ALTHOUGH MARRIED IN SPIRIT, IRVING, BEAU TO TIE KNOT FOR REAL.

Byline: Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Amy Irving and director Bruno Barreto have finally decided to make things legal.

"We're going to marry - sometime this year," announced the ex-Mrs. Steven Spielberg about her plans with the man who is father of her 5-year-old son, Gabriel.

It will be, she revealed, their second wedding ceremony - though the first one that is legal.

"Our mothers married us on Christmas Eve six years ago - though neither of our divorces were final," she said.

At the moment the couple is a continent apart while he gets ready to start production in Brazil on a film with Alan Arkin and Fisher Stevens, and she prepares for the opening of their "Carried Away" drama that will be unveiled in L.A. and New York on March 29. The big-screen study of sexuality (in which Dennis Hopper plays a man who has a torrid affair with a 17-year-old girl, and Amy portrays the mature woman in his life) is already drawing raves for its stars.

Amy is also keeping busy preparing for her family's move to New York. She already has sold her Santa Monica home and has purchased digs in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

"I used to think New York was much too tense to raise children," said the actress, who also has a 10-year-old son with Spielberg. "But I've had as many bad experiences in L.A. - and I figure if I'm going to be tense I might as well get culture, too."

This little piggy goes to the Oscars: It'll be easy to spot Christine Cavanaugh, a k a the voice of the lovable pig in "Babe," at the Academy Awards on Monday. She'll be the gal all dolled up in a Nolan Miller design of pink satin - an homage to her porcine alter ego.

Cavanaugh, who is attending the awards as part of the "Babe" contingent (the film is nominated in six categories) tells us she has 15 family members flying in from Oregon and Utah to help her celebrate the event. They even have an Oscar betting pool - though she deadpans that those "rebels" who bet against "Babe" will be "sleeping on the floor."

Cavanaugh is also featured in Jeff Goldblum's Oscar-nominated short film, "Little Surprises," which debuts on Showtime Friday night. And she has just finished a role in Tom Cruise's "Jerry Maguire" feature. "Tom is wonderful - very friendly, very open and extremely handsome!" she said. "I never made direct eye contact with him because it would have ruined my concentration, and I tried not to snort too much."

The videoland view: "ER's" Anthony Edwards takes over the directorial reins of the series for an episode titled "Take These Broken Wings," due to begin production Friday.

Former "Perfect Strangers" lead Bronson Pinchot is making a run back at the series game. He's getting ready to shoot an NBC pilot titled "Forever Young" - which boasts top-notch producers Brillstein/Grey, and writing by Amy Heckerling and Pinchot himself. The plot sounds a bit like "Big" meets Rip Van Winkle, with Pinchot playing a man who wakes up after 20 years in a vegetative state.

It's legit: Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna are in huddles with studios about adapting "Bermuda Avenue Triangle," the couple's hit play, into a motion picture. The comedy, which was written by Taylor and Bologna, co-stars Renee and Bea Arthur as widows in a Las Vegas senior citizens development who each (unbeknownst to the other) becomes romantically involved with Bologna.

The current casting is outstanding, and, according to Renee, one movie deal would have them carry their roles onto the screen. Another offer, she said, "is for Joe and me to direct, and others to star."

As it is now, the play continues to pack 'em in at Beverly Hills' Canon Theatre. They've got offers to take it on to England and Ireland and New York and will be setting up shop in the latter city - but not until April '97, when Renee has fulfilled her commitment to "The Nanny." Taylor plays Fran Drescher's mother on the CBS sitcom.

The big-screen scene: Sir Ian McKellen is following up his acclaimed "Richard III" film with a drama called "Apt People." The feature, set to start shooting in June, will have McKellen playing an aged Nazi war criminal living a quiet incognito life, until he's recognized by a high school student with a photographic memory. The twist has to do with the two of them becoming involved in a murder.