The Hair Verdict Is In

Granted, the pace at the trial of four police officers accused of beating Rodney King is achingly slow, but even Listen was surprised on Monday to hear KTTV’s woman on the spot, Jane Wells, refer to the court stenographer’s new haircut as the big news. According to Wells, it was the talk of the courtroom. OK, the stenographer is seated conspicuously in front of the witness stand, and her new do with a full crown, tapered sides and neckline is a dramatic improvement. Still, new hairdos hardly seem the stuff of leading news stories. Except, of course, here.

* AND SPEAKING OF HAIR: It probably won’t figure into the presidential debates, but Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s hairstyle seems to be generating some lengthy discussions. “To my mind it’s a little too self-consciously pretty,” says G. Bruce Boyer, author of “Eminently Suitable,” a guide to business dressing. “It must be a Southern thing. To me he spends too much time with a blow-dryer.” Larry Chrysler, owner of LC International, an apparel industry consulting firm, agrees, saying Clinton’s hair “looks like an Arkansas hairdresser’s idea of what John Kennedy looked like. I find it distracting.”

* COVER GUY: A man on the cover of Vogue magazine? Listen hears it could happen this coming June when the Conde Nast publication adds a men’s section. For the first time in its 83-year history, the mag is giving a nod to the other half of the population at about the same time British Vogue has decided to drop its men’s coverage.

* GREEN T TIME: You can stock up on T-shirts Saturday during the celebrity-studded Earth Walk at Universal City Studios. The official Walk shirt, selling for a minimum of $50, is the most expensive of eight varieties. Proceeds go to environmental programs including Earth Communications Office, Heal the Bay, TreePeople and Kids for Saving Earth. Have cash or a check in your fanny pack if you want to wear the shirt during the 10-kilometer trek and look like all the tinsel-town environmentalists. The long list includes Leonard and Susan Bay Nimoy, Ted Danson, Ed Begley Jr., Melanie Mayron and Susan Ruttan. Festivities start at 8 a.m. For more information, call (818) 763-2784.

* HOW LONG WILL THIS BE GOING ON?: Fashion manufacturers are reviving the brown and white polka-dotted dress Julia Roberts wore in the polo match scene for the 1990 film “Pretty Woman.” Laura Ashley boutiques are offering a sleeveless, belted dress with a mid-calf, full skirt in rayon for $138. JC Penney’s rendition in acetate and rayon sells for $45. And Charlotte Russe stores have reissued their year-old $40 “Pretty Woman” dress for spring.

* THE QUEEN IS STANDING BY HER GUARDS: On April 15, fashion overachiever and felon Leona “only-the-little-people-pay-taxes” Helmsley is scheduled to begin her incarceration. Rumor has it the 71-year-old hotel queen will hold court at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky. There, she’ll have a choice of two uniforms: a button-down, long-sleeved blue shirt with matching pants or a white short-sleeved shirt with a black A-line skirt.