STEVE MARTIN TO MARRY ANNE STRINGFIELD

Anne Stringfield and Steve Martin frolic on the beach

Steve Martin is to marry girlfriend Anne Stringfield.The 'Father of the Bride' star has proposed to the former New Yorker journalist, who has recently been writing for US Vogue, and the pair are set to walk down the aisle very soon.The 61-year-old actor divorced his first wife, Victoria Tennant, in 1994 after eight years of marriage and went on to date actress Anne Heche. Martin recently finished his memoirs, 'Born Standing Up'. In the book - due for publication in December - the actor describes how he was once severely beaten by his father. Martin wrote he had been eating dinner in front of the TV when my "father muttered something to me, and I responded with a mumbled, 'What?'"He shouted, 'You heard me,' thundered up from his chair, pulled his belt out of its loops, and inflicted a beating that never seemed to end."The next day I was covered in welts and wore long pants and sleeves to hide them at school."But I swore with icy determination, that only the most formal relationship would exist between my father and me, and for perhaps 30 years, neither he nor I did anything to repair the rift."