June
17 "Hitler" in Vienna

When "The Producers" bows on stage in Vienna on June 30, Mel Brooks tells me it will be titled "Fruehling Fur Hitler" ("Springtime for Hitler"). You'll recall that's the title of the play chosen by producers Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in their plan to bamboozle the investors with a flop play -- which turns out to be a smash hit. Brooks says "The Producers" played under that title during one other booking in Scandinavia. Will Mel attend in Vienna? "I might," he says. "I still have my  helmet and rifle from World War II. And only if it is done good-naturedly. Not if there's any anti-Semitism."

Meanwhile, Brooks says "Young Frankenstein" rolls merrily along after a year but some cast members are departing. They include Megan Mullally (Elizabeth), Andrea Martin (Frau Blucher) and Sutton Foster (Inga). "The boys are staying," said Brooks. They include Roger Bart. As for taking "Blazing Saddles" to the stage he wonders, "What can we do with the first five rows in the theater during the farting scene?" So he's listening to invitations to do a one-man show. "I have a lot of stories I can tell," he says, "if only the things I've said in your columns."

P.S. Brooks says he likes the feature version of "Get Smart" based on the characters he and Buck Henry created for television. "I love Steve Carell. He was the perfect choice." Carell was flattered by the positive reactions he received from (the late) Don Adams' family who attended Monday night's premiere, after which Steve left for his N.Y. stint on David Letterman's show tonight. Ed Platt's son also complimented Carell, who he asked to autograph his dad's set chair from the series.

Carell says there's a lot more waiting on the DVD, which will include outtakes such as the 20 ways  Steve says he wants to go to the bathroom on the plane. That's only one sample of his ad libs in the movie, which will have Disney Hall aficionados wondering how director Peter Segal managed to film the grand finale there! Carell returns to a more realistic world -- "The Office" -- on July 28.