July 29, 2004 — So how much is ABC loving Angela Bassett these days? The movie star will guest in an upcoming episode of “Alias,” according to an exclusive report in Entertainment Weekly, which interviewed the “Waiting to Exhale” star.

“I’m gonna visit the small screen,” Bassett tells EW. “I play an FBI/CIA head honcho who gives the girl [‘Alias’ star Jennifer Garner] a hard time. They were discussing the character as a man and they said maybe they could go for a woman. And the creator [J.J. Abrams] was like, ‘Can’t see it, can’t see it.’

“And then somebody brought my name up and he said, ‘Oh, I see it.’ So he gave me a call,” Bassett says. “And he sounded so dear on the phone and I said okay.”

*** NBC has added Ch. 4 sportscaster Otis Livingston to its huge (845-and-counting) Olympics broadcast team, which also includes Ch. 4’s Len Berman, Bruce Beck and Jane Hanson. That’ll necessitate Ch. 4 moving things around a bit on its sportscasts. Beginning Aug. 12, Deb Kaufman will anchor the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. sportscasts here in New York. And, from Athens, Berman will contribute reports at 5 and 6 and Hanson at 11 p.m. while Beck appears on “Today in New York.”

And NBC isn’t really schlepping 845 announcers to Athens - it just seems that way

*** Danielle Pozsonyi will be the envy of every “General Hospital” fan after appearing as an extra with “GH” stars Tamara Braun and Ric Lansing in a scene airing tomorrow (3 p.m./Ch. 7). Danielle, who’s from Monroe Township, N.J., was in L.A. with her family (parents and younger sister) as a guest of the Make- A-Wish Foundation, which arranged for her walk- on role and for Danielle to meet the “GH” cast-who couldn’t be nicer.

Last, but not least:

* Bush squared: Ratings for Access Hollywood” were up 19 percent last week vs. last year. It was Billy Bush’s first week co-anchoring from Hollywood. Billy’s cousin, President George W. Bush, fishes for bass on his Crawford, Texas ranch Aug. 6 on Outdoor Life Network. * Tonight: FUSE VJ arianela, formerly of WKTU, hosts Blender magazine’s party at Crash, co-sponsored by Drunknmunky.