By Belinda Luscombe

AFTER L'ACQUITTAL, L'AMOUR?

People who've gone through a highly traumatic experience together--an airplane crash, say--often seek each other out. And who's more traumatized these days than MARCIA CLARK and CHRIS DARDEN? The two were seen together in San Francisco, shopping, dining, reportedly even dancing. But the Los Angeles D.A.'s office, unaccustomed to handling inquiries so tender in nature, nixes the idea of romance. "They have to use their vacation time," says a spokeswoman. "And who better understands what they're going through than each other?"

SEEN & HEARD

Winnie Mandela's playing hard to get rid of. In papers filed in court, she claims her marriage to Nelson Mandela could be saved by traditional African reconciliation procedures, which involve meetings with their extended families. But as Mr. Mandela doesn't seem to want a rapprochement, she seeks half his assets.

What do Clint Eastwood and Divine Brown have in common? They each got $150,000 when exclusive interviews with them appeared in tabloids. But Eastwood had to sue for his. He claimed that an interview that appeared in the National Enquirer in 1993 never took place. The Enquirer claimed it did. The jury believed Eastwood.

HELLO FROM BORIS PACKWOOD

For a guy with heart problems, BORIS YELTSIN sure is frisky. As he arrived at what was supposed to be a press conference regarding his coming summit meeting with President Clinton, Yeltsin playfully tweaked two female secretaries. One woman, startled by this gesture of fellowship, sat bolt upright and spun around; the other barely reacted. The oddball presidential games over, the gathering got serious. Yeltsin announced that he was firing his Foreign Minister; the following day he changed his mind.

CALLING ALL ZEN STUDS

Tough guys do meditate. Plus, they write about it. Chicago Bulls coach PHIL JACKSON and movie star-martial artist-deodorant endorser CHUCK NORRIS are both releasing books on Zen. In Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior, released this month, Jackson--or Swift Eagle, as his friends the Lakota Sioux call him--expounds his theory that in basketball "the mystery of life gets played out night after night" and suggests that the pertinent thing about the Bulls' signature triangle offense is that it "embodies the Zen Christian attitude of selfless awareness." Norris' book, The Secret Power Within, his second contribution to the Zen genre, will be out next February. In it he'll explain the personal meditation technique that helped him kick in all those faces onscreen.