<i> Long Shelf Life</i>

Steven Bauer knows a thing or two about good news . . . and bad.

Consider: He stars in three completed films. But, they’ve yet to be released--after missing initial anticipated openings.

The titles not-yet-playing are:

-- “Wildfire,” the drama of star-crossed lovers that Bauer made two years ago with Linda Fiorentino under director Zalman King. Jerry Tokofsky, production veep for Zupnik Enterprises, insists the film will be out this fall.

-- “Gleaming the Cube,” the Graeme Clifford-directed thriller, in which Bauer plays a detective trying to help teen-aged Christian Slater avenge the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother. Filmed in 1987, it was originally on Fox’s July schedule. Now it’s due in late fall.

-- “The Beast,” set in Afghanistan, about the Russian-Afghan conflict, was announced for February. A Columbia rep says it’s now due sometime in September.

Bauer’s rep told us, “He’s happy they’re all coming out, happy that his work is going to be seen. . . . I wouldn’t want to speak for him, but certainly most actors would rather have had movies out every three or four months than all at once.”