"Joan of Art," as they call her in Washington, just can't stop collecting. Only a year after Walter Mondale's wife filled the Vice President's official residence with art borrowed from Midwestern museums, she has started all over. This time the paintings, sculptures and handicrafts come from museums in the Southwest. Last week Joan gave the press a tour of her treasures, which include large paintings by Hans Hofmann and Helen Frankenthaler. Why all the art in the Veep's house? Explained Joan: "Here people can see paintings in an intimate setting. We hope it will open their eyes and make them more receptive."

Paparazzo, no, but fashion photographer, s`i. The athletic shutterbug is Italy's Gina Lollobrigida, who has stopped acting and now spends much of her time on the other side of the camera, stills department. When French Vogue assigned her to take some offbeat fashion photos, she scrambled over Roman rooftops, clicking away. Lollobrigida, 50, has even more creative assignments ahead. She has just become artistic director of an interior-design firm and president of a cosmetics company. "In these two jobs I can put all I got from my artistic studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti," she says. "My life has come full circle and I'm back to my first love, which was painting."

Ponytails flying, braces flashing, Tracy Austin is tackling a different ball game. The 15-year-old terror of tennis joined a softball team called the Foul Balls last week in a game at Hilton Head, S.C. Also included: Fellow Tennis Stars Chris Evert, Rosie Casals, and Martina Navratilova. The queens of clay took on the Top Brass--a team heavy with tennis trainers and coaches. "There were lots of errors and chaos," said one observer. With it all, the teams managed to slug it out for six innings. Said Casals: "You could really tell who the athletes were. The Foul Balls put the Top Brass in a foul mood." The score: 20-4.

Watch out Ferrah. Steady on Cheryl. The newest rival in the poster war is Country Music Star Dolly Parton. Decked out `a la Daisy Mae--but looking more like Mae West--Parton took a roll in the haystack as the photographer snapped away. The Parton pinup will go on sale next month, and it suits the subject just fine. Says Parton: "The truth is, I am country."

On the Record

Theodore H. White, complimenting National Book Awards History Winner David McCullough: "I think you write better history than they make it."

Muriel Humphrey, who took over H.H.H.'s Senate seat: "I want to return to Minnesota at the end of the interim period in November and resume life as a private person, with time for my home, family and friends."

Maya Angelou, poet and author (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings), on the diversity of the U.S.: "We really are 15 countries, and it's really remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham--both are certain they're the real America. And Boston just knows it is."

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