Inqlings | Stuck on being king of piercings

A human porcupine!

Photographer Philip Roomet plans to be pierced 1,500 times tomorrow on the Preston & Steve morning show on WMMR (93.3).

Why?

"Because I can," says Roomet, 28, who lives in New Castle, Del. Tattoo artist Bryan O'Keefe is flying in from Arizona to do the work.

During the four-hour show, they hope to break the Guinness record for body piercings in one session, which is 1,015 in 7 hours and 55 minutes, set last year by two blokes from the U.K.

Roomet's ears, septum, upper tongue, under his tongue, gums ("just one"), nipples and navel already are pierced.

They'll do 500 piercings in each arm. "The rest will go in my chest and stomach, and if he runs out of room, we're going to use my back," says Roomet, who tried this before but ran into paperwork problems with Guinness.

The new piercings will be temporary - just breaking the skin. "They hurt more coming out."

Two special guests are due at this year's Rock Art Show, coming to the Shops at Liberty Place tomorrow through March 31.

One is Baron Wolman, the first chief photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, who will be on hand from noon to 4 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. The second should interest Beatles geeks: She's Pauline Sutcliffe, whose brother Stuart was the Beatles' first bassist in the Hamburg and Liverpool days; he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 21. Besides music, Stuart was known for his paintings, and Sutcliffe will bring along two: an abstract expressionistic oil on paper, and a more accessible painting of a boat and seagulls.

"Stuart is known in the fine-art world, and it's very hard to think of him in the celebrity art world," says Sutcliffe, a noted psychotherapist who spent a year here in 1979 at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. She says Rock Art Show creator Scott Segelbaum changed her mind, explaining the value of exposure.

Sutcliffe will be at the show from 9 to 11 a.m. Sunday during a live broadcast of Andre Gardner's Breakfast With the Beatles show on WMGK (102.9).

Flyers announcer

Jim Jackson

will host the Phillies' pregame and postgame shows, replacing

Scott Franzke

, who will do play-by-play exclusively this year. "The crossover is pretty limited," says Jackson, who will remain with the Flyers. He expects to miss two or three Phillies games at the start of the regular season. (Should the Flyers make the playoffs . . . Oh, never mind.) The first Grapefruit League season game is at 1:05 p.m. today, on WPHT (1210).

WIP (610) nighttimer Glen Macnow had his double knee replacement on Tuesday at Pennsylvania Hospital. He's due to return March 19 and will broadcast from home at first. Brian Startare is among the fill-ins.

Andrew Balitzky

, a 23-year-old Cardinal Dougherty grad, collapsed and died six years ago while playing ice hockey. No one there knew CPR - except for Balitzky. Saturday morning, the high school in the city's East Oak Lane section will host free CPR training for teens and young adults; call 1-800-422-7677 to register.

St. Philomena's School in Lansdowne, alma mater of CBS3's Larry Mendte, is in danger of closing. Mendte came up with a fund-raiser to mark the school's centennial and to defray operating costs. He and his wife, Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland, will host the sold-out event Saturday at the Oaks Ballroom in Glenolden.

No star trip for

Jim Ellis

, subject of the forthcoming

Terrence Howard

-

Bernie Mac

movie

Pride

. Ellis, the nationally known swim coach, was offered a hotel room at the Four Seasons - as were Howard, Mac and director

Sunu Gonera

- after Tuesday night's invitation-only screening. But no. Ellis chose to go home to his City Avenue apartment. Ellis and crew left last night for a press junket in L.A.