By Belinda Luscombe

If She Had a Hammer ...

Liz Taylor married a construction worker, Roseanne wed a bodyguard, and Whoopi Goldberg united with a labor organizer. The magnetism of blue-collar guys for over-40 female stars was demonstrated yet again last week when GLENN CLOSE, 48, announced her engagement to STEVE BEERS, 39, the chief stage carpenter for Close's current Broadway vehicle, Sunset Boulevard. The two met when the show, in which an over-the-hill film queen ensnares a young screenwriter, was playing in Los Angeles. A date for the wedding (her third, his second) has not been set.

Maybe He Just Wants A Jacket

Time was, celebrity stalkers chose movie and TV stars like Jodie Foster or David Letterman as their targets. But a New York City man was arrested last week for hounding TODD OLDHAM, famous mostly for providing the world with sequined evening gowns and loud shirts. The designer (and MTV House of Style regular) alleges that Shane Kennedy, 28, has harassed Oldham and his staff for six months, on one occasion refusing to leave Oldham's SoHo store. He also says Kennedy, who once served time in a Florida prison, sends him bizarre packages containing locks of hair, gum and condoms.

SEEN & HEARD

He's one man still content to be called PRINCE, but CHARLES isn't letting his language standards slip. "We must act now to ensure that English-and that to my way of thinking means English English-maintains its position as the world language," he told the British Council, adding that American English was "very corrupting." He deplored those who "invent all sorts of new nouns and verbs and make words that shouldn't be." O.K., we'll diarize that.

The Bushes may no longer be the First Couple, but they still have that special chemistry. In a speech in California, BARBARA BUSH said her husband was retired in name only. "One thing I can say about George Bush," she commented, "he may not be able to keep a job, but he's not boring." She also had some choice words about Bush's recent televised golf outing, during which he hit two spectators: "As if we don't have enough violence on television."

Life After Lillehammer

NANCY KERRIGAN, 25, took a little more luster off her onetime image as America's sports sweetheart by getting engaged to her 40-year-old manager, JERRY SOLOMON. Kerrigan's mom broke the news that the Washington-based agent had presented Nancy with a ring (ice, of course) last month. Solomon, who separated from his first wife in 1993, has said in the past that he and the Olympic skating medalist drew closer after she was clubbed on the leg in January 1994. Wedding details are still unclear, but afterward they're probably not going to Disney World.