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Herbert Muschamp discusses the music of Peter Duchin.

It turns out \"Monk\" is a Monkees fan. USA Network star Tony Shalhoub was celebrating his birthday last week at the Palm West restaurant, where by chance former Monkees band-member Micky Dolenz (below) was also dining. Dolenz - who just launched his own film company, Independent Entertainment - accepted an invitation to appear on Shalhoub's hit show, about a detective with OCD. \"Things like this always happen here,\" quipped major-domo Chris Gilman. ... Sting (enjoying shots of Patron) and Lindsay Lohan, at side-by-side banquettes but ignoring each other, partied at Bungalow 8 on Wednesday night. ... The AIDS charity amfAR says its annual gala honoring Meatpacking District restaurateur Florent Morellet, David Bohnett and [Peter Duchin] van Rooijen will be at the Rainbow Room on June 7, not Ellis Island as in the past.

Along with GENE HOVIS, a chef, they are planning a dinner for 30 guests on Monday to honor BOBBY SHORT. \"We use books as place settings,\" Mr. Duchin said yesterday. Not just any books though, he said. Not even the autobiography of Mr.

EVERY NEW YORKER knows the famous bandleader Peter Duchin, the inheritor of the legend that was his famous father, Eddy Duchin. Peter was raised in high cotton by the Averell Harrimans. He is married to Brooke Hayward, the child of the producer Leyland Hayward and the beautiful film star Margaret Sullavan. Duchin gives the downbeat for debutantes, socialites and high-livers. He has been named a Living Landmark by the New York Landmark Conservancy and is a fixture at their annual parties at the Plaza. Now Duchin will join with author John Morgan Wilson for a series of mysteries inspired by Peter's remarkable life. The agent Alice Martel has already closed the deal with a major publisher. Each book will take its title from a song that the lead character, Philip Draper, has performed. The character will be \"inspired\" by Duchin, not exactly based on his reality. After all, this will be fiction. And let's not forget that Peter Duchin is also a writer. His biography, \"Ghost of a Chance,\" was a best-seller some years ago.

KNOWN AS \"the society bandleader,\" pianist Peter Duchin brings his act to the annual Symphony Ball on Saturday Jan. 30, at the Pfister Hotel's Grand Ballroom.

UNDER THE STARS The Disappearing Moon You can observe the lunar eclipse this week literally, figuratively or both. But to observe it literally, we'll need the cooperation of the weather. Rain or moonshine - there will be an \"Astrological Eclipse\" celebration Wednesday at Danford's Inn in Port Jefferson. A buffet dinner, with mystical readings on astrology and numerology, will follow the actual eclipse outdoors. Dinner begins at 7. The lunar eclipse will reach totality at 6:07, and may be observed from the docks at Port Jeff Harbor right outside Danford's. For reservations ($38.50, including dinner), call 928-5200. Mary Cleere Haran, known as a '40s chanteuse with a '90s sensibility, will deliver two performances Saturday in the second in the Tilles Center's \"Club T\" cabaret series. The shows are at 8:30 and 10:30 in the Hillwood Recital Hall, next door to the Tilles Center. And the Top of the Commons restaurant, at Hillwood Commons on the C.W. Post campus, Long Island University, will offer a pre-concert dinner starting at 6:30. For tickets ($25), call 626-3100, or for dinner reservations, call 299-2439.

THEATER A BACKER'S AUDITION A new musical about show biz opens tonight at the American Jewish Theater, 307 W. 26th St., Manhattan. Sheila Smith plays a Park Avenue socialite who tries to raise money for a multi-million-dollar musical after her producer husband dies. \"A Backer's Audition\" is based on an idea by Martin Charnin, Douglas Bernstein and Denis Markell, with book and lyrics by Bernstein and Markell. It opens tonight; performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $30; call (212) 633-9797. CEILLY! HEY!

The authors will also autograph copies of their book. In the book, [Stanley Siegel], a Manhattan therapist, and [Ed Lowe], a Newsday columnist, explore the dilemmas faced by patients, challenging conventional therapeutic thinking along the way. Diane Cole, reviewing the book recently in Newsday, wrote that the authors \"take the reader so deeply inside the challenges, frustration and often moving revelations of each of the stories they tell that any aspiring psychotherapist would do well to add this book to his or her recommended reading list.\"