It turned into Ladies' Day in Manila as South Viet Nam's Premier Nguyen Cao Ky flew in on a four-day state visit to express his gratitude for the 2,000 Filipino troops President Ferdinand Marcos has sent to help fight the Viet Cong. Along with Ky came his wife Mai, 24, and the airport crowd crushed forward for a better look as she stepped off the plane, strikingly beautiful in a white silk ao-dai. Then the home team brought up its reinforcement: First Lady Imelda Marcos, 36, Manila's beauty queen in 1954 and still gorgeous. The Kys and the Marcos hit it off handsomely at the state banquet that night. After the usual exchange of medals, a four-man combo took over. And as President Marcos led Madame Ky, while Ky squired Imelda, Malacanang Palace rocked until 1 a.m. to the twist, the frug and Tahitian beats.

When British Bridge Stars Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro were accused of cheating at the World Bridge Championship in Buenos Aires last summer, officials decided to let the players' own British Bridge League handle the situation. Now, after a year's study, the league has cleared Reese and Schapiro of the charges, and sent a report to the World Bridge Federation. "It was nothing more than I expected," said Schapiro. It was obviously not what the federation expected. "The verdict," said President Charles Solomon, "is at variance with that of the World Bridge Federation rendered on the scene, and while the evidence was fresh. It is doubtful whether the federation can accept the decision."

George Washington gazes benignly out from the $1 bill; Abe Lincoln graces the $5; Alexander Hamilton the $10; and even Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, lives in the eyes of Americans--though not too many of them--on the $10,000 bill. Thomas Jefferson has had a deuce of a time. Since 1869, his face has adorned the $2 bill, but folks have never really warmed up to the twosies. In the days of freewheeling ward politics, a $2 bill was often taken as a sign of a bought vote; shopkeepers found them increasingly bothersome to handle; and in today's affluent society the horse players are betting $5 more often than $2. Last year the U.S. Treasury stopped printing $2 bills, started gathering in the $115.5 million worth outstanding, and last week announced that the two will be allowed to disappear. Jefferson has one small comfort; he still has a nickel to his name.

Knee-deep in mud, the correspondent pushed doggedly ahead into Viet Cong territory with a U.S. Marine reconnaissance patrol. Later he was up and at them with the Green Berets near Pleiku, then hopped aboard a helicopter to participate in a 1st Cavalry airborne assault landing. "He moves like a worm in hot ashes," said an admiring U.S. officer, but that came as no news to the folks at home. The newsman was eye-patched Moshe Dayan, Israel's former chief of staff come to a war as a correspondent for a Tel Aviv paper. And as one soldier to another, he liked what he saw. "The American soldier is first class," he observed. "I was especially impressed with the young boys seeing war for the first time."

His low-budget movie, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, was hailed as the year's best religious film; so Italian Director Pier Paolo Pasolini has decided to try the formula again. And again. First he plans to shoot a modern-day version of St. Paul's travels, then a contemporary parable of Christ visiting a middle-class family. The fact that Pasolini is a Marxist seems to trouble a lot of people--but not Paolo. "What no one understands is that an Italian Marxist is very special. He doesn't change into another person when he votes Communist. He's still what he al ways was, and most Italians are a little bourgeois and a little Catholic."

"I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying," mumbled John Lennon. For a Beatle, that was an apology. John and his three shaggy sidekicks flew into Chicago to open their 18-day U.S. tour, more than a little apprehensive over their reception after the fuss kicked up by John's crack that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. "We've got to go to America to get beaten up," moaned George Harrison as they left London. Now John was trying to smooth things over. "I never meant it as a lousy irreligious thing. I'm sorry," he continued contritely. "He really believes in Christianity," insisted George.

"She is being interviewed to decide what kind of work she wants to do," the President of the U.S. told a press conference, and no girl could hope for a better want ad than that. Traveling up to Manhattan for a couple of days to see about a job, Lynda Bird Johnson gave McC all's the first call, then dropped in on Old White House Friend McGeorge Bundy, now with the Ford Foundation. George Hamilton was on hand to enchant her evenings, and Lynda spent her last night doing the town till the wee hours, winding up at a place called Chez Vito, where Georgie, accompanied by five violinists, sang Language of Love in her ear. Meanwhile, down in Nassau the language was "Do Not Disturb" as Luci and Pat hid out in a Lyford Cay villa for four days before emerging for tea with the Governor of the Bahamas.

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