By Georgia Harbison

He had logged twelve years and 500,000 miles tracing his roots back to Kunta Kinte, the Mandinka tribesman taken into slavery two centuries ago in West Africa. But Alex Haley, 60, had never met most of his living relatives. So plans began early this year for a mammoth July reunion. Some 300 people from 32 states and all branches of the family tree descended on Haley's sleepy home town of Henning, Tenn. There were teachers, farmers, service workers, ministers, musicians, many excitedly meeting for the first time. Some stopped off to visit family sites like the grave of Haley's great-great-grandfather, Chicken George. "It was, of course, very emotional," said Haley. By the time everything wound up in that all-American ritual, the family picnic, the Haley clan was already talking about its next giant reunion.

During his playing days 30 years ago, the Hall of Fame shortstop for the Chicago White Sox was known as Old Aches and Pains. But last week Septuagenarian Luke Appling could say, "I never felt better than I did last night." The reason: as the lead-off batter for the American League in the Cracker Jack Old Timers Baseball Classic at R.F.K. Stadium in Washington, he smacked the second pitch into the leftfield stands. The fence was only 250 ft., but never mind, nobody was counting up feet. They were counting up Appling's 75 years. As far as anyone could remember, he is the oldest player to hit a home run in even a quasi-major-league game. A surprised Warren Spahn, 61, the former Milwaukee Brave pitching ace who served up the gopher ball, confessed, "I didn't figure Appling could even hit that far." Said Appling, who these days coaches batting for the Atlanta Braves' minor league teams: "I guess these young fellows will listen to me now."

Only fanatic Beatle fans would remember that in the early '60s the group recorded their first record in Hamburg, Germany, where they scored an early triumph, wildly singing and stomping at the Kaiserkeller on the notorious Reeperbahn. Erika Huebers remembers, though. Then an 18-year-old pop-music fan in Hamburg, she had a brief affair with Paul McCartney. They split, and the Beatles soon exploded into worldwide popularity. Erika had a child, Bettina. Neither mother nor daughter has seen McCartney since, but Bettina's lawyers recently brought suit against him, asserting a claim to some of her father's money. The ex-Beatle has reportedly agreed to a $3 million settlement. Bettina, who used to collect all of McCartney's records, wants to follow in his career footsteps. "I have won a few talent-spotting competitions," she says. "But these days that doesn't mean too much." As for a little help from her dad, well, it seems that the $3 million will have to do.

Petty problems always plague a movie crew on location, but when Australian Director Peter Weir was shooting The Year of Living Dangerously, about the fall of Indonesian Dictator Sukarno, he began to think the title of the movie seemed all too apt. On location in the Philippines, unpredictable extras and telephone service were matched by the all too predictable tropical heat. Worse yet, the company began getting death threats, apparently for some inadvertent offense to local Muslims. Weir's star, Sigourney Weaver, 32, was unruffled: "I grew up in New York City, and that prepares you for anything." But after a month of living dangerously, Weir cut short his filming by ten days and evacuated his troops back to Australia. After getting there, Weaver decided to take a sight-seeing break and visit the zoo, where a welcoming kangaroo snuffled up and posed no threat at all. --By Georgia Harbison

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