The Congressman from Ohio went over to the Supreme Court, had his credentials presented, got sworn in, signed the register, paid his $25, and went back to work on Capitol Hill. For freshman Representative Robert A. Taft Jr., 46. admission to practice before the highest U.S. tribunal placed him squarely in a family tradition that goes back before the Civil War. Preceding him to the Supreme Court bar were his father, the late Senator Robert A. Taft; grandfather. President William Howard Taft; and great-grandfather, Alphonso Taft, Attorney General under President Grant.

Living in Italy since 1958, when the U.S. found him mentally unfit to face treason charges (after twelve years in a federal hospital), Expatriate Poet Ezra Pound, 77, who spent World War II broadcasting for Mussolini, told the weekly Epoca: "I was always wrong. I lived all my life thinking I knew something; then a day came when I realized I didn't know a thing. My intentions were good, but I was stupid. Now I simply contemplate."

Appointed to the board of trustees of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation (assets exceeding $500 million): Thomas J. Watson Jr., 49, board chairman and chief executive officer of IBM; Robert F. Goheen, 43, president of Princeton University since 1957.

"Never had such an understanding boss," said the chauffeur as he nicked a dustcloth over the Rolls-Royce convertible. And small wonder, for the "boss" is Andrei Porumbeanu, 38, a chauffeur himself until he got a divorce and shifted into high life by marrying Runaway Heiress Gamble Benedict, 22, whose grandmother tried to detour the romance. But now Granny is dead, the happy couple snugly ensconced in a 26-room villa in Erlenbach, Switzerland, where Gambi's inheritance makes life tolerable and the photographers drop by once in a while to snap them with their two handsome sons. Gheorghe, 2. and Gregory, three months.

Picked by the Kennedy Administration to receive the Atomic Energy Commission's $50,000 Fermi Award, given last year to Physicist Edward Teller, was J. Robert Oppenheimer, 58, director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. The announcement and a long biography detailed Oppenheimer's contributions to the development of nuclear energy, but did not mention the 1954 hearings, after which the AEC's five commissioners voted 4-1 to declare the physicist a security risk because of "fundamental defects in his character . . . close association with Communists . . . falsehoods, evasions and misrepresentations." After all the years of this stain on his record, many of his scientist associates have been urging the Government to acknowledge Oppenheimer's earlier impressive contributions, and the Fermi Award was its answer. Said Oppenheimer: "Most of us look to the good opinion of our colleagues and to the good will and the conscience of our Government. I am no exception."

TV Star Richard Chamberlain, 27, gladly took second billing to pert Songstress Clara Ray, 24. They have been an offscreen item for nearly two years, and she sometimes helps in his weekly gig as Dr. Kildare. Now it was Clara's nightclub debut at the Beverly Hilton, and she brought along her favorite medic to cure first-night jitters. All she really needed, though, was a show-stopping duet -- so he bounded onstage, joined in belting Dam It, Baby, That's Love, and chalked up another perfect diagnosis.

Stepping down from chairmanship of the National Coal Policy Conference, John L Lewis, 83, president emeritus of United Mine Workers of America, attended a Washington luncheon in his honor and, after a round of praiseful speeches, declared himself "overwhelmed by these accusations of good character.'' He then went on to express "astonishment" at the patience of "nearly 6,000,000 U.S. unemployed," prophesied a "violent explosion when they reach the limit of their endurance.'' Finally, accepting a gift portrait of himself, the glowering old labor leader glanced at the painting and said that he would hate to meet such a man "on a dark night in a close place."

Come June, America's first Negro astronaut candidate. Air Force Captain Edward J. Dwight Jr., 29, will enter the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Married, with two children, Captain Dwight, a jet pilot, cum laude graduate of Arizona State University and former Golden Gloves champion, hopes to become a full-fledged spaceman. His ultimate goal? A lunar landing. "I'd like that tremendously."

Her usual fee is $150,000 but magnanimous Anna Magnani, 55, will perform for nothing in Cain and Abel, a film to be directed by long-estranged Husband Gof-fredo Alessandrini, 58. Married to Anna in 1936 and separated from her since 1943, Alessandrini left Italy after a string of movie failures, bounced around Egypt and Argentina for ten years. Attempting a comeback at home now, he has only sweet words for Magnani: "I thought I hadn't a friend left. Instead I got a helping hand where I least expected it--from my wife."

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