Gene Wilder is in over his head.

In his new film, The World's Greatest Lover, he plays a doltish Midwestern baker who goes to Hollywood and changes his name to Rudy Valentine. When his wife (played by Carol Kane) lets the bathtub overflow in the couple's posh hotel suite, Wilder passes it off as an added luxury of the place and swims laps, to the astonishment of his aunt and uncle. The slapstick is pure Wilder. He not only stars in the film but is also the writer, director and producer--a quadruple task he says "makes me want to go home and cry sometimes." Despite the obvious comic overtones, Wilder, 42, insists that his film is romantic at the core. Says he: "Everything I write is a love story and emotionally autobiographical."

"I'm not the boldest person in the world. In fact, I'm fairly retiring," says Lady Bird Johnson. Yet in 1964, campaigning for Lyndon, the First Lady once made 47 speeches in four days on a whistle-stop tour of the South. Back on the hustings in Virginia, Lady Bird, 64, is again gamely speaking at luncheons and asking audiences to ante up contributions at fund raisers. Her message: "I don't presume to tell Virginians about Virginia politics, but I do know Chuck Robb." Robb, 37, her lawyer son-in-law, is after the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. On nights when Daughter Lynda heads out campaigning alone with Chuck, Lady Bird also likes to play Miz Lillian's role: babysitting for the kids, Lucinda, 8, and Catherine, 6.

"I'm in good company," gloated Abstract Expressionist Robert Motherwell. As the latest artist to create a wine label for the renowned French vintner Baron Philippe de Rothschild, 75, Motherwell joined the ranks of Picasso, Chagall, Miro and Braque. Titled Les Caves (the wine cellars), his design is a "primordial image," he explained as he signed and numbered the labels on a dozen bottles of 1974 Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Manhattan. "Chagall and Braque did joyful symbols, but I have a much deeper feeling about wine," said Motherwell, who received 16 cases of Mouton (approximate value: $5,000) for his labors. "It's basic and traditional, a permanent part of civilization."

Justice was served last week on the quiet banks of the Potomac. In his first public appearance since he resigned from the Supreme Court in November 1975, William O. Douglas, 78, attended the ceremonies dedicating to him the 20,200-acre Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park. The hundreds gathered in his honor needed no reminder that it was Douglas who spearheaded a campaign to save the 184-mile towpath along the C&O canal from becoming a highway--in 1954 he led conservationists on an eight-day hike from Georgetown to Cumberland, Md., to publicize the cause. At the dedication ceremonies, Douglas' wife Cathy unveiled a bust of her husband as six Supreme Court Justices, including Chief Justice Warren Burger, looked on. "Thanks for coming, Chief," smiled Douglas. "This has to be a quorum." Though he looked frail and gaunt in his wheelchair, he made some appropriate ad lib remarks in a thin, reedy voice and promised his audience to get well and hike again "the whole distance."

At Yale everything seemed to be happening at once. Among the recipients of honorary degrees was a well-tanned and teary-eyed Gerald Ford, who received a standing ovation as President Kingman Brewster read his citation: "It took someone to get the house clean in time for the birthday party. Somehow, you managed to get us ready to celebrate. Like the tall ships, you were a symbol of stately and cheerful serenity." Brewster, who was leaving the university after 14 often stormy years as president, then got a surprise honorary degree himself ("You have been the disturber of placid assumptions and the preserver of the peace"). Amid the azaleas and tulips of his campus residence. Brewster was later sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. The man who administered the oath of office: Cyrus Vance, his old friend and as Secretary of State, his new boss, who had interrupted his talks at Geneva to fly back at his own expense to watch his son Cyrus Vance Jr. graduate with the class of'77.

Some enchanted evening, they always said, Mary Martin and Ethel Merman would appear together in a two-woman show on Broadway. And so it finally happened in a one-night benefit replete with hoops and hoopla and costumes from South Pacific, Gypsy and, of course, Hello, Dolly! Briefly joining the high jinks onstage were the likes of Yul Brynner, Burgess Meredith, Joel Grey and Geoffrey Holder--who kicked up their heels in an all-male chorus line. When it was over, Ethel, 68, sighed, "Fm on Cloud Nine," and Mary. 63, was still savoring the roars of the audience. "It was like we had hit twelve home runs at Yankee Stadium." Naturally there is talk about repeating the evening as a television special, but Mary is reluctant. "I'd like to keep it as a memory, as one of my best memories of this little ole planet."

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