Demurely wrapped in a fur-collared coat, Brigitte Bardot, 28, still managed to light Paris' dismal Palace of Justice with a pair of well-attended personal appearances. First she kindled a divorce action against Second Husband Jacques Charrier, 26, on the ground that he had "deserted the conjugal home." Next day she loyally testified on behalf of her eternal flame and possible No. 3, Actor Sami Frey, 27, who was suing the weekly Ici-Paris for calling him "The Man Who Destroys BB." Testily, she denied that Sami was insanely jealous, that he popped away at nudenik photographers in St.-Tropez with a .22, or that he got violent when she did love scenes on-camera with someone else. "He doesn't destroy me," insisted BB, "and he's welcome on the set any time he cares to come."

What England's Order of Merit lacks in tradition--having been founded a mere 60 years ago by King Edward VII--it makes up in exclusiveness: only 24 living Britons at any one time are entitled to write O.M. after their names. Filling two vacancies left by the deaths of Historian G. M. Trevelyan and Portraitist Augustus John, Queen Elizabeth named goateed Architect Sir Basil Spence, 55, rebuilder of the bombed-out Coventry Cathedral, and Aviation Pioneer Sir Geoffrey deHavilland, 80, whose company turned out swarms of Mosquito fighter-bombers during World War II. to join the distinguished company of such men as Poet T. S. Eliot, Prime Ministers Attlee and Churchill.

In Paris, it took but a single ballot to elect Novelist-Journalist Joseph Kessel, 64, to the rarefied ranks of the Academic Franc,aise A byliner for Paris' France-Soir and author of the international bestseller The Lion, grey-maned Kessel is the first reporter ever to win a seat in the Academic. His election drew indignant grumbles from a fellow academician. Legion of Honor Commander Henry Bordeaux, who wrote the Academic protesting the entry of "this Kessel, who has lived such a dissolute life."

From her Manhattan hospital bed in mid-October, the late Eleanor Roosevelt wrote her last column for McCall's Magazine. Titled "Mrs. Roosevelt's Christmas Sampler," it listed the holiday customs she loved best. Her favorite carol: Silent Night; her favorite Christmas benevolence: "To invite a stranger from a foreign country, who would be alone, to our Christmas dinner"; her favorite Christmas cards: "Adlai Stevenson's beautifully illuminated messages'"; her favorite ornament: "A little angel that has topped our family tree since my children were babies"; and her favorite Christmas recipe: a bowl of eggnog, laced with four jiggers of brandy.

The bullfight crowd in Lima, Peru, was jeeringly hostile. Growing cautious with age, Spain's numero uno matador, Antonio Ordonez, 30, was putting on such mediocre performances that aficionados hoisted an insulting placard: "Ordonez, you are a thief." The handsome matador took 23 minutes executing a careful and appropriate reply. Again and again, he brought the crowd up screaming "Ole!" with a series of slow, majestic passes. At the end of his faena, Ordonez stood in the arena as a friend scissored off his coleta--the bullfighter's pigtail--to mark his retirement from the ring. Said Ord&o#241;ez: "It is just a deep feeling that this is the way it must be, that my time to quit is now."

. . .

Rated one of the richest Negroes in the U.S., Singer Johnny Mathis, 27, could hardly care less, to hear him tell it in London to reporters. "Money to me is paper with cute engraving on it," he said. "I was once told how much of the stuff I had, but I've forgotten. I own apartment buildings in America, twelve music publishing firms, and an office block with a bank in it. There's $2,000,000 in royalties lying waiting for me at Columbia Records. I'll let them lie there until I can find an accountant cute enough to get them out without paying 92% tax to Kennedy." So saying, cute Millionaire Mathis borrowed a sixpence for a telephone call.

His annual income of $150,000 may seem adequate, testified Auto Heir Horace E. Dodge, 65, in a Detroit court, but it doesn't last long at the rate his fifth wife. Gregg, 38, is running up his charge accounts. In the past three years, said Dodge, he has had to borrow $1,594,691 from his mother just to keep up the payments for Gregg's shopping sprees. Now he wants the court to stop spendthrift Gregg from putting him even deeper in debt to Mama. "Have you found it easy to borrow from your mother?" asked Mrs. Dodge's attorney. "No," replied Dodge. "Nonetheless you did borrow it?" the attorney pursued. "Yes," sighed Dodge, "but it wasn't easy."

. . .

He long ago gave up eating meat and then reluctantly put a stopper in his Jack Daniel's sour mash. On his 94th birthday, former Vice President John Nance Garner sadly announced at his Uvalde, Texas, home that in the name of health and increased longevity he is considering giving up his last enjoyable vice--his black stogies.

On his way to Prague as the new U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia was Career Diplomat Outerbridge Horsey, of the Maryland Horseys, whose grandfather was the founder of the "Old Horsey" rye distillery. Said Ambassador Horsey, who previously was No. 2 man in Rome: "I am the sixth Outerbridge Horsey and my unhappy son is the seventh. In fact, the only trouble with any new post is explaining the name to people."

Tooling along in his racy grey Corvette last month, Astronaut Virgil Grissom, 36 --who has topped 5,000 m.p.h. in less restricted environs--was nabbed by a Florida State trooper for doing 70 in a 55-m.p.h. zone. When Grissom failed to pay the $20 fine, Jackson County Judge Julian Larramore got out a warrant for his arrest. Said the judge: "The fact that he has been in outer space has no bearing on what a traffic court does." After a two-day countdown, a money order came winging in from astronaut headquarters.

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