"I shall fight to the bone," says Jean Dubuffet. At 75, the artist is waging war against Renault, the French automobile firm. At issue: a giant sculpture park Dubuffet designed for the company's headquarters outside Paris. Nine months after construction began in January 1975, Renault decided that the Salon d'Ete would be too expensive to complete and to maintain, and called a halt. Dubuffet, who says the ensemble of sculpture is "the sum of twelve years of work," promptly sued "to defend the right of the artist over his creation"--and lost. Undaunted, he has appealed the case, supported by a group of painters, musicians and writers, including Joan Miro, Pierre Boulez, Olivier Messiaen and Eugene Ionesco. Meanwhile, Renault has started to bury the concrete base and central basin of the monument. They plan to turn the 2,150-sq.-yd. area into a lawn.

The folks who brought the fellas 8 million copies of the Farrah Fawcett-Majors poster have decided to offer something for the girls. By showing pictures of 50 or so men to females in several Ohio shopping malls, Pro Arts Inc. discovered that Pro Quarterback Joe Namath was considered by women the sexiest male of the lot (other high scorers included Robert Redford and Jimmy Carter). Namath posed for two four-hour shooting sessions. Then he suffered a minor mishap, tearing a muscle in his left side. That injury may give him a slow start this week as he launches his latest career with the Los Angeles Rams.

When superstars exit from professional sports, they usually settle into comfortable and lucrative careers as shaving-cream endorsers, insurance salesmen or sportscasters. When Center Willis Reed left the New York Knicks three years ago, he went home to Bernice, La., to relax with his family. But the lure of the basketball court--and fond memories of his cheering fans during the Knicks' glory years--proved too strong. He eventually became a scout for his old team, and in March he signed on for a three-year stint as coach. At rookie camp at Monmouth College in New Jersey last week. Reed made it a point to eat and sleep with the new players and asked them to call him Willis, not Coach. After all, he said, "I'm a rookie too."

Memorizing lines is sheer agony, but TV Personality Dick Cavett is determined to see his name in lights on Broadway. The onetime Yale drama major (class of 1958) belatedly makes his debut this week as Tom Courtenay's replacement in the hit show Otherwise Engaged. "I can't see why if I don't screw up I shouldn't be acceptable," Cavett predicts about his role as a snobbish British publisher beset by domestic crises. But he does have one worry: "I have a bad dream in which I go blank during a speech and try to pause for a commercial. Then I realize I can't." Come fall, Cavett will switch back to TV and a new, five-night-a-week talk show on public television. He hopes to feature a mixture of literary figures like Saul Bellow and show business stars like Frank Sinatra. Says he: "Greta Garbo is very anxious to be on my show. But I haven't returned her calls."

"I'm too old to waste my time being sentimental," says Mary Hemingway, 69. Her return to her old home in Cuba last week after a 16-year absence was strictly a business meeting. Its aim? To help an MGM film team select sites for a movie on her late husband's life. The group visited Ernest's old mate on the fishing boat Pilar, as well as the Hemingway estate Finca Vigia, which is now a Cuban national museum. "They speak of it as sacred in Cuba and take such good care of it," says Hemingway's widow. "Inside everything is just the same. Even the ashtrays are where I left them." A high point of the trip was a talk with Fidel Castro in the Presidential Palace. "He said he had read The Old Man and the Sea and reread For Whom the Bell Tolls several times," she recalls. He also wanted to know what actor would play Ernest and was told no one had yet been cast for the film. As for who will play Mary, she says: "I don't care who it is, as long as she is beautiful, sexy and intelligent."

The odd couple got together for a little beer and banter in Plains, Ga. As a staunch Carter supporter. Supermodel Margaux Hemingway dreamed up the idea of posing in high fashion in Jimmy's home town to make people think of plain old Plains as a fashion capital. New West magazine bought the notion and Brother Billy Carter amiably agreed to provide local color. Says Margaux: "Billy is very sweet and very gentle and very real." Billy had a different perspective on the meeting: "She was wearing a pair of gold pants that kept slipping up her leg. Of course, my wife was there with me the whole time, so I didn't notice what kind of legs she had."

Oakland Raider Defensive Back George Atkinson, known as a hard-hitter on the gridiron, gave Pittsburgh Steeler Wide Receiver Lynn Swann such a bash on the head last September that Swann suffered a concussion. But when Steeler Coach Chuck Noll publicly complained of "a criminal element in the National Football League," Atkinson's feelings were hurt. "Do I look like an assassin?" he asked, peering through rose-colored glasses. Atkinson filed a slander suit against the Steelers and Noll for $1 million each. As the trial opened last week in San Francisco, Atkinson brought along a squad of other players to testify that cracking skulls is all part of the game. Said former All-Pro Receiver Lance Alworth: "That was almost a commonplace hit." Added Atkinson's teammate, Offensive Guard Gene Upshaw: "This is a game where we hit each other. It's not a kissing contest."

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