On the Record

By E.Graydon Carter

In California to pose for a recent Los Angeles magazine cover story on diet and fitness, Christie Brinkley gave in to the unthinkable and stuffed her splendid 5-ft. 8-in. frame with Mexican food. Christie paid for the binge--she found herself a wee bit more pneumatic in her mauve, Lycra-stretch jumpsuit. Not to worry. Included in the Los Angeles story was a collection of hip-slimming homilies to which Christie subscribes. Most of the diet tips were standard. Avoid mayonnaise, butter, margarine, oil and salad dressings, drink lots of water and no more than two glasses of wine a day. Christie, who weighs in at 124 Ibs., does not chew gum, so she chomps on raw vegetables. She makes another exception. "I prefer champagne to wine," says Christie. "The bubbles fill you up more."

Take the group of veteran nightclub comics and entertainers who turned out at the Hillcrest Country Club for Comedian Danny Thomas' 70th birthday. Please. Making room for Danny in the picture (he is front row center, with a cigar and red pocket handkerchief) are: (top row) Milton Berle, 73, Don Rickles, 55, Steve Landesberg (partially hidden), 36, Bob Newhart, 52, Morey Amsterdam, 67, Bob Hope, 78, Art Linkletter, 69, Jack Carter, 58, Joey Bishop, 63, Phyllis Diller, 64, Carl Reiner, 59, Sid Caesar, 59;(front row) Jan Murray, 64, George Burns, 85, Danny, Red Buttons, 62, Steve Lawrence, 46, and Buddy Hackett, 57. One longtime Hollywood hand telephoned Thomas. "I'm calling to congratulate you on your 39th birthday," said Ronald Reagan, 70. Replied Thomas: "You never did get your lines right."

For Race Driver Mark Thatcher, 28, the son of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the 390-vehicle Paris-to-Dakar rally lived up to its promise as "the last possible adventure in our epoch." Nine days into the harrowing 6,200-mile course, Thatcher, Co-Driver Charlotte Verney, 38, and Mechanic Jean Gamier suffered a broken axle on their Peugeot 504 and then vanished in the vast expanse of the Sahara. A search party, led by Algerian and French military planes and helicopters, crisscrossed the desert sky while trucks and Land Rovers traversed the rugged terrain. Finally, last week, on the sixth day of the trio's disappearance, they were spotted, stranded between two small Algerian desert towns. Said Thatcher after his rescue: "All I need is a beer and sandwich, a bath and a shave.'' --By E. Gray don Carter

On the Record

Gerald Ford, 68, former President, on his new athletic skills: "I fall down less on the ski slopes and hit fewer spectators on the golf course."

John F. Seiberling, 63, Democratic Representative, on the changes in federal tax law that favor Big Business: "There's a joke going around Wall Street. It says that if your company is still paying taxes, you haven't read the new tax law. Well, it's a joke all right, but the joke is on the rest of the taxpayers."

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