FORGET the main movies, it's to Eye on Hongkong (Pearl, 7.20pm) you must look for stars. The show boasts interviews with no lesser personages than Sam Neill and Laura Dern, R&B singer James Ingram and . . . Josh. On a recent trip to Beverly Hills, journalist John Dykes secured one-on-one interviews with Sam Neill (Dead Calm ) and Laura Dern (RamblingRose), two thespians whose bankability is set to rise considerably given the runaway success of their film JurassicPark. James Ingram talks about his emergence in the 1980s, when he worked with people like Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson, and had his biggest hit Somewhere Out There. And Josh? He is, of course, the newest star at the Botanical Gardens, an orphan baby orang-utan who was confiscated from a ship en route to Taiwan where he was to have been sold as a society pet. AS a political drama set in Indonesia in 1965 just before Sukarno's fall, The Year of Living Dangerously (World, 9.30pm, Original Running Time 115 mins) should have been more gripping than it is - although some of pall may be due to the numerous timesit's been shown. Mel Gibson plays the Aussie news journalist assigned to cover the events and to have an unconvincing romance with the assistant to the British military attache, (Sigourney Weaver with an even less convincing accent). Director Peter Weir atmospherically recreates the confusion of a foreigner in Southeast Asia at the time, and Linda Hunt is mesmerising as the film's conscience, a Chinese-Australian cameraman (a role for which she won an Oscar). The main problem is, the nature of the political battle becomes increasingly confused. JUST when the neighbours finally lost interest in their home karaoke machine, and you thought you'd heard your last amateur rendition of Feelings, STAR Plus has imported the British version in Karaoke with Julian Clary - The Tub Club (12.10am). Clary, a comedian and wit (his words), claims that Karaoke mania has finally hit Britain with pubs and clubs, and he introduces a handful of the best. Their efforts will be judged by actress Barbara Windsor, musician/presenter Jools Holland, and choreographer Lionel Blair - all out of the ''Blimey, he/she's looking old'' celebrity file. TODAY'S wildlife documentary is entitled Land of the Giants (World, 8.30pm) the giants in question being the humongous Douglas fir, Sitka spruce and California redwood, and the land being America's west coast where these trees grow bigger and live longer than anywhere else. It's not only the trees that are massive, some of the creatures are similarly big in proportion. Take - please - the 10-inch Banana Slug, the Pacific Giant Salamander or the fisher, the continent's biggest weasel (and there must be a few candidates around who'd fit that title). LIMP teen comedy Johnny Be Good (Pearl, 9.30pm, ORT 84mins) is only worth a peek for the presence of two actors who've since shown a lot more talent than they are called upon to use here. They are: Robert Downey Jr, who gave a tour de force performance in the title role in Chaplin, despite the film's many other faults; and Uma Thurman, superb in Dangerous Liaisons and Henry and June. No doubt they both prefer to forget about Johnny . . . , an offensive little number about a high school jock being wooed by various colleges. ROD Stewart's the latest singer whose career has been given a boost by an appearance on MTV Unplugged. The Scotsman's new hit single, Have I Told You lately That I Love You?, was taken from his acoustic performance - the second half of which airs tonight (MTV, 2am), and he's about to embark on an ''unplugged'' tour in the US.
