Love and marriage have both struck on the Left Coast, proving that "The Kid" is still staying in the picture. Yes, I'm talking about the indestructible Hollywood legend, 72-year-old Bob Evans. His wedlock to the leggy, 34-year-old former Versace model Leslie Ann Woodward has been rumored more than once of late. But the actual ceremony didn't take place until last weekend on a beach in Mexico.

Evans has seldom ever met a woman he didn't charm. And a lot of those same women he married. This is Leslie's first time at the beach -- which substituted for the altar. She follows a list of lovely past Mrs. Evanses -- Sharon Hugueny, Ali MacGraw, Phyllis George, Camilla Sparv and Catherine Oxenberg.

The producer's wedding gifts to his latest bride include sapphire and diamond earrings, a diamond crucifix, and a pearl-and-diamond necklace. Even though Evans has said, "I do" five times previously and has, like Elizabeth Taylor, vowed each time never to wed again -- he's just a boy who can't say no.

This wedding, by the by, was no simple affair. Fifty mariachis on horseback serenaded. Evans had director Brett Ratner and his son, Josh, as groomsmen. Among the 30 guests were actor Matthew McConaughey, lawyer Robert Shapiro, Variety's Peter Bart and health queen Nikki Haskell.

Having a hit documentary out, "The Kid Stays in the Picture," just wasn't enough excitement for Bob Evans. He had to get married once again.

SOMEBODY WHO is involved in the ABC-CNN merger told me the other day what a hot property Barbara Walters is considered to be for the Atlanta-based cable news outfit.

So no wonder that our Babs is batting a thousand again and complaining about being overworked!

Tonight at 10, when she spends her exclusive hour with the first family of reality TV -- the Osbournes -- she'll be seen getting Sharon Osbourne's eldest, Aimee, to talk. As you may know, Aimee elected not to be part of the reality series. But, she tells Barbara, "I'm not some weirdo depressed daughter that's afraid of the world -- that locks herself in her room all day. I just didn't choose to do the show. That's the only thing that's different about me and my family." Aimee, 19, says her mother was hurt when she decided not to participate, but "it's kind of like OK: I want to be a singer. And I felt if I would have stayed with the Osbournes and done the whole Osbourne thing. ... I would have been typecast right away before I had a chance to experience other things. ... I'm more reserved ... my private life is very important ... my whole life, everything's been so exposed. So I feel as now I'm at an age and a time in my life where I can make that choice."

Aimee says her family embarrasses her, and she realizes that sister Kelly got a recording contract and she didn't. Aimee adds, "She has a talent, and why shouldn't she?" Of her dad, she says he is "incredibly unique ... talented ... misunderstood ... drugs, alcohol and stress has definitely taken its toll on him ... seeing him struggle to stay sober is more painful than actually watching him drink."

When Barbara asks what would happen to Ozzy without Sharon, Aimee says, "I don't think he would last more than a year without her. No, no doubt in my mind."

Tonight, my friends, this is reality TV at its most real!

LOVE THOSE Bond girls, and now I have Halle Berry encased in plastic on my desk -- a little promo for "Die Another Day." And I see that Pierce Brosnan has already agreed to play 007 again in 2005. Tonight, we can watch AMC's special, "Bond Girls Are Forever." Over the last 40 years, women have Bonded as saints, villains, vixens, comrades and angels.

Bond girl Maryam d'Abo takes us on a tour of those who have bedded, bested and bussed 007 from Ursula Andress to Honor Blackman. We run down memory lane with Jill St. John, Jane Seymour, Lois Chiles, Luciana Paluzzi, Fiona Volpe, Maud Adams, Michelle Yeoh, Wai Lin, Carey Lowell and Pam Bouvier.

Then, there is the woman who is now Bond's boss, the incomparable Dame Judi Dench.

GIVE YOURSELF a treat and see Tim Allen reprise his role as Santa in the box office smash, "The Santa Clause 2." This is fine Yuletide family fare with Allen at his best. At one or two points, I felt a tear sliding down my cheek.

Santa needs to find a wife, and he is on a time limit, with uneducated reindeer who crash and burn, plus a clone Santa who runs amok at the North Pole in St. Nick's absence.