"THE PAST is always dozing in the ice, waiting to alter the present," wrote essayist Roger Rosenblatt.

IF YOU'VE ever visited the Metropolitan Museum's relatively recent arrangement of Hellenistic, Etruscan and Roman treasures, then you are beholden to a woman named Shelby White. The Met's "Leon Levy and Shelby White Court" attests to her generosity and that of her late husband.

Shelby's biography is replete with Mount Holyoke and Columbia University honors, board membership at the Met, connections to the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Harvard Museum, to name a few.

When her husband was alive, Shelby and Leon were the guiding lights behind the preservation of so many of the ancient world's works of art. They were enthusiastic scholars and collectors. Shelby is a writer as well, the author of a book we have mentioned in this space. "What Every Woman Should Know About Her Husband's Money."

NOW, Shelby has added another feather to her historical, archaeological and collecting cap. She bought a huge Manhattan mansion on 84th Street between 5th and Madison Avenues and completely did it over, creating a gallery, lecture hall and banqueting space.

Here, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is her brainchild, in connection with New York University. And Shelby's mansion offers an unprecedented chance to see extraordinary works of art from so-called "Old Europe." (This is a relatively new term, coined in 1984 by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas. It refers to Southeastern Europe, in particular the civilizations of the Danube Valley -- Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Malta.)

My friend, the classical archaeologist Iris Love told me of Shelby's newest venture into the past.

The exhibition at The Institute shows how highly developed pre-Indo-European Neolithic civilization (5000 BC to 3500 BC) really was. The presentation of ceramics and terra cotta statuettes in this show shocks us because of their beauty and sophistication. Also, it is fascinating how similar some of these works are to Neolithic discoveries at Banpo. (Near Xian, the Shaanxi province of China.)

This is the first time these somewhat mysterious artifacts have been shown in the United States and they prove a connection between excavated works of art from the Aegean Sea to Anatolia and, possibly even to Asia.

Iris pontificates: "Either migration and trading by rivers and across seas was more extensive than we previously thought, with sailors and commerce moving these objects great distances, or else the artistic movements of the time caused a creation of the similar shapes and decorated pots and terra cotta statuettes in different, far-flung cultures." She has borrowed for us several photographs of these Danube pots. Says Iris, "I was just amazed by this; I didn't even know such magnificent works of art existed."

IN HER customary long-winded manner, Iris expounded on how indebted we are to Shelby and her curator Jennifer Y. Chi -- as well as to the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest and the participation of the Varnia Regional History of Bulgaria. Let's add the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chiinau. Whew! But Iris wasn't finished: "The archaeologist Ms. Gimbutas has invented a new interdisciplinary field called 'archaeomythology.' And the Leon Levy Foundation makes it possible for us, in New York, to enjoy this unique and fabulous exhibition."

AND NOW for something worlds away from all that science. Recently, we reported here the unkind words of the LA Times reporter Elizabeth Snead about Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow. She called them "two of the coldest and least sexy actresses..." (Paltrow and Kidman are set to star together in a daring sex-change movie.)

I was surprised at how many of our readers responded critically to Ms. Snead and stood up for the stars. Some readers suggested the reporter be sued for libel. Others just asked where she got off being so critical and unkind.

I have been wondering. Do big celebrities like Nicole and Gwyneth ever read this stuff and take it to heart? When Nicole showed up last week at the Country Music Awards, people seemed to be piling on against the Australian beauty, there for her husband, Keith Urban.

Nicole's lips were too plump, said some, reflecting on the notorious pucker of Meg Ryan. Others commented that her bosoms were suspiciously "aloft" -- that her bountiful cleavage had "caused a stir" on the red carpet.

Please! Two coats of lipstick will fill out any mouth. And every single time Nicole wears a low-cut gown, there's rumor of breast augmentation. Has nobody ever heard of Victoria's Secret?!

SPEAKING OF Nicole Kidman, there she was yesterday at NYC's Plaza Hotel with all of the other famous leading ladies from the upcoming Harvey Weinstein movie smash, "Nine." Daniel Day-Lewis, their single leading man, joined them. What were they doing? Perhaps our Wow correspondent Cynthia McFadden of "Nightline" will fill us in on this entourage one of these days, but it was definitely an autograph collector's/paparazzo's dream.

(E-mail Liz Smith at MES3838@aol.com, or write to her c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.)