KATHIE Lee Gifford is set to make a guest- starring appearance on “Hope & Faith” – opposite her morning-show replacement, Kelly Ripa!

Ripa talked about Gifford’s appearance on Thursday’s “Live with Regis & Kelly,” the show on which she replaced Gifford in 2001.

Ripa said Gifford plays a waitress named Marge, who works at a diner in Cleveland where a famous movie director has been eating. Hope (Faith Ford) and her sister Faith (Ripa), an unemployed soap actress, drive to the diner – hoping Faith can meet the director and find some work.

“We eat all the food waiting for the director . . . and he never shows up,” Ripa said. “And unbeknownst to me we have no money so we have to work off our meal.”

Gifford, as Marge, then steps in to train the women as waitresses. “She has some really funny lines,” Ripa said, “like, ‘Look, I had this job for 15 years and people love me – you think you can just walk in here . . . ?”

Gifford has remained largely out of the spotlight since leaving “Live” in July 2000. The show used celebrity fill-ins until choosing Ripa in 2001.

Ripa’s “Live” co-host, Regis Philbin, has already appeared on “Hope & Faith,” playing a slick used-car salesman.