In a scary echo of the classic Roman Polanski film starring Jack Nicholson, L.A. Water Power is messing with Gore Vidal's life.

The utility has come into the writer's Hollywood Hills home and shut down his solar power, forcing him back onto its electricity. Vidal, who once called William F. a "crypto-Nazi," has never been shy about expressing his feelings, and he was true to form when he talked to Kasia Anderson online at Truthdig.

"They went merrily around ripping wires out of the ground and pulling them out of the walls, without being invited in. "None of the people they sent over to examine it knew how it worked. The inspectors came, and they didn't know one wire from the other.

" What's more, said Vidal, "They tore out my elevator, which gets me up from the downstairs part. Vidal had experts install solar panels on the 1920s-era house after a bad experience last year. "There was a total blackout, and the next thing I know, for eight days we were without power of any kind in the house.

I was about to have a stroke; there was no air conditioning or anything else. So I went to a hotel and stayed there at huge expense for 10 days, maybe longer. "I was, like everybody else, on 'the grid.

' I never questioned it, never thought about it." "They've torn everything up, (claiming) it's 'incorrectly done.' "We did everything by the book to install, just to transfer over from the grid, which uses up what's left of the oil in the world, and we went to work to collect as much sunlight as we could.

" It worked beautifully for two weeks, he tells Anderson, until Tuesday. "By the time I got up, they'd turned off everything, all the lights. I said, 'Why?

They're working terribly well!' Well, there was no direct answer to that, except they wanted to!" Arnold Schwarzenegger might think about putting in a little call to execs at the city agency, who didn't return our calls.

The respected Vidal, at 81, doesn't show any signs of keeping mum, and it doesn't bode well for Schwarzenegger's Million Solar Roofs initiative, which seeks to reduce the state's dependency on oil and coal by 2010. Paris Hilton made up for lost time the other night. She and sis Nicky hit Les Deux in Hollywood and, according to our spy, "Paris drank heavily all night.

" Despite a rep's claims that she never touched a bottle, Paris downed vodka cocktails until "her eyes were glazed over," says our snitch. Charlie Sheen's new fiancee can't make up her mind on a career. Us Weekly reports that the "Two and a Half Men" star gave a half-million-dollar ring to gal pal Brooke Mueller, who calls herself a real-estate investor.

But under the name Brooke Allen, the 29-year-old beauty is filming "Strictly Sexual," in which two young women keep two guys in their poolhouse just for sexual purposes. Given his sordid past, that sounds like a plot Charlie's likely to fully embrace. 50 Cent canoodled with Ciara at Brentwood Restaurant and Lounge, TMZ claims.

You joking to me? Robert De Niro, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal and their wives hit Graydon Carter's Waverly Inn in Manhattan. "Robin was doing most of the talking, using a multitude of voices," one nearby diner told us.

"They were laughing their heads off for three hours." The fun continued out on the street when the group came upon a new Cinquecento, the teeny-weeny Italian car. Crystal wanted to pick it up and hide it down the block, spywitnesses report.

They should have listened to the Woodrow Wilson Institute's Jim Kaufman in February. That's when the Republican said the Bush administration would give Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki unmeetable goals so Republicans could "get out of there and save face. So it doesn't appear to be a Republican capitulation.

They gave him a set of unachievable deliverables." Diddy left a $500 tip to a beautiful and startled waitress after downing a bottle of Pink Elephant Vodka at the liquor's namesake club in Southampton. Rumor has it that a Britney Spears single titled "Get Back" will pop up on the airwaves this week, but sources close to the singer say that while tracks are complete, "she's still putting finishing touches on her album.

" Eva Longoria 's wedding "band" has 180 diamonds in it. We hear Diana Ross refused to perform at the BET Awards, despite being honored for lifetime achievement, because she wasn't offered enough cash. BET reps tell us she was never on the program.

The diva felt more tuneful at Tao in New York last Sunday night. She belted out "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" at the kickoff bash for Michael Strahan and Dreier LLP's second annual charity golf tournament, which raised $300,000 for the Supportive Children's Advocacy Network.

Funnymen Adam Sandler, Kevin James and David Spade hit Stack Restaurant in Vegas to celebrate Spade's gig at the Mirage Hotel. Jaws dropped as Sandler peeled off his shirt, strolled up to a staffer and asked, "Do you guys have a dress code?" "Sometimes," replied the hesitant hostess.

Sandler quickly got dressed and told her he was kidding. Don't mess with a classic: In a world full of Amy Winehouses, Courtney Love left Bush Hall in London on Monday and showed that she's still tops in looking rough. In a scary echo of the classic Roman Polanski film starring Jack Nicholson, L.

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