Being a peripatetic President is tiring, so Cuba's Fidel Castro decided to take five--on a reviewing stand in Ethiopia's Revolution Square. As Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, Ethiopia's head of state, chatted away, Castro slumped in his chair and watched a parade. Back in the days of Emperor Haile Selassie such behavior would not have passed muster. But as it happened, Castro was in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to help the country's Marxist rulers celebrate the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of the late Emperor. Despite his fatigue, he managed to review the military display in the parade--and smile broadly as soldiers chanted "Viva Castro."

After playing the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in five Pink Panther pictures, Peter Sellers is reveling in his role as the dashing playboy King of Ruritania in a new film version of Anthony Hope's 1894 novel, The Prisoner of Zenda. "I rather enjoy being called Your Majesty all day," says Sellers. He is especially pleased at getting the royal treatment from his real-life wife, Lynne Frederick, 24, who co-stars in the film as the king's betrothed, Princess Flavia. So enamored is Sellers of his new cinematic self, a role made memorable by Ronald Colman in 1937, that should the imaginary kingdom of Ruritania ever materialize, he would be happy to take the job of king permanently. Says Sellers: "It's tax free. Why I've already got all sorts of business people waiting to set up residence there."

Most of the "seven sisters" colleges have usually had big brothers at their helm. But when Elizabeth Kennan, a medieval scholar, is inaugurated as president of Mt. Holyoke on Oct. 7, all seven prestigious Eastern schools will be headed by women presidents for the first time in their history. "There was a certain feeling of elation among us that the colleges established 100 years ago to produce women leaders are at last led by women leaders," said Barbara Newell, president of Wellesley, when the seven met in Cambridge, Mass., to celebrate Radcliffe's centennial. Mary Patterson McPherson, the newly elected head of Bryn Mawr, calls the group "the new matriarchy."

Who's Afraid of Virginia WooIf? Not Edward Albee, who has directed it and other plays he has written. "Nobody can get as much into the mind of the author as the playwright himself," says Albee, 50. For his latest project, he has directed a troupe of six actors who are presenting eight of his one-act plays, including The Zoo Story and The American Dream, on a 35-week tour of U.S. and Canadian universities. For parts of the tour Albee plans to be on hand. But actors, beware. The director has a ready brush-off. "When there is a question," he jokes, "I say I'll take it up with the writer."

On the Record

Charles Bates, the retired FBI agent who headed the search for Kidnaped Heiress-turned-Outlaw Patty Hearst, on why he has joined the campaign to free her: "Patty got a little tougher sentence than most bank robbers who have long rap sheets."

A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale: "The university must be a tributary to a larger society, not a sanctuary from it."

Jerry Brown, Governor of California, likening the art of governing to paddling a canoe: "You lean a little to the left and then a little to the right in order to always move straight ahead."

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