By E. Graydon Carter

It was a California wedding all right, but there was nothing barefoot-on-the-beach about it. Indeed, last weekend's marriage of First Daughter Maureen Reagan, 40,--her third --to Law Clerk Dennis Revell, 28, was downright stuffy by Pacific standards. For her trip up the aisle at the Beverly Wilshire, the bride wore an off-white chiffon blouse and taffeta skirt; the groom was decked out in a midnight-blue suit. The nuptials were attended by a small group of friends and family members that included Mother Jane Wyman, 67, and Brother Michael Reagan. The bride's father, still recuperating in Washington, was unable to attend.

The trouble first surfaced in Camelot last June. Reviving his 1960 role as King Arthur in the Lerner and Loewe musical, Richard Burton gave audiences many knights to remember, but was vexed by what seemed to be bursitis. Burton, 55, missed only one of 319 performances on a cross-country tour that ended in Los Angeles. But in March he was forced to leave the show. His doctors diagnosed his illness as a degeneration of the cervical spine, and said the pain was "like the exposed nerve in a tooth multiplied by ten." As he had done in 1967, when the film version of Camelot was made, Burton relinquished his throne to Irishman Richard Harris. Last week Burton successfully underwent an operation to halt his spinal degeneration, and Harris, 50, began a reign scheduled to last through the lusty month of May and into June.

He made My Favorite Wife with Irene Dunne in 1940, but all too often Cary Grant had trouble finding someone who could handle the real-life role. His four marriages--to Woolworth Heiress Barbara Hutton and Actresses Virginia Cherrill, Betsy Drake and Dyan Cannon--all ended in divorce. Last week it was revealed that the Sultan of Suave, who is now a director of Faberge, had taken No. 5. She is Barbara Harris, a stunning brunette in her early 30s. The Fabergent reportedly met his fabulady at a London hotel, where she worked as a publicist. Grant, 77, admitted that they had been married "for quite some time," but wouldn't say just how long.

"Sometimes I use the time to sort out important issues," says Secretary of Agriculture John Block of his open-road hours as a long-distance runner. Ruminating and running, Block, 46, looked as cool as an Illinois-grown cucumber as he glided across the finish line of the 85th Boston Marathon in 3 hr. 6 min. 49 sec. Still, Block was well to the rear of Toshihiko Seko, 24, a compact Japanese import who set a U.S. marathon record of 2:09:26, and New Zealander Allison Roe, 24, who came from down under and well back in the pack of 6,845 runners to set a new women's course record of 2:26:46. Block lists determination and endurance as his running mates. "You can't run a marathon without them," says he, "or the Department of Agriculture."

--ByE. Graydon Carter

On the Record

Ravi Shankar, master sitarist, on the dwindling mystique of Indian music: "When the gurus are living this jet set life, it is hard to preserve the old ways."

Graham Greene, 76, novelist, on the effects of age: "When one was young, one wrote a book in nine months. It was like a child, always nine months. Now it takes three years."

Jose Torres, 44, former light heavyweight champ, on why Amateur Pugilist Ryan O'Neal never punches his occasional sparring partner, Writer Norman Mailer, 58, in the head: "Ryan has so much respect for Norman's intellect."

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