NEWS LITE : CLAPTON SAVES GUITARS IN FIRE.

Eric Clapton's mansion was badly damaged in an apparent electrical fire, and the rock legend known as ``Slow Hand'' had to act quickly to save his prized guitars.

Clapton said he returned over the weekend to find the three-story mansion in the Chelsea section of London - one of three homes he owns - ablaze.

Firefighters believe a faulty lighting circuit in the ceiling was to blame for the fire, which gutted much of the top floor and also damaged the second floor.

Stills sings a husbandly tune It has been a busy couple of South Florida days for Stephen Stills of classic popsters Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Sunday night, the guys kicked off a 66-city tour with Chicago at the Coral Sky Amphitheater in West Palm Beach.

As if that weren't enough excitement, ``Mr. Middle Guy'' was then to get hitched Monday at sunset.

Stills, 51, and Kristen Hathoway, 21 years his junior, were to exchange vows before 100 guests - including David Crosby and Graham Nash - at the Ritz Carlton in Palm Beach.

The couple say they will spend a rock 'n' roll honeymoon ``on the road.'' The tour runs through Sept. 5.

The ceremony sort of closed a circle for the trio. Nine years ago in Los Angeles, Stills attended a double wedding ceremony for Crosby and Nash. Crosby renewed his vows to his wife, Susan, and Nash married Jan Dance. At the time, Stills was sharing his bachelorhood with someone named Ann Jordan.

After that double wedding, the wives stayed at home while the men toured the United States for a couple of months.

Graves no hero? It's impossible

Peter Graves wasn't asked to revive his signature role in the movie version of ``Mission: Impossible.''

For him, that's just fine. Graves, 71, said he always saw his character as an all-American hero, not the double-agent turncoat portrayed by Jon Voight in the huge box-office hit.

Graves said he finds it exciting that the film has revived so much interest in the TV series.

``I have never spent so much time talking about a movie I'm not in.''

Officials to get praying `family'

Much to the relief of the spiritually deprived in our nation's capital, the Christian Coalition is offering a new ``Adopt-a-Leader Kit.''

According to the Washington newspaper Roll Call, the kit allows the piously advantaged to ``commit to praying for one particular political leader for an entire year.''

Suggested donation is $12, which, says a brochure, covers ``an attractive announcement card and 12 exclusive encouragement cards with envelopes that you sign and send to your adopted leader.''

The brochure adds: ``All year long, they'll be reminded of your commitment and their responsibility to lead in an ethical, God-honoring manner. Also includes a reminder table-tent and handy prayer journal.''

Pure water rare treasure

Clean natural spring water is so scarce in northern New Jersey that one town's underground spring has long been accessible only to residents with special keys. Now it's also under police guard.

Violators in Haledon, N.J., could face a fine of up to $250, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday.

The Passaic River basin, which provides tap water for 2.5 million people, is home to chemical plants and has a reputation for pollution. And it may become even dirtier. The state has proposed increasing the amount of toxic substances and other pollutants that may be dumped into New Jersey's waterways.

Haledon resident Mariela Gonzalez, 15, puts it bluntly.

``You can't drink the water from the sink,'' she said.

So operators of the Haledon public water supply system have felt a need to guard the spring water, free to residents of a handful of towns served by the system but off limits to everyone else.

Thirty years ago, Haledon officials gave residents special keys that can turn on the two taps in a white cinder-block hut. Officials decided to start a police stakeout earlier this month after a handful of people were caught using wrenches an`d other makeshift tools to try to get the taps on.

Baby in wings for talk show

Rosie O'Donnell is taking her son to work these days. The single mother, whose syndicated talk show is scheduled to begin June 10, has converted a room by her office suite, near the studio in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center, into a nursery for 1-year-old Parker Jaren. She says she's not going to put him on television or talk about him on air the way Kathie Lee Gifford does with her son, Cody, and daughter Cassidy. ``Fame is tough enough on me,'' says O'Donnell.

Motherhood feminist's goal? Could Gertrude Stein, an icon of liberation for many women, really have believed that motherhood is the highest goal to which a woman can aspire?

Brenda Wineapple, author of ``Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein,'' a new book published by Putnam, was doing research at the Firestone Library at Princeton University two years ago when she came upon an essay by Stein called ``Degeneration in American Women.''

In the essay Stein, who never had children or later claimed to want them, criticizes the American woman for failing ``to realize that the ideal of maternity is the only one worthy for her to hold'' and suggests that somehow she must realize ``that no work of hers can begin to compensate for the neglect of that function.''

Wineapple said: ``Gertrude Stein argued that women would inevitably be outclassed in careers by men. Since that was the case, they should do what they do best. You can imagine how horrified early feminists must have been.

``The essay was a function of her own depression,'' added Wineapple, the Washington Irving Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. ``She had just left medical school at Johns Hopkins and decided not to pursue a degree.

``Another irony of the piece was the fact that Gertrude Stein at the time suspected that she was more attracted to women than to men,'' said Wineapple, who said Stein had probably just turned `28 when she wrote the essay.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Rosie O'Donnell: Near son

(2) ``Mr. Middle Guy '' Stephen Stills, 51, of Crosby, Stills and Nash is no longer in the middle about the attraction of marriage.