The unsinkable Bella Abzug tossed one of her outsize hats into yet another political ring last week. It was some chapeau: a black straw garden-party number. Likewise, it was some ring: the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City. No one was exactly surprised at Bella's decision. The onetime Congresswoman, loser to Daniel Patrick Moynihan for a Democratic nomination in last year's U.S. Senate race, had been announcing her announcement for weeks. Still, when she decided to make the toss official, Bella, 56, announced again, with characteristic vigor. "I'm rarin' to go," she declared to supporters at her kickoff rally. "I'm good from top to bottom and every other part in between." Most Gotham handicappers are willing to believe her: Bella is rated a strong primary threat to Mayor Abraham Beame.

Onetime Georgia Governor Lester Maddox no longer sells fried chicken; now he dishes out country ham. That about sums up the hokey singing-and-comedy act that Maddox, 61, tried out on patrons of Mr. P's Supper Club in Sanford, Fla. The man who in 1964 waved a pistol at blacks who tried to desegregate his Atlanta restaurant told a few corny jokes, played the harmonica and belted out Casey Jones and Dixie in a gravelly baritone. The crowd loved it. One reason, perhaps, was that Maddox's fellow songster and guitar accompanist was Bobby Lee Fears, a black ex-convict. Fears worked as a busboy and dishwasher for Maddox until his boss's restaurant went under. The duo's first big-time booking will be an appearance on NBC's series of Laugh-In specials, scheduled to begin late this year. Says Maddox of the act: "It's just two people knowing each other and working toward the same goal."

"Six beautiful women, Humphrey Bogart's hat and Neil Simon's jokes," crowed squint-eyed Actor Peter Falk, he of the unspeakable raincoat (Columbo). "I'm not saying it's heaven. But it's at least across the hall." In this case, near-Valhalla is the forthcoming Bogart spoof, Cheap Detective, set in 1940s San Francisco. Written by Simon, it stars Falk along with Louise Fletcher, Ann-Margret, Marsha Mason, Eileen Brennan, Stockard Channing and Madeline Kahn. A natty Falk makes time with all six ladies while stumbling up against the Gestapo on a hunt for precious gems that look like birds' eggs--a kind of Maltese omelet.

Margaret Trudeau was ready; ABC-TV was willing. So the aspiring photojournalist, newly separated from Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, is scheduled to appear this Wednesday on the network's Good Morning, America show to display her camerawork. Margaret is casting about for employment in Manhattan; her Good Morning appearance will be a one-time affair--at least for the time being. To hire her regularly, ABC would have to prove that Margaret's talents are unique and that she is not taking a job from an American.

U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young has long since demonstrated his readiness to rush in where even Presidents have learned to fear to tread. Despite Jimmy Carter's experience with Playboy, Young is right out there in an interview in the magazine's forthcoming issue, and, difficult as it might seem, he tops his other larynx-at-large exercises in diplomacy. Of Uganda's Big Daddy Amin, he says: "I want him to disappear from the face of the earth ... he is putting up a 14-story building on the vacant lot behind the U.S. mission to the U.N. Ours is only twelve stories high. I can just see him coming over here and, you know, pissing on the American embassy." Last week, however, Young did do some repair work. Accepting an honorary degree in New York City, he said he had come to "normalize relations with Queens"--a city borough that not long ago he called racist.

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