The Personal Approach

The British press was atwitter over the rumor that Princess Margaret had set her heart on marrying the tall, red-haired Earl of Dalkeith, 26, heir to the well-to-do Scottish Duke of Buccleuch. (The title dates from 1663, when Anne, Countess of Buccleuch, married the Duke of Monmouth, bastard son of Charles II.) Newspaper gossipists spoke well of the Earl's record at Eton, Oxford and in the Royal Navy, observed complacently that "the blood of the Stuarts is to be found in both." But at week's end, Buckingham Palace remained majestically mum. The Earl's only comment: "It's all foolish."

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said he had no thought of running for President in 1952: "I'm going to stay on the bench. I like it there." Defense Secretary Louis Johnson felt much the same. "I am not a candidate for President," he announced from the deck of the carrier Midway, adding that his only desire when the long trick was over was to "go back to the hills of West Virginia for a little sleep and rest."

On the advice of his old friend and first employer, Bernard Baruch, Columnist-Showman Billy Rose turned down an offer of $25,000 a week to do a television show for RCA, became instead consulting director for the 1953 California World Progress Exposition. Salary: one pound of his favorite tobacco (Mixture No. 79).

Near Callander, Ont., Mrs. Oliva Dionne, 41, mother of the famed quintuplets, vigorously denied a rumor that she was expecting triplets.

The Restless Foot

At Copenhagen airport, junketing Eleanor Roosevelt was greeted by U.S. Ambassadress Eugenie Anderson, Danish Foreign Minister Gustav Rasmussen and American Ballad Singer Josh White. Accompanied by son Elliott, she went on to The Netherlands for a little visit with Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard in Soestdijk palace. She also drove to her family's ancestral home, Oud-Vossemeer, where the whole town, including 40 local Roosevelts, turned out to cheer her. In Luxembourg, she went to a banquet given for her by Grand Duchess Charlotte, took Madam Minister Perle Mesta out to lay a wreath on the grave of General George Patton. After that, she was off for Paris, where she had a date with President Vincent Auriol.

Taking a good look at the West, Hollywood's newest romantic lead, Ezio (Some Enchanted Evening) Pinza, 58, happily pointed out the sights of Las Vegas, Nev. to his youngest child, Pietro, 6.

Lewis L. Strauss, 54, longtime partner in Wall Street's Kuhn, Loeb & Co. (1929-46) who resigned last April from the Atomic Energy Commission, announced that he was about to move into his new Manhattan offices as a financial adviser to the Rockefeller brothers.

"Mother's got to work," mused Dorothy Parker, speaking of herself. "Mother hasn't written anything since the New England Primer." Author Parker, 56, rhymester-wit of the '20s (Enough Rope), more recently a scenarist (The Fan), was back in Manhattan after a long stint in Hollywood ("Two years out there and you'd go anywhere") and a three-month vacation in the tiny Mexican village of Acapantzingo, where she found the Indians magnificent and the countryside "beautiful, terrifying. . . I felt that I could live and die there, but I realized that I was doing neither, so I had to leave."

The Cost of Living

Her friends explained that Cinemactress Judy Garland, 29, in spite of making $5,600 a week and being yearned over by millions of fans, was an unhappy girl. She believed that she was ill-favored, unloved, and persecuted by her movie bosses (M-G-M). She was jittery after years of "bolts & jolts" (sleeping pills to calm you down, Benzedrine to pep you up). Last week, when Judy learned that her studio had suspended her again for repeated failure to show up for work, she locked herself in the bathroom, broke a water glass and scratched herself on the neck with the ragged edge. The Los Angeles Mirror headlined JUDY GARLAND CUTS THROAT--and all the sob sisters were off in full cry. Judy's husband, topnotch Director Vincente (The Clock) Minnelli, assured reporters that the incident was "too trivial" to discuss.

The New York State Employees' Retirement System reported that because Governor Thomas E. Dewey is too young (48) and his period of public service (18 years) too short, he will not be eligible for a pension when he retires Dec. 31.

To prove that she could still show most ingenues a thing or two, France's durable oldtime Musicomedienne Mistinguett, who admits to 70, put on a pair of tights and gave photographers another look at the legs that were world famous before Grable or Dietrich were born.

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