Lawrence.com

You don't have to be a Barbra Streisand fan to enjoy the "AFI Salute to Barbra Streisand" (7 p.m., Fox). I'll be the first to admit that I go out of my way to avoid Streisand movies. Like Elizabeth Taylor, she's more of an icon than an actress. When I see her on the screen, I see Streisand, not her character.

But if you like watching a Hollywood A-list on display, this salute is a must. Fellow icon Elizabeth Taylor is one of the first to pay tribute in an emotional speech that is gushing even by Hollywood standards. Shirley MacLaine rambles semi-coherently about the power of the number 24 in Streisand's life and career, and Dustin Hoffman recalls how he and Barbra were work-study students back in New York, assigned to wash out the bathrooms of their acting studio.

Some of the funniest lines come from performers you wouldn't necessarily associate with Streisand. Comedian Phyllis Diller acknowledges that half of her audiences are wondering what she is doing on stage, then cracks that the other half probably thought she was dead. Then she graciously reminds her audience that a 19-year-old Streisand used to open for her in a Greenwich Village nightclub.

Jack Nicholson, looking slightly seedy in shades, stumbles to his feet and gushes, "I forgot I was ever in a Barbara Streisand picture." He played a sitar-playing free spirit in director Vincent Minnelli's "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." Other tributes arrive both in person and on tape from Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Nick Nolte, Lauren Bacall, Robert Redford and former President � and Streisand fan � Bill Clinton.

l Some of America's smartest students square off in the Scripps/Howard National Spelling Bee (9 a.m., ESPN; 6:30 p.m., ESPN 2). Now in its 74th year, the Bee is America's oldest and longest running educational competition. While some may think that a sports channel is a strange place to find a spelling contest, ESPN executive John Wildhack thinks that the Bee is right up there with the World Series.

"Very few competitions in television match the anxious moments of the Bee," says Wildhack.

While fewer than 40 contestants will still be standing at the beginning of today's competition, more than 10 million youngsters will participate in this year's spelling program. Seventy-five years of spelling bees have certainly raised the level of difficulty. Back in 1935, the winning word was "intelligible." In 1999, it was "logorrhea." "Demarche" was the final word in 2000. If spelling is any indication, America's kids are getting smarter every year.

Tonight's other highlights

� Cheech Marin hosts "Funny Flubs and Screw Ups" (7 p.m., CBS).

� Luke reads too much into Lorelai's request on a repeat of "The Gilmore Girls" (7 p.m., WB).

� A hotel lobby bombing on a repeat of "CSI" (8 p.m., CBS).

� The kids get to know Sandra Bernhard (as herself) while pretending to want to buy her apartment on a repeat of "Will & Grace" (8 p.m., NBC).

� Scheduled on "48 Hours" (9 p.m., CBS): a report on a Massachusetts warehouse fire that claimed the lives of six firefighters.

� A car accident sends a father and son (James Belushi and Jared Padalecki) to the emergency room on a repeat of "ER" (9 p.m., NBC).

Series notes

� "WWF" and "Millionaire" are new ... Phoebe learns to ride a bike on "Friends" (7 p.m., NBC) ... Drew Carey hosts back-to-back episodes of "Whose Line is it Anyway?" (7 p.m., ABC) ... Wrestling on "WWF Smackdown" (7 p.m., UPN).

Nora re-enters the dating scene on "Three Sisters" (7:30 p.m., NBC).

Regis Philbin hosts "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (8 p.m., ABC) ... Prue and Piper take a walk on the wicked side on "Charmed" (8 p.m., WB).