The broken toe that brought Tommy Tune (and Busker Alley) to a stumbling stop last season out of town wound up costing him a directing-choreographing assignment on Titanic this season, sparing him the perhaps-literal chore of rearranging the deck chairs. And he has withdrawn from similar chores for William Finn's musicalization of The Royal Family of Broadway.

But the show(s)stopping mishap does also have some positive side-effects.

One is that Tune, who has won Tonys galore as actor/director/choreographer, is wearing yet another hat: Author. He has spent his recuperation, ruminating over his life so far and writing it down. The result is his autobiography.

"I'm calling it 'Footnotes,'" he beams proudly. "It's nothing that I really intended to do, but I had a lot of time to think and reflect when I was mending, and I decided this would be good therapy. I hope to do a book about Broadway show-making later on, but this one will be primarily about my public and private life and how I've been able to juggle them and execute them."

Simon & Schuster will publish "Footnotes." Tune's editor is Michael Korda.-- By Harry Haun