Sounds like Barbara Walters and her “View” could be finding competition in wowOwow.

WowOwow  was created last year  by a group of notables that include Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Liz Smith,  Whoopi Goldberg, Mary Wells, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin and Marlo Thomas to offer an exchange of thoughts by and for women of, well, let’s say middle age..  Thus far it consists of a free daily internet, interactive  website, but it could evolve into a television offering.  As Stahl notes, “We are concentrating on the internet now.  However, the show is evolving and changing.  The audience will tell us where to go.”

They nearly went into questionable areas at first — at least in title. “We had named our site Women on the Web, and then found out that was a porn site.  We changed it to wowOwow,” says Lesley.

WowOwow could be used to describe the past season of “60 Minutes” for Stahl.  As she puts it, “I think it was a very good year for me.

The season started out with Alan Greenspan that was a big get for me and ended with Justice Scalia, another big get.  And then there was that wonderful story about a man named John Kanncius with leukemia who got the idea of using radio waves to kill cancer cells.

This was not a doctor, this was not even a man with a college degree.  But what he came up with turned out to be so important that M.D.Anderson  (cancer center) in  Houston is using it and the University of Pittsburgh is pouring money into the project.”

Lesley says that science pieces are among her favorites for “60 Minutes,” and reveals she’ll be doing one this fall on brain functions.

Among her least favorite interview subjects:  General Norman Schwarfkopf.  ”I interviewed him over a TV line during the first Mid-eastern war.  He’s the only one I can think of who intimidated me.  And over the air waves yet!”

Forthright and candid, there seems to be just one subject she’d rather avoid during an interview. Asked about reports that CBS asked her to take a $500,000 cut in salary when the network hired Katie Couric for its evening news, Lesley responds simply, “No comment.”

THE CELEB ‘NET: Justine Bateman has joined the burgeoning crowd of celebs making their own niche on the internet with the help of such friends as Judd Nelson and Beverly D’Angelo.  “We’re getting ready to shoot our first internet series called ‘Candy,’” says Bateman. “It takes place in a candy factory and it’s about this woman named CJ, played by me.  Her family has this candy company, but she’s never wanted to have anything to do with it… She’s reckless the way a four-year-old is, not really meaning any harm and a continuous series of mishaps and misunderstandings have given her a little bit of a police record.”

Meanwhile, Bateman – who’s shooting an upcoming guest spot on Showtime’s “Californication” this week — proudly reports she just wrote her first script for the Disney Channel sitcom, “Wizards of Waverly Place.” “Peter Murrietta, the head writer, is a friend of mine and one of my partners in our internet company, FM78.TV and I got to know all the writers from ‘Wizards’ during the writers’ strike. He asked me to write a script and I was in the writers’ room for about a month beforehand helping to pitch story ideas and getting storylines together.”

LADIES WHO LUNCH: Also on the new media bandwagon — Heather Thomas, who’s turned to YouTube to promo her “Trophies” novel, with a comedic short that should be posted by the time you read this.  “I don’t like re-enactments when they put a face to the character, so we did it with dolls.  It’s pretty bawdy,” says the one-time “Fall Guy” actress, whose new novel is set in the world of ultra-rich trophy wives who have turf wars over charitable functions.  It’s a world she knows well as an inveterate fundraiser, Democratic Party personage, and wife of industry mover ‘n’ shaker attorney Skip Brittenham.  The bit has the characters at a table at the tony Michael’s restaurant, discussing their use of “vaginal weight training eggs.  One of them is saying ‘You’re supposed to use it one minute a day, not walk around town with it!..I do an Alfred Hitchcock; when the egg falls out, it rolls over and touches my shoe.”
The bit is narrated by Gore Vidal, and features cameos with the likes of Phyllis Diller.

For the very funny Thomas, one of the inducements for writing “Trophy” was to speak up for “a much-maligned demographic…I want to debunk the theory of trophy wives.  You know, close to 80 per cent of donated money in this country is controlled by second wives of wealthy men,” she claims.  “Second wives want to establish themselves socially, and what’s the fastest way?  Charity.”

Thomas will head out on a book tour next months, hitting cities known to be well-populated by such women – including New York, Miami and Dallas.  And yes, she’s thinking movie.  “We already have some suitors,” she says.

MAKING BOOK: Athough David Carradine has been busy going from one indie film and cable movie production to the next for the last few years, has managed to find the time to “do the great American novel thing,” he says.  He’s close to wrapping up the book.
David the author has already completed a number of nonfiction tomes, including his “Endless Highway” autobiography and martial arts workout manuals.

Kate Hudson’s four-year-old son Ryder went to a Father’s Day brunch with her new beau Lance Armstrong — and dad Chris Robinson.

With their kids in tow, Hudson and Armstrong split into two cabs for the ride from the actress’ New York City home to Brooklyn restaurant Frankie’s 457.

“There was a boys’ cab and a girls’ cab,” an onlooker tells Joynews. “Ryder went with Lance.

“He was very comfortable with Lance,” the onlooker adds. “He ran right towards him!”

The actress and the cyclist — who were also spotted in Toronto over the weekend at a charity bike race — put the focus of Father’s Day on their young kids. (Armstrong has a son, Luke, 8, and twin daughters Isabelle and Grace, 6, with ex-wife Kristin, whom he split from in 2003.)

“They were corralling all these kids together,” the eyewitness says. “It was really about the kids.”

Ten minutes after arriving in Brooklyn, two more guests showed up: Hudson’s ex Chris Robinson and his girlfriend.

“They all celebrated Father’s Day together,” the witness tells Us.

The big group left after about two hours, at 12:30 p.m.

Hudson has played coy about her two-month relationship with Armstrong. “You should ask him [if we're dating],” she told Barbara Walters (Watch here).

Tell Us: Do you think it’s too early for Kate and Lance to introduce their kids?

Mary McCormack tells us that shooting the USA network’s “In Plain Sight,” debuting June 1, “I honestly for the first time understood why sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture.  I got pregnant between the pilot and the series production.  Luckily, they decided to wait for me.  But when we started shooting, the hours were really tough because I had a not even two-month-old and I’d be up all night with her and up all day working.”

McCormack, now on Broadway starring in “Boeing-Boeing,” also has a three-year-old with her husband, “Brothers & Sisters” producer Michael Morris — who flew in to Albuquerque, N.M. location to see Mary and the girls on weekends.  That family separation was another challenge.

Still, she loved playing Mary Shannon, a U.S. Marshal attached to the government’s witness protection program.  “I like her because she’s a really complex character – good at her job, cranky, sort of rants.  It felt to me like a part written for a guy,” says Mary.  Creator David Maples “is such a good writer.  I love that he just randomly made her cheap as well.  She never wants to pick up a bill.  And her boyfriend (Cristian de la Fuente) is way more mushy than she is.  When anyone talks about feelings she just cringes, though deep down, she wants to be touched.”

SO THAT EXPLAINS IT: James Van Praagh, the psychic/medium who created “Ghost Whisperer,” claims in his new book, “Ghosts Among Us,” that people are surrounded by ghosts every day and Hollywood is no exception.  In fact, he wants to send the book to Britney Spears as he is certain she is not alone.  ”I see people’s energy around them and Britney Spears has two low-level ghosts attached to her.  One has tattoos all over him and the other is kind of creepy looking,” says Van Praagh and, no, he’s not talking about Kevin Federline.  ”Around every living thing is the aura, which is the electromagnetic bubble protecting us, but if someone is overly involved with drugs or drinking and isn’t taking good care of themselves, what happens is that little pinprick holes appear in the aura and these lower level entities who have nothing else to do but hang around the earth can attach themselves and influence that person.  I talk in the book how you can get rid of them.”

This certainly isn’t Van Praagh’s first brush with celebrities as his devotees include Cher, Shirley MacLaine, Barbara Walters, Goldie Hawn, and most recently Heath Ledger.  Yes, you heard us.  ”About two weeks after Heath Ledger died, he appeared to me in the mirror when I was shaving.  It was really quickly.  He said, ‘I f’d up.’  He gave me the thought of his daughter and then he was gone.”

However, you don’t have to be famous to get use out of Van Praagh’s book.  ”I created ‘The Ghost Whisperer’ and Hollywood got a hold of it and made it a little scary, so I’ve gotten thousands of emails from people from all over the world, who ask if this is the way it really is.  Being the teacher that I am, I’ve got to explain to people exactly what it’s like when you leave the body and you’re a ghost and what it’s like as a ghost being earthbound.”  Believe it, or not.

THE INSIDE TRACK: Tears for Fears co-founder/singer Curt Smith says his first solo CD in ten years, “Halfway, pleased”(cq) reflect the changes parenthood has effected in his life. “When I was younger I was protesting against things, but now my main concern is really protecting these small human beings I’m looking after,” says Smith, who has two young children. “Until you have children, it’s all about ‘I need this. I need that.’ Now, I want it to be this way or that way because of them. It’s not just me beating my head against the norm, but really trying to change the future for what we’re leaving our children.”

Smith wrote all the tunes on the semi-autobiographical album, but says the most personal tune is the title track “Halfway, pleased.” “It’s really about my relationship with my mother and how it’s sort of changed over the years. I view it differently because I’m a father now.”  He adds since becoming a father he’s experienced “that feeling for the first time in your life of knowing, honestly knowing 100 percent, that you would actually die for another human being and that’s quite an amazing and powerful thing.” Smith is releasing his new CD May 20 on his own KOOK Media record label.  “I’m not going to be doing excessive touring because of my children,” he says, adding he and Tears for Fears mate Roland Orzabal are “going to do some touring later in the year in Europe, which is another reason why I don’t want to go out on my own.”  For more info go to www.curtsmithofficial.com.

GIVING BACK: Deion Sanders may be retired from his illustrious athletic career in football and baseball, but he says he still takes his  role as an athletic mentor very seriously.  ”I mentor in football, baseball, basketball – from the NFL, all the way
down to junior high kids,” says the NFL commentator and star of the reality television show, Deion & Pilar: Prime Time Love, with his wife Pilar Biggers.   “If I’m naïve enough to think that God blessed me with athletic ability just to make money and hoard it for myself then I would be a fool.  I was  blessed at this level to be able to reach people and touch them, to evoke change in their lives, and I take that very seriously,” declares Sanders, who has helped the likes of football players Devin Hester and DeAngelo Hall.  ”I don’t want to see people make the same mistakes I made or have their dreams thwarted by some type of foolishness.”