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THEY'RE JUST ALL GOOD OLD BOYS: This year's fourth annual DukesFest, a celebration of all that was and is The Dukes of Hazzard, had special meaning: The show's first season began 25 years ago this year.

The homage to the CBS show that ran from 1979 to '85 drew hundreds of people, some of whom came from Australia and Ireland, to Tennessee's Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend to meet cast members, buy T-shirts, listen to country music and gaze at nearly 50 1969 Dodge Chargers made up to look like the Dukes' "General Lee."

Yes, the two-day event had it all. All but the most important Dukes, Bo and Luke, actors John Schneider and Tom Wopat. They were not able to attend because they were performing elsewhere, according to an Associated Press report.

Cousin Daisy Duke was there, though. Catherine Bach, now 50, didn't wear her "Daisy Duke" short-shorts - she wore a low-cut pink sun dress - but she kept fans happy by signing posters, T-shirts and other Dukes paraphernalia, and having her picture taken with them, for more than two hours.

"We love our fans as much as they love us," she said.

WORLD-FAMOUS, BOYISHLY HANDSOME SWM WITH FORMER WORLD-FAMOUS FIANCEE WHO GOT MARRIED LESS THAN SIX MONTHS AFTER WE BROKE UP SEEKS ANYONE: Ben Affleck's most recent girlfriend is now history along with Jennifer Lopez, and upon showing up alone at last week's Democratic convention, Affleck said it was hard to find a woman to go out with him.

"I meet people, but I feel like I'm this walking nightmare," he told New York's Daily News. "You get photographed with me once at a baseball game and the Enquirer will find out every dirty little thing that ever happened in your family's history.

"Who wants that? If I saw me, I would turn the other way. I'm trying to diminish it so that someone might actually be interested in dating me."

SOMETIMES THE CAUSE IS HURT MORE THAN HELPED: The Parents Television Council, a watchdog group trying to clean up the sex, violence and language on TV, has ranked its best and worst major-network shows for the past season. The best was CBS's Joan of Arcadia, the worst the WB's Everwood. Fine. But we're wondering how much of these shows it actually watched if it puts American Idol on its best list with the endorsement "it focuses only on the surprisingly good performances turned in by talented young singers." . . . Some British historians are complaining that Hollywood grossly distorts their country's history in movies. We can accept this as valid criticism until they tell the Independent on Sunday newspaper that a prime example is the Kevin Costner cringefest Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves for distorting Britain's medieval past. This makes them the only people who took the movie seriously.

Sharon Fink can be reached at 727 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com

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