in its Monday editions.

The price tops the $104.1 million paid for Pablo Picasso's 1905 "Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)" in an auction at Sotheby's in 2004, the paper said.

The portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer , the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist, was the focus of a restitution battle between the Austrian government and a niece of Bloch-Bauer who argued that it was seized along with four other Klimt paintings by the Nazis during World War II, Reuters reports.

In January all five paintings were awarded to the niece, Maria Altmann , 90, who lives in Los Angeles, and other family members.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime acquisition," said Lauder, who is a founder of the five-year-old Neue Galerie, a tiny Manhattan museum devoted entirely to German and Austrian art where all five Klimt paintings will be on view July 13 through Sept. 18. They are currently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Celebrities Not Included

It's sparkly, it's red, it goes well with green -- lots of green. The scarlet sequined gown worn by Dustin Hoffman in the movie "Tootsie" went for $26,400 at auction in New York over the weekend, part of a trove of celebrity memorabilia that included interview tapes of John Lennon ($60,000) and the steel-rimmed derby worn by James Bond villain Oddjob in "Goldfinger" ($33,600). The magnetic chapeau came from the estate of Harold Sakata , who played Oddjob in the 1964 film. A rhinestone- encrusted belt worn by Elvis Presley at his 1972 Honolulu concert, from the estate of "Hawaii Five-O" star Jack Lord , brought $66,000 in the Saturday sale, held by the L.A.-based house Julien's Auctions.

Noted . . .

Actress Katherine Heigl is engaged to musician Josh Kelley, People magazine reports. Reps for the "Grey's Anatomy" star say Heigl and her guitar-strumming fiance haven't set a date. Heigl, 27, and Kelley, 25, met last year when she appeared in a video for his song "Only You" . . .

Dustin Diamond , better known as Screetch Powers from the teen TV series "Saved by the Bell," is hawking T-shirts with his picture on them to raise the $250,000 he needs to save his Wisconsin house from foreclosure. Diamond, 29, is trying to sell 30,000 shirts at $15 or $20 (autographed) each to supplement his income as a stand-up comic. The tee shows Diamond holding a sign that says "Save My House" . . .

The Stones are still rolling despite guitarist Ron Wood checking himself into a London rehab clinic last week for alcohol dependency. Rolling Stones spokeswoman Fran Curtis told Reuters that the band was "absolutely going ahead on tour," beginning July 11 in Milan and continuing to 11 countries. With this setback for Wood, 59, and after guitarist Keith Richards's brain surgery last month after falling out of a palm tree, let's hope the European leg of the band's "Bigger Bang" tour isn't a bust.

. . . And Quoted

"The production schedule was so grueling, I told the producers they should have called it 'Kill Al Volume 1.' But I am happy the message is getting out."

-- Al Gore to Life magazine on life as the star of the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

-- Compiled from wire reports by Ashby Strassburger

. . . And Quoted

"The production schedule was so grueling, I told the producers they should have called it 'Kill Al Volume 1.' But I am happy the message is getting out."

-- Al Gore to Life magazine on life as the star of the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

-- Compiled from wire reports by Ashby Strassburger