PEOPLE

By MARTHA PICKERILL

BEEZER DOES IT!

A woman of BARBRA STREISAND's studied elegance would have to be mightily smitten to allow anyone to call her "Beezer." Indeed, she is, for La Streisand is marrying the man who dreamed up that unlikely nickname. Actor JAMES BROLIN, 56, announced last week that after several proposals and multiple attempts to find a ring that suited the songstress (now that's our Barbra), she finally said yes. "I definitely believe that if there is a soul connection, it is there right away," Streisand, 55, has said of her nine-month relationship with Brolin. "It's so rare." Moral: People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.

SEEN & HEARD

Hail to a new addition to the fractured First Family. The President's half-brother Roger Clinton fathered a daughter out of wedlock in 1990, before he met current wife Molly. His lawyer said last week Clinton has been paying $500 a month in child support since December, but the child's mother now wants $1,100 a month and $78,000 in back payments.

There's nothing you can lose that can't be found. Paul McCartney just dug up at least four never recorded songs he wrote with John Lennon when the lads first met as teenagers. "I wrote them in my school exercise book," McCartney, 54, recalled last week. Timing is everything: the discovery came just days before McCartney released his new album, Flaming Pie.

A CASE OF ANCHOR ENVY

NBC newsman TOM BROKAW sent the graduating class of Connecticut's Fairfield University into the marketplace with this earnest aphorism: "It's easy to make a buck but hard to make a difference." Easy for him, anyway, especially if he decides to make a difference to the Cable News Network. A few days after the ceremony, the New York Times reported that CNN had offered Brokaw, 57, a $7 million-a-year gig. That's $3 million or $4 million more than the anchor is making now, and Brokaw's NBC contract expires Aug. 30. But outlandish sums often crop up in print at negotiation time. It's easy to make an offer but hard to make a deal.

THE FOUR OFF RAMPS OF THE APOCALYPSE

If U2 has it right, life as we know it will end in the greatest traffic snarl in history. The Irish rockers almost caused it last week, when they made a video for the Armageddon-theme song Last Night on Earth from their new CD Pop. Motorists in Kansas City, Mo., got a glimpse of hell: highways were closed, city streets were blocked, and police corralled hundreds of fans. In the video, author WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, 84, whose nihilistic novels have influenced U2 front man BONO, embodies a malign force that brings down civilization. Symbolizing the band's dim view of a rampant consumer culture (but they will happily sell you a CD!), frail Burroughs pushes a shopping cart out of the dead city. The band hopes to shoot two more videos during its PopMart tour in the U.S., says manager Paul McGuinness. Commuters, beware! The end is nigh.