For 33 years, Entertainer Rudy Vallee has been fond of a Paris street sign that says "Rue de Vallee." When Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty suggested to Vallee that the street to his Hollywood Hills home be rechristened to match the sign, the entertainer proceeded with the rechristening--helped along by a Yorty appointment to the city traffic commission. Two of Rudy's neighbors were not amused, protesting so angrily that the embarrassed public works committee tabled the idea. Determined to carry the matter to the city council, Rudy says: "It will enhance the value of the property along the road." ... Russia's trumpeting of their own skill at chess irks American Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, now in the midst of a winning streak in the quarter-finals for the world championship. Bridling at taunts in Soviet newspapers of "Fischer out of Practice" and "Fischer Afraid to Play Us," Bobby says that the Russian headlines are only wishful thinking. The World Championship competition occurs only once in three years. "They just like to throw the title back and forth between themselves," snorts Fischer. "If I win, they'll be the first to push for an annual championship arrangement." ... When members of the American Bar Association traveled to England to hold their annual meeting in London's Westminster Hall, haberdashers had a brisk run on cutaway coats and striped trousers. British courtroom fashions differ markedly from American ones. An eye catching picture neatly captured that difference: there was America's bareheaded Chief Justice Warren E. Burger straining in ear-cupped intensity to hear speeches, while the British Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, and the British Attorney General, Sir Peter Rawlinson, sat in bewigged splendor. ... Not for nothing did the jet-set society earn its sobriquet. People arrive and depart from it with supersonic suddenness, though few have managed to do so as discreetly as Talitha Getty, the glamorous 31-year-old wife of Paul Getty Jr. After she died of what police said was barbiturate poisoning, a Roman funeral was held for Talitha. One unidentified woman came; no one else seemed to care. Commenting on the absence of husband, father, in-laws, friends and flowers, one of Talitha's acquaintances mumbled, "She wouldn't want us to do something so uselessly sad." ... Cutting in on other people's dancing partners is an old, usually honored American custom. Not so in Britain, as Lord Snowdon, husband to Princess Margaret, unwittingly proved at a party thrown by Canned Food King HJ. Heinz II. Seeing the alluring 42-year-old Countess of Westmorland dancing with Peter Cazalet, a trainer of the royal horses, Snowdon tried to cut in. Snapped Cazalet: "This is not America." The rejected Snowdon tossed a glass of white wine on Cazalet; for good measure, Snowdon later showered him again, this time with red wine. Afterward, Snowdon maintained silence about the incident as did Cazalet. Said Cazalet's son: "My father did not talk about it with any real zest or enthusiasm." ... Princess Grace of Monaco flew into Chicago to address La Leche League, an aptly named organization devoted to the breast feeding of children, and ponderously claimed that breast feeding combats "the current wave of public indecency that threatens to undermine and destroy Western civilization." Besides that, she added, "We are in favor of everything that touches children." ... Onetime Actress Betty Furness, who made art and a career out of opening refrigerator doors on television, had hopes of helping befuddled consumers when she accepted a job advising New York Governor Rockefeller on consumer affairs. But in her new job she got cold shoulders without getting near a refrigerator. "Industry in New York State does not advise legislators, it controls them," explained Betty. "They really don't have the interests of the consumer at heart." Last week 55-year-old Betty resigned, frostily snapping as she went: "I'm too old for window dressing. I like to get things done." ... When Comedian Don Rickles took up a two-week gig at Lake Tahoe, he decided to try his hand at tennis. Rickles, 45, tried to master the game, until felled by a torn ankle tendon. Into the hospital he went, suffering too much even to insult the surgeon, and into his place went Singer Robert Goulet to take over the show. Said Goulet: "Don tripped over his tongue on the tennis court." ... "Business and money are no longer my gods," said a chastened Billie Sol Estes as the gates of Leavenworth closed behind him in 1965. They still aren't, this time by order of the U.S. Board of Parole. Estes, whose artful swindling amassed a paper fortune of over $30 million before he was convicted, is now out on parole after serving more than six years of his 15-year sentence. The parole board's condition for his early release: stay away from "any self-employment or promotional-type activity." Billie Sol will work on a brother's farm.

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