The day of the star may be really dead. Consider the case of seven-year-old Charlie Matthau, who last week set up a lemonade stand in front of his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. After a no-sale morning at 2-c- a glass. Charlie asked his father, a star named Walter, to sit on the sidewalk with him to draw some customers. "He wanted me to sit facing the traffic so people would see me and stop," Walter says. "I told him no. I'd sit facing the house." Charlie agreed, "That's O.K. People will know you by your background." Apparently not. Charlie got not a nibble.

Ever ready to take up a cause, Actress Vanessa Redgrave last week proffered aid to 18 Black Power demonstrators who had been jailed after clashing with London police. She posted herself outside the Marylebone Magistrates' Court and announced she would stand bail for anyone who needed it. Gallant though it was, her gesture proved to be empty; all of the defendants were freed on bail without her help to await their trials in October.

He came to praise Rivers, but buried Vinson. Vice President Spiro Agnew was at his quippy best last week as he paid tribute to South Carolina's Democratic Representative L. Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and new recipient of a Distinguished American Award. In a speech interrupted 14 times by laughter, the Vice President mentioned Rivers' honorary membership in the International College of Dentists. Said Agnew: "I told him, 'You're never going to practice dentistry on me.' That's all right.' he replied. 'I'm never going to play golf with you.' " Not all of the humor was intentional. Toward the end of his speech, Agnew referred to Rivers' predecessor, former Representative Carl Vinson, as "the late Carl Vinson." On the phone in Georgia, the 86-year-old ex-Congressman was not amused: "I saw that in the paper. I've got no comment. I'm still living." Slam.

"It was really a lark. But when they got out there they got serious." Thus Dick Smothers, the eventual winner, described the inaugural Celebrity Pro-Am Auto Race at Ontario, Calif. The $50,000 purse went to the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund, and stars of all styles turned out to draw the crowds. Dan Gurney and Poncho Gonzalez sprinted into the lead, lost it, and then regained it by cutting up--and across the infield--thoroughly disqualifying themselves. Second behind Smothers and his partner Bobby Unser came Astronaut Pete Conrad and Mario Andretti. Despite a sprained ankle, Paul Newman leadfooted it out of the pits so furiously that he tore up his car's transmission. But the whole race was so casual that for once Parnelli Jones, Newman's co-driver, did not seem to mind losing.

In her day she rejected such suitors as Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart, but lovely Anita Colby, once nicknamed "The Face," has finally said yes. The former model was the first to be paid $100 an hour, and in one month in 1936 appeared on 15 magazine covers. She is an actress (nine movies), columnist, advertising executive, beauty consultant and author. Still, she could not quite explain what her textile executive fiance, Palen Flagler, 58, has over Gable. Or Stewart, for that matter. Whatever it is, it obviously came along at the right time; at 56 the eclectic career woman says she is finally ready to settle down--though she cautions that she plans to "keep busy" after the September wedding.

New on the job, the policemen in the patrol car set out in pursuit of the late-model blue-and-white sedan--license number SC-1--that had sped through a red light in Washington, D.C. Siren howling and red light flashing, the squad car chased the offender for a mile. When he finally pulled to the side of the road, the driver handed over his license. Result: no ticket. Later, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond explained: "The police department informed my office that the officer was inexperienced and expressed regret that the incident occurred." Under federal law, while on official business a member of Congress can only be arrested for breach of the peace, felony or treason. Case closed.

On the balmy isle of Sardinia, this year's resort area of Porto Rotonda has taken the play from last year's Costa Smeralda. Playing along, Sweden's handsome, eligible Crown Prince Carl Gustaf, 24, did not hesitate a minute when the "All in Red" theme of one of Porto Rotonda's costume parties was announced. He draped himself in red sarong, Belafonte shirt and red beads. Also spied at the fashionable new playground were those now-quite-grown twin daughters of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, 18-year-old Isabella and Isotta.

All she wants to be is Mrs. William Wesley Peters, housewife. That may not seem much to ask, but when the seeker of anonymity is the former Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Joseph Stalin, the request takes on unusual proportions. At home in Spring Green, Wis., the bride of four months, whose husband is vice president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, still cannot escape pesky reporters requesting interviews. Mrs. Peters patiently insists that she is not planning to write a third book. "I am planning to do nothing except be a good wife to my husband. That is a full-time job."

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