Feminine? Maybe, But He’d Make A Funny Girl

No rings may have been bought yet, but her relationship with James Brolin is “more than dating,” Barbra Streisand says.

“He’s very strong and masculine, yet totally unafraid of his feminine side, totally accessible emotionally,” Streisand gushed in USA Today, adding that he’s also “very proud of me, very supportive. It’s like a dream. A dream man.”

The two have been close since a friend paired them up at a dinner party four months ago, talking for hours on the telephone while Brolin directed his first film in Ireland.

So are wedding bells in the future? “It’s a really interesting thing to examine,” Streisand said. “I mean the spiritual side of marriage, that total sense of commitment. It’s kind of frightening, kind of wonderful, too.”

Loose talk

Richard Pryor’s daughter, Rain, on her childhood (in People magazine): “We didn’t have the Demi Moore-Bruce Willis family. We didn’t even have the Susan Sarandon family. We had the stereotypical ‘celebrity dad’s working, sleeping in the bedroom, drinking, drugging’ family.”

And how many touchdown passes has HE thrown?

Joe Mantegna turns 49 today.

Call it the freedom of the self-impressed

Elizabeth Taylor and her ex, Larry Fortensky, who unsuccessfully sued the National Enquirer for invasion of privacy, have been ordered to pay $432,600 to cover the tabloid’s legal expenses. Editor Steve Coz said the cash would be donated to charity, adding: “The Enquirer will always defend itself against frivolous lawsuits, no matter how powerful the adversary and no matter how long and hard we have to fight.”

In Dr. Ruth’s version, the pig goes ‘boink’

The Mattel toy company is suing sex expert Dr. Ruth Westheimer, claiming she stole the design of its “Farmer Says” game, in which children choose an animal and pull a string to hear the sound it makes. Westheimer’s World Wide Web page features a multicolored wheel with her in the center, surrounded by such categories as “Sex Tips.”

So, she’s saying it lacks the ring of truth

And New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams is none too pleased with the character based on her in the Whoopi Goldberg movie “The Associate,” as played by Lainie Kazan. “Is it right to be parodied as a pig, a rat, a dog and a skunk?” Adams wrote in her column, adding that the movie Cindy “wears large, clunky costume jewelry … Never, ever in my entire life, have I worn fakola crapola junk.”

It’s the Velvet Fog and his well-met dog

Finally, in the good news department, singer Mel Torme, who suffered a stroke three months ago, left a Los Angeles hospital over the weekend. “He went to his Beverly Hills home where he was met by his dog Petie,” a spokesman said of the 71-year-old Torme. “He was both thrilled to be home and thrilled to have a home-cooked meal.” Torme can speak but will continue therapy to help him walk again.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino