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Monday, December 07, 1998 4:46:24 PM EST

• Hootie & the Blowfish head to Persian Gulf
• Onetime Stray Cat makes big swing back
• More honors for 'Life is Beautiful' star
• 'Blue Room' gave Kidman the jitters
• Supermodel says charges are 'sour grapes'

Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish

(CNN) -- The Arab peninsula soon will be invaded by Blowfish of the Hootie variety. Darius Rucker and the boys are taking their act to such exotic locales as Bahrain, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and other places around the world to bring some holiday cheer to the men and women of the U.S. military. They're hooking up with the USO and will perform songs from their new release, "Musical Chairs."

"People really seem to forget there's people in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia who are there for a year or whatever," said Rucker, lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish. "In their hearts, they're there to protect the people of America and what we stand for."

Setzer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- When Brian Setzer, was a member of the Stray Cats back in the 1980s, his band helped rejuvenate rockabilly. These days, his Brian Setzer Orchestra is riding the swing wave -- but he says the venture into swing only came from an appearance on the old "Tonight" show that never happened.

The Cats never got on the show, but NBC executives had asked if they wanted to play one of their hits with Doc Severinsen's big band. "A light bulb went off. That was one of the first times I ever got the idea," Setzer says.

The resurgence in swing has been building for some time, Setzer tells Rolling Stone magazine. "Let's face it, swing is huge," says Setzer. "Last year I was selling 7,000 tickets at the Greek Theater in L.A. with no radio play ... No MTV or VH1. It was word-of-mouth."

Benigni

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Adding to a long list of honors won by "Life is Beautiful," the European Film Awards named Roberto Benigni best actor in 1998 for his performance in "Life is Beautiful," which the Italian also directed and co-wrote.

The movie itself was named best European film of the year at the ceremony in London's Old Vic Theater on Friday. "Life is Beautiful" has won numerous accolades at film festivals including Cannes, Jerusalem, Toronto, Warsaw and Italy, where it collected nine Donatello Awards, the equivalent of the Academy Awards in the United States.

"I am overjoyed and extremely grateful to receive this extraordinary honor," Benigni said. "These awards fill my heart with happiness, knowing that people throughout Europe have been touched by our film."

Kidman

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sex, multiple personalities and marriage may not be subjects that comfort actress Nicole Kidman, but at least they don't bore the star of "The Blue Room," a play about turn-of-the-century romance in Vienna scheduled to open on Sunday in New York.

"I freaked out. I phoned my dad in Sydney and said, 'I'm terrified. I have to pull out of the play,'" Kidman said in this week's issue of Newsweek in anticipation of her debut performance. The Australian native plays five characters, and appears nude in one scene, in the David Hare adaption from Arthur Schnitzler's 1900 play "La Ronde."

Kidman, 31, also told the magazine her marriage to actor Tom Cruise is "complicated," but that's OK, "because otherwise I'd be bored. It's been nine years and I'm past the seven-year itch."

Campbell

LONDON (CNN) -- Naomi Campbell, charged with assaulting a former personal assistant, promised to fight the allegation, which she calls "sour grapes."

Police in Toronto charged the British supermodel on Friday with assault causing actual bodily harm to Georgina Galanis, who claims Campbell struck her in the head with a mobile telephone.

A spokeswoman for Campbell said, "As far as she is concerned it is a case of sour grapes by an ex-employee trying to cash in on the loss of her job."

Reuters Limited contributed to this report.