It’s easy to forget that Kirstie Alley was on “Cheers” and no one knew how crazy or mean she was. Today she Tweeted award winning genius scientist Stephen Hawking this disrespectful message: “You had a good go at it. Thanks for your input.” Her account is still up and she has not deleted the arrogant, ignorant Tweet despite criticism from the Twitter world. Alley obviously prefers the fiction of L. Ron Hubbard to the actual science of Hawking. An avowed member of Scientology, she subscribes to Xenu, John Travolta (who is a complete fiction) and the brainwashing of unsuspecting Hollywood wannabes. We learn something new and bad every day.

Kirstie, we didn’t ask for your input.

Sir Michael Caine and (Sir) Quincy Jones each turn 85 years young today. They’ve celebrated their birthdays together many times and have been friends for decades. Today is quite an achievement since the two of them have had a lot of fun and never compromised in their art.

I’ve known Michael Caine a while, since he starred in “The Cider House Rules” in 2000. He didn’t think he could win an Oscar, but he deserved it, and he did win. Frankly, he could have won Best Actor but he went into the Supporting category. He was a pleasure to have around that Oscar season, and has never failed to be quite the gent, smart and funny.

Caine’s other Oscar came in 1987, for Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters.” He’s the only man Woody has ever directed to an Oscar other than Woody himself. All of Allen’s other Oscar nominees and winners are women. Caine has four other Oscar nominations as well. PS He and Roger Moore were great pals. They were often in Elaine’s, and one year they took our beloved Elaine Kaufman to the Deauville Film Festival.

Quincy Jones, who you know is called “Q,” is a genius musician and humanitarian. Forget about that dust up last month and those crazy quotes. The fact is, Q is a jazz prodigy who conducted for Frank Sinatra during the Chairman’s heyday, arranged his music and helped bring him back. Q has recorded dozens of hits, worked with everyone, influenced countless musicians of different genres, and shaped Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and “Bad” into timeless blockbusters.

Q has a pair of headphones he sells through AKG (Harman, JBL). They’re listed at $1,499 but I think you can pick them up on amazon for half off. They’re called the N90Q and have this space age equalizing thing in them. They are worth the price. I recently got a “revised” pair to play with– and all I did was listen to Q’s jazz work through them. The sounds are magnificent, soaring, soulful. Transportive. Transplendent. Magnificato. You want to make up words for how his music makes you feel.

You know, everything about Quincy is real. There’s no artifice. He’s the real deal. He says wild things, they are mostly true, or true enough. He’s telling it like it is. We’d better appreciate him while we can.

Two great, irreplaceable legends. I hope they’re really celebrating today!

 Here’s Quincy producing Aretha, 1973, with “Somewhere”– Sondheim-Bernstein

George Clooney has been laying low in the film business recently. But he’s been getting more active politically. I told you a few weeks ago that he was donating $500,000 to the March 24th March for Our Lives. Now Clooney and John Prendergast have co-written an Op Ed piece for “Foreign Affairs” magazine on how to achieve peace in Africa.

In the piece, titled “The Key to Making Peace in Africa: Fighting Corruption Can Help End Conflict,” Clooney and Prendergast, the actor’s partner in The Sentry, a project of Clooney’s South Sudan effort called Not On Our Watch. write:

• “Every year, billions of aid dollars pour into Africa: taxpayers and donors around the world fund peacekeeping forces, state-building programs, humanitarian assistance, elections, and peace processes. But none of this support has been able to keep corrupt leaders and their network of beneficiaries from stealing billions of dollars.”
• “This is the fatal flaw of peacemaking in Africa: those supporting mediation lack the leverage necessary to stop corrupt figures from using their forces to bomb, burn, imprison, silence, torture, starve, impoverish, kill, and rape to maintain or gain power.”
• “Serious financial pressure with real bite is not only possible; it has proved effective in the past.”
•  “A comprehensive strategy of using financial pressure for peace and human rights in South Sudan and other African war zones would cost very little. But it would give African mediators and their supporters in Washington, London, and elsewhere leverage in peace negotiations.”

Clooney certainly seems like he’s continuing to test the political waters recently. He has no movies lined up, but is busy producing, directing and acting in the TV version of Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22.” His commitment to Africa, South Sudan especially, is not new. He and actor Don Cheadle have continued to be very active with Not On Our Watch and have been for about a decade.

Which new movie is Donald Trump screening at the White House?