Jose Ferrer impersonates Joe Stalin. John Houseman is Winston Churchill. Ed Flanders is Harry Truman. They were all gathered together on location outside Hamburg for a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV special entitled "Truman at Potsdam." "Truman was an honest, practical man of little intrigue," observed Flanders, best known for his 1974 Tony Award-winning role in A Moon for the Misbegotten. "I just had to stand up straight." Houseman, who won a 1973 Academy Award for his supporting role in The Paper Chase, learned to smoke cigars for his portrayal of Churchill and then picked up some of Winnie's other mannerisms as well. "By Potsdam, he stooped a lot," observed the Rumanian-born actor, who attended England's Clifton College. "So I stoop a lot." Ferrer meanwhile discovered that Stalin had a partially crippled left arm, which he held shorter than his right. As Stalin did, so did Ferrer, and the re-creation of the famous 1945 Potsdam photograph was as authentic as Ferrer and his non-crippled arm could make it.

A hush falls, the envelope is opened and the winner announced. Calmly, with dignity, the year's best movie actor comes forward to carry off the prized statuette in his teeth. His teeth? Well, at least that's the way it happens in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood. The film, a spoof of the movie business in the 1920s, features Madeline Kahn as WTT's trainer, Art Carney as a tyrannical studio director--plus cameo appearances by Victor Mature, Rhonda Fleming and some 60 Hollywood veterans. No matter that Won Ton Ton bears a striking resemblance to another German shepherd screen star of the same era. A Los Angeles judge has already decided against a producer of the Rin Tin Tin television series and the wife of the movie dog's trainer, who had charged Paramount Studios with unfair competition. Acting, after all, is a dog-eat-dog business.

Boxer Muhammad Ali has been practicing some of his most fancy footwork outside the ring. For almost a year his entourage has included Veronica Porche, a former Los Angeles beauty queen whom Ali's acquaintances have been referring to as the fighter's "second wife." His legal wife, however, is Belinda Ali, who last week flew to Manila to join her husband--and Veronica--on the eve of his title defense against heavyweight Joe Frazier. As a Muslim, Ali is technically entitled to four spouses, but neither the U.S. nor Belinda sees it that way. So, eleven hours after her arrival, an angry Belinda boarded a plane back to the U.S. "My wife rides around in two Rolls-Royces, two Eldorados," said Ali later. "We have a 16-room home in Chicago, four beautiful children, a couple of farms." And, obviously, a problem.

Hoping to drum up some interest in her current swing through Australia, Aging Trouper Marlene Dietrich, 73, promised her tour promoter, Cyril Smith, to step out of character and hold her first interview in three years. Trouble was, the singer banned photographers and TV cameramen from the Sydney press conference, and Dietrich's representatives handed out a list of two dozen questions that newsmen should avoid asking. Samples: How many grandchildren do you have? How many films did you make? When did you make The Blue Angel? What do you think about women's lib?* Inevitably, someone broke the rules by asking if Dietrich ever planned to make another picture, perhaps her life-story. "Oh dear, I'd be bored stiff," came the reply.

* Four; 57; 1930; "It bores me."

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