Off-camera he may not seem the type, but on-camera Richard Burton cuts a fine figure as a priest. After playing a man of the cloth on a devilish mission in Exorcist II: The Heretic, Burton has once again put on his cleric's collar, in Absolution. This time he plays Father Goddard, an opinionated Jesuit priest at a Roman Catholic boys' school in England. Trouble arises when his favorite student tells him in confession that he has committed murder. To get away from such traumas, Burton likes to relax on the set by tossing a cricket ball over a practice net. Snapping the event was Elizabeth Taylor's son Christopher Wilding, a professional photographer, whose shots of his former stepdad may, or may not, go into the family album.

"Working is nothing new in my life. I just never got paid before," says Charlotte Ford. But two years ago, Henry Ford II's elder daughter set up her own Seventh Avenue business and at about the same time started doing a little writing. The result: Charlotte Ford's Book of Modern Manners, scheduled for publication next spring. "It's completely different from Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt, says Ford, 37. The book gives tips for roommates of the opposite sex ("They should split the rent and put both their names on the mailbox"), and advice to a divorcee about her wedding ring ("Put it away for a year or so. It might start looking good to you again"). Ford, who has a twelve-year-old daughter from her marriage to Shipping Magnate Stavros Niarchos, is especially concerned about children. Sleep-over lovers, she emphasizes, must never, never be introduced to one's offspring at the breakfast table.

When Happy Rockefeller decided to toss a party for 400 or so close friends, she knew just the spot: Pocantico Hills, the family's 3,000-acre estate overlooking the Hudson near Tarrytown, N.Y. It was at the stone-walled residence that folks such as Pierre Trudeau, Henry Kissinger, Arthur Burns and Averell Harriman, helped Nelson Rockefeller celebrate his 70th birthday last week. And it is to Pocantico Hills that the Rockefellers plan to retire eventually. To that end, the former Vice President has put his 21-room retreat on Seal Harbor, Me., on the market. The down-East house, which has a cantilevered deck over the crashing surf, is up for grabs for a cool $1 million. Sotheby Parke Bernet, the agent for the sale, has already issued the word: "If you have to ask about a mortgage, don't ask."

At long last, it was time for a housewarming at Bunny and Paul's new place. For the gala affair last week at the magnificent East Building of Washington's National Gallery, the Mellons played host to over 200 guests, including Jacqueline Onassis and Artists Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler. Architect I.M. Pei, creator of it all, looked on beaming. "The best thing is to see how it looks with people in it," he said, adding, "I didn't want it to be a Lincoln Memorial." Not to worry. Before the week was out, the President himself had stopped by to open Pei's pride to the public. The building, said Carter, "is worthy of thousands of years of artistic creation."

On the Record

Robert Dole, Senator from Kansas, predicting a crowded field in the 1980 presidential campaign: "I went into the Senate cloakroom the other day and called out 'Mr. President,' and 20 guys turned around."

John Knowles, M.D., president of the Rockefeller Foundation, on staying well: "Over 99% of us are born healthy and made sick as a result of personal misbehavior and environmental conditions."

Chevy Chase, actor and television personality, when asked by David Frost what he would put in a time capsule: "The King Tut exhibit. That would confuse people in the future."

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