Liz Majeste

The twelve U.S. Congressmen had dragged themselves away from their Washington duties to serve as the U.S.'s official delegates to the Italian Centennial celebration. Naturally, they took their wives and, naturally, when they arrived in Rome, they hustled right out to the

Cinecitta movie studios to have their pictures taken with Elizabeth Taylor on the set of 20th Century-Fox's beleaguered Cleopatra.

Humbly, the Congressmen stood around drinking at a soundstage bar, watching a corps of almost nude ballerinas rehearsing as slave dancers--and waiting. Taylor did not show. Eddie Fisher arrived in a green Rolls-Royce and a matching polo shirt and began to mumble apologies. Spouting uncourtly remarks and parliamentary rhetoric, nine lawmakers--including New York's Adam Clayton Powell, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and North Carolina's Harold D. Cooley, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee--left the set. The remaining three loyally remained and were finally ushered into Cleopatra's dressing room.

Smiling sweetly, the serpent of denial protested that she had never been told that the Congressmen were coming. The Congressmen melted like lard, particularly the one who sidled up close to her royal highness and sniggered: "I came, I saw, I conquered."

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