Joni Mitchell's in the thick of recording her next album - which will be a collection of jazz standards. The pioneering singer/songwriter will include a new version of one of her own classics, "Both Sides Now," which may well become the album title. And once it's ready, she's planning to head out on a concert tour, for which she will be - get this - backed by a big band.

Joni was in fine form at this week's American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Pop Music Awards, where she was recognized with the ASCAP Founders Award - and where her old pal Stevie Wonder brought the crowd to its feet and Joni to tears with his rendition of her song "Woodstock." Seeing the two music icons together was memorable in itself, as Mitchell had Wonder's arm through much of the evening, shepherding him around the event and occasionally giving him hugs.

"This being the last ASCAP Pop Awards of the millennium, it's fitting we should honor a woman," ASCAP chieftain - and songsmithing great - Marilyn Bergman told this column. Pointing to the likes of Lauryn Hill and Sarah McLachlan, Bergman noted she believes women will become more and more of a driving force in the music industry as the next century dawns. "When I started in the business, there were so few women. ... Joni really paved the way for all the new stars," Bergman added.

Meanwhile ...

There was certainly no shortage of female music power at the Beverly Hilton Hotel event, where Brian McKnight was also among the performers. Janet Jackson, who presented Joni's award, came and went fast, almost incognito in a hat pulled so low down it covered half her face. Prolific hitmaker and frequent ASCAP honoree Diane Warren, also at the do, informed us she's currently working on songs with Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin and N Sync, and has Edwin McCain's rendition of her "Music of My Heart" on the way.

And then there was Edgar Bronfman Jr. - the filmland mogul of Seagram's/Universal might. Turns out the matinee idol-handsome Bronfman wrote the lyrics for Celine Dion's "To Love You More," for which David Foster wrote the music - one of the songs recognized by ASCAP. Bronfman says he writes three or four songs a year and that songwriting is cathartic for him. "I'd like to do more, but unfortunately, I have a day job." Right.

Big-screen scene

"The Other Sister" - which languished at the box office despite winning performances by Juliette Lewis, Giovanni Ribisi, Diane Keaton and Tom Skerritt this spring - could get another chance to prove it can perform. "They may release it again in December," says director Garry Marshall of the love story about a mentally challenged young couple. That, of course, would mean that Disney was pushing it for Oscar consideration. As far as Marshall is concerned, "Those kids should get awards."

The videoland view

The most challenging aspect of Mekhi Phifer's role as a Death Row inmate in HBO's "A Lesson Before Dying" was maintaining an acute emotional level "for 12 hours of shooting." Phifer plays a young man wrongly accused of murder in Saturday night's telepic, which also stars Cicely Tyson and Don Cheadle. He says after some of the most intense scenes, "I'd need about 20 minutes to let my body calm down. At night, I'd go home and unwind." Phifer, who starred in such films as "Clockers," "Soul Food" and "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer," just wrapped Dimension's upcoming "O" opposite Julia Stiles. Though the film is a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello," Phifer says the director did at least have the young cast "read the original play during rehearsals." The film is expected out in October.

Hit and run

Joe Mantegna has a date with the mob June 2. That's when he's due to start a feature currently going under the title "Conundrum," in which he'll play an unhappily divorced average Joe whose life is turned upside down when he learns his partner in a pub has fallen in with gangsters.

With reports by Stephanie DuBois.