PERSONALITIES

Early yesterday morning, before Cher went off to join Mitch Snyder's march for the homeless, she dropped by the Lab School in Northwest Washington. Three years ago, the school presented the Academy Award-winning actress with one of its Learning Disabled Achiever Awards, for success in overcoming learning problems. When the actress and singer knew she was coming to town to promote her new perfume, Uninhibited, at Hecht's Metro Center yesterday afternoon, she called the school and asked if she could stop by and talk with the children.

At the school, Cher had a surprise. She said she had been in Atlantic City over the weekend with a group of "high rollers" and had told them about the Lab School and how it helps children with learning disabilities such as hers. Cher said the group was so impressed that someone passed the hat, and yesterday Cher presented the school with a Sands Hotel envelope containing a check for $5,000. Out and About

Film star Elizabeth McGovern, who appeared in the first two weeks of Arena Stage's production of "Ring Round the Moon," has left the show to shoot a gangster film with Mickey Rourke in New Orleans. An Arena spokesman said McGovern spent six weeks in rehearsals for the play and had warned that she might have to leave to make a movie, and that she fulfilled Actors Equity rules by giving Arena four weeks' notice. She has been replaced by Marissa Chivas, a New York actress who made her Broadway debut in "Brighton Beach Memoirs," for the remainder of the production, which ends Nov. 20 ...

Talk about all in the family. In "Far North," the new film written and directed by Sam Shepard, nearly everyone seems to be friends or relatives. Shepard's longtime companion Jessica Lange stars in the film about life on a ranch in Lange's home state of Minnesota, and her real father and uncle have bit parts in the film. Lange's film father is Charles Durning, who also played her character's father in "Tootsie." And Ann Wedgeworth, who played Lange's mother in "Sweet Dreams," plays her mother in "Far North." The movie also features Tess Harper, who worked with both Lange and Shepard in "Crimes of the Heart." There obviously weren't many strangers on the set ...

It could be one of those satires in which fiction could be reality. In a modern political campaign, with some candidates dominated by their handlers, would it be possible for staff members to cover up the fact that the candidate is dead? Vic Gold, former press secretary and speech writer to Barry Goldwater and vice presidents Spiro Agnew and George Bush, has written a satire called "The Body Politic" with Lynne Cheney, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In the book, the Republican vice presidential candidate dies just before the Wisconsin primary, but his resourceful press secretary keeps his boss alive in the media with judicious press releases and leaks. Gold said he got the idea for the book when he asked a friend, an aide to an aging senator, what he would do when the congressman died. "Well for one thing," the aide quipped, "we won't let anybody know about it" ...

Among the election night parties is one at the National Democratic Club where Greek and Texan food will be served, and maybe it means nothing at all, but the band playing for the Democrats there tonight is called Chapter 11 ...

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