Because "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" was a hit and the "Transformers" movies were mega-hits, Barbie is going Hollywood.

Live action.

Some actress will actually portray Barbie - and then promote the film by saying how she was attracted to the role by the character's depth.

Remember the 2007 "Bratz" movie that did less than $10 million? Guess not.

Tattle cannot see how this will be a good idea. Unless of course Barbie battles robots, goes to war or gets it on with Chucky.

Tattbits

* "Spider-Man's" Kirsten

Dunst has served as a star witness (in this case the term applies) against a man charged in the theft of her designer purse from a NYC hotel suite.

Dunst yesterday gave jurors a rundown of the August 2007 theft. She says she was filming "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" at the SoHo Grand when her $2,000 Balenciaga bag and its contents, including $2,000 in cash, vanished. The purse and her credit cards were eventually returned.

James Jimenez, 35, is charged with burglary. His lawyer has pinned the blame on a co-defendant who pleaded guilty to attempted burglary.

* Jessica Biel, Lupe Fiasco

and Isabel Lucas have signed on to climb Africa's highest peak - more than 19,000 feet of Mount Kilimanjaro - to raise awareness about the worldwide need for clean water.

The Summit on the Summit expedition, set for January, is the brainchild of singer/producer Kenna, whose father suffered from waterborne diseases as a child in Ethiopia.

Biel, 27, said she was "astonished" to learn that more than a billion people across the globe have no access to clean water.

"This is a basic human necessity that needs to be addressed now," she said in a statement, adding that she's proud to climb Kilimanjaro with the celebrity team "to help any way I can in order to raise awareness toward the life-threatening clean-

water crisis happening not only in Africa but around the world."

Biel's beau, Justin Timberlake, may also join up: He told GQ magazine earlier this year that he was preparing for a major mountain climb.

But that could just mean a reunion of 'N Sync.

* Like most weeks, this

was a good week for "The Lion King."

The show made a brief, amusing cameo in ABC's "Modern Family," one of the first funny sitcom pilots in ages, and it's donating two of its elaborate Broadway costume pieces to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Yesterday, museum officials accepted Simba's mask and the costume for tribal shaman and show narrator Rafiki to be placed in the entertainment-history collection. They'll be in rare company among about 50 objects from Broadway, including costumes from "Hello, Dolly!," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Rent" and "Cats."

"We'll have Rafiki next to Dolly Levi. That's a big thing," said a giddy Thomas Schumacher, the show's producer.

* According to Us Weekly, Jessi-

ca Simpson and Debbie Rowe, the mother of Michael Jackson's two eldest children, have something to bond over: They both have lost their beloved dogs to hungry coyotes.

Jess' Malitpoo, Daisy, was taken last week. Debbie's basset hound, Ruufus, was taken in 2004.

"I'm very sorry for her loss," Rowe told Usmagazine.com. She said "coyotes are smart and hunt very well in L.A.

"When dogs are small, you can't leave them out alone - especially at daybreak, nighttime and evening."

So how did Debbie cope with Ruufus's death?

"We were able to do the 'country thing,' " she said. "We shot the coyote and hung the skin on the fence.

"The coyotes moved on after a few days."

It's not hard to see why she and Michael didn't last.

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

E-mail gensleh@phillynews.com