NEWS LITE : WINSLET SET TO WED DIRECTOR-BOYFRIEND.

The Body of the Year is getting married. Kate Winslet, who won that distinction in a recent women's poll, plans to make an honest man of director Jim Threapleton next summer.

``When you know it's the right thing, you just know,'' the ``Titanic'' star said Friday, posing for photographers outside the couple's London home.

Winslet, 23, and Threapleton, 24, met last year on the set of the British flick ``Hideous Kinky.'' He was assistant director.

The actress isn't exactly thrilled about being voted Body of the Year. She said she finds the designation ``a little bit irritating.''

``Why do we keep talking about women's bodies all the time, particularly actresses?'' she said.

Interview With A Veep: Executives give favorite methods for grilling fish

Top corporate executives - are there ever bottom corporate executives? - shared with Inc., ``the magazine for growing companies,'' their favorite job interview questions for prospective employees:

``What's the last book you read?'' asks John Discerni of Physicians Formulary International, who says he only cares how long the interviewee takes to answer. ``If they have to think a long time, they probably aren't that well read.''

``Why do they make manhole covers round?'' asks Tony Petrucciani of Single Source Systems, just to see if they get flustered. (That's the only shape that prevents them from falling through the holes.)

``If I stood you next to a skyscraper and gave you a barometer,'' asks Robert Baden of Rochester Software Associates, ``how could you figure out how tall the building was?'' There's no way; Baden is checking on ``how creative people are.''

Glenn once wanted no women in space

As John Glenn gets ready to be reshot into space, Jane magazine recalls the early '60s, when a group of women who came to be known as the Mercury 13 were applying to join the space program. Testifying in Congress against them was Glenn.

``The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes,'' he said ``and come back and help design and build and test them. The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order.''

Bell to address abrupt radio show sign-off

Radio talk-show host Art Bell will make a statement to his listeners during the first hour of his Monday broadcast, a spokeswoman for his show said Friday from Pahrump, Nev.

Bell signed off Tuesday, silencing a show that drew 15 million listeners. He said a ``threatening, terrible event occurred to my family, which I could not tell you about.'' At the time, Bell was not expected to return to his show.

Authorities in this town 60 miles west of Las Vegas said Bell, 51, was not in any immediate danger.

Bell's ``Coast-to-Coast'' show, the country's most popular overnight radio show, reaches more than 400 stations nationwide.

News Lite is compiled by Karen Duffy from Daily News staff and wire reports.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) OUTNUMBERED

A cat stopping for a drink along the Souris River eyes a flock of plump Canada geese in Minot, S.D.

Associated Press 

(2) Actress Kate Winslet will wed fiance, Jim Threapleton, in 1999.

Rosie Hallam/Associated Press