As the Hearst Papers' Cholly Knickerbocker, he invented the name "jet set" and chronicled and shared in its gossipy escapades. Under his real monicker, Igor Cassini, 47, was on kissing terms with the Kennedys; his brother Oly is Jackie's favorite dress designer, and his third wife is the daughter of Oilman Charles B. Wrightsman, the Kennedys' neighbor in Palm Beach, Fla. Such weight did he swing that he was instrumental in having Diplomat Robert D. Murphy sent on a secret White House mission in 1961 to listen to the laments of the Dominican Republic's Dictator Rafael Trujillo, then wilting under U.S. sanctions. Naturally, Igor tagged along, too. But now the private line is disconnected. In Washington, a federal grand jury indicted Igor for failing to register as a highly paid agent (sharing fees estimated at $200,000) of the deposed Trujillo regime. Facing up to 20 years in prison and $40,000 fines, Igor hired an expensive lawyer, Louis (My Life in Court) Nizer, and said: "I am confident I will be cleared." Meanwhile, Cholly Knickerbocker had "voluntarily submitted his resignation, to be acted upon at our discretion." Discretion seemed an appropriate word: William Randolph Hearst Jr. is himself married to Igor's second wife, "Bootsie."

Britain's blizzards were oceans behind as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip toured their sunnier Commonwealth lands Down Under on a 40-day, 30,000-mile trip. It was the first time in nearly a decade that far-off Fiji had glimpsed its Queen. Elizabeth, looking cool as ever in the 105DEG simmer, responded by quaffing a bowl of kava, the muddy national beverage made of mashed roots. Then, before boarding the royal yacht Britannia for the cruise on to New Zealand and Australia, she bowed to accept the traditional bouquet from one of her barefoot subjects, while others on a nearby British liner clicked away souvenir photos of their fellow South Seas tourist.

Over a year after his death at the age of 71, the will of Charles E. Wilson, General Motors president and onetime U.S. Defense Secretary, was finally admitted to probate in Pontiac, Mich. To his wife, six children and 17 grandchildren "Engine Charlie" left an estate of $7,134,161.

Once she sang Stormy Weather, it never quite sounded right coming from anyone else. But after 28 years of carrying a smoky torch from Harlem to Hollywood, Lena Home, still sultry at 45, finds the flame burning lower. Soon after she finishes her six-week run at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria, Lena says she will give up nightclub singing altogether. "It's stifling to keep singing these silly boy-girl songs all your life. All the drama has moved from Broadway to Mississippi. Why be trivial in times like these?" Her idea: "Match bitternesses" with Essayist James Baldwin in a musical play.

Comfortably settled in a $400,000 Miami Beach mansion, Venezuela's ex-Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, 48, for a long time lived high off the fat of his former land after his ouster in 1958. Alas, for two months now, the suety onetime strongman has been sweating it out in a Florida jail, while his lawyers try to arrange bail on extradition charges. On a low-fat prison diet, Jimenez has lost 16 lbs. and is down to 166 lbs. "If you ever find yourself gaining weight after you get out," said a sympathetic jailer, "feel free to come back here for your meals."

"I believe in the gold standard," said willowy Suzy Parker, 30, high fashion's highest paid ($200 an hour) mannequin, to a Washington Post reporter. "I like solid lumps of things. You can always melt them down." She also believes in marrying Actor Bradford Dillman in April, and is just waiting for him "to get up his gumption. Well he's just got to."

The diplomatic fallout from le grand Charles's lofty isolationism rained down on those two favorites of the New Frontier, French Ambassador and Mme. Herve Alphand. "Will De Gaulle's action affect the Alphands?" asked Washington Columnist Betty Beale. Apparently not, since the Alphands run what many people consider the only decent French restaurant in Washington. "I think some other French ambassador might be affected socially by what's happened," said the wife of one U.S. official, "but not the Alphands, because they entertain so beautifully." This judgment appeared a little premature. The perfect hosts proved pretty picky guests at a Mona Lisa preview dinner later in the week at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The way U.N. officials got it, the invites were already out when Alphand balked at discovering that U.N. Secretary-General U Thant was among the honored guests. It was, sniffed Alphand, a strictly Franco-American affair. Harassed Met officials got the Alphands to agree to two head tables, with Alphand and Adlai Stevenson at the head head table, and Mme. Alphand at another one with U Thant. The Secretary-General coldly refused to attend, along with a half dozen other U.N. officials, including Ralph Bunche. At dinner time, Mona Lisa seemed to be wearing the only uncryptic smile in the house.

It was an instructive journey north for Mississippi's Governor Ross Barnett, 65, invited to speak by the Harvard Law School Forum. Stopping by the Massachusetts State House on a protocol visit, Barnett was talking with officials when in walked Attorney General Edward W. Brooke, 43, first Negro elected to such a post in the U.S. Barnett briefly shook hands. "Hello there," he said. "Welcome to Massachusetts, Governor," replied Brooke with a smile, and then shook hands with Mrs. Barnett and her daughter.

During his protean career, John Huston, 56, has been a boxer, cavalryman, painter, writer and Hollywood director of such classics as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen and Freud. What next? The ever restless Huston will soon move in front of the camera --to play the Boston Irish Cardinal Glennon in Otto Preminger's film, The Cardinal. Snorted a poker-playing crony: "The only problem is getting the robes off him when the movie's finished. He'll be pax vobiscuming all over the joint."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.