Melbourne's Festival Hall was briefly the scene of a Prohibition-era drama. A squad of heavyweight "personal friends" of Singer Frank Sinatra, 58, shoved aside photographers and reporters waiting to greet Ol' Blue Eyes as he arrived for the first of five scheduled concerts Down Under. As one pal explained: "Frank doesn't like pictures, see. Somebody's going to get hurt." Then several newsmen were hurt by Frankie's boys. Onstage, Sinatra broke off his concert to ventilate his fury at the press.

"They're bums," he told 7,000 bemused fans who had paid up to $29 for a ticket. Women reporters, said the singer, are "broads" and "hookers." Frankie, who is traveling with Close Friend Barbara Marx, 44, added, "I might offer them a buck and a half." Next day he learned he was really on alien turf. The Australian Journalists Association demanded an apology and other unions threatened to hamper future performances. Frankie said he was owed an apology for "15 years of shit," canceled the tour and summoned his private jet. Putting down at Sydney, Frank learned that airport refuelers refused to handle his plane. Tense negotiations resulted in a statement of mutual regret, and all but one of the remaining concerts were rescheduled. Not, however, before Frankie had time to ponder just what it means to become an Ugly American.

"Every top player is a loner. You're not a follower. You're a leader," explained Wimbledon Women's Singles Champ Chris ("The Icicle") Evert, 19, after her easy victory over Russia's Olga Morozova. Fortunately, Loner Chris has another leader to lean on: Wimbledon Men's Winner Maverick Jimmy Connors, 21, who demolished Ken Rosewall in straight sets. Jimmy and Chrissie established a record of sorts: they are the first fiances ever to win at Wimbledon in the same year, and got a big hand when they led the dancing at the ball at the end of the tournament. Jimmy revealed how he and Chrissie were brought together. After they had carried off the titles of London's Queen's Tournament two years ago, he suggested: "Would you like to wait for me because I'd like to have dinner with you?" Then, he added, "I took my normal 50-minute shower." Now they plan to be married in November, and Chrissie will retire when the children come along. Jimmy lets Chrissie take questions on the timing, however, saying, "Answer that, Mother."

President Nixon, meet the Rev. Daniel L. Pierotti of Georgetown Lutheran Church. He, too, knows what it is to fall under the critical gaze of CBS Correspondent Dan Rather, 42, who attends Pierotti's church when he is in Washington. Says Pierotti gamely, "He honestly tells me what he thinks about the sermon." Pierotti turned the other cheek recently and asked Rather to address the biennial convention of the Lutheran Church in America. Before an audience of 1,000 at Baltimore's Civic Center, Rather shed his hard-hitting image to offer a credo that required no instant analysis. "I believe," intoned Dan, "that one man can make a difference in what happens in the world."

William Shakespeare was powerless to prevent West Side Story. Tennessee Williams is luckier. When Director Charles Lang of West Berlin's Freie Volksbuehne theater decided to stage a revisionist production of Williams' classic Streetcar Named Desire, he cast black actor Guenther Kaufmann as the red necked Stanley Kowalski. Lang's other change was even more radical: rather than being raped by Kowalski, Blanche DuBois is seduced by him. Tennessee learned of Lang's plans just before the opening and immediately got an injunction to stop the performance. Ruling the show could go on, a three-judge panel reinstated the rape and ordered the sepia-skinned Kaufmann to wear a wig of Caucasian hair. Lang was disappointed. "Kowalski is not a brutal proletarian helping to destroy an old traditional civilization," he said, "I see him as a democratizing force."

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