"Life in Hell's Kitchen has been heaven," rhapsodizes Sylvester ("Sly") Stallone. The Italian Stallion is back on location in the tenements--this time not on the Rocky roads of Philadelphia, but on Manhattan's West Side. In Paradise Alley, Stallone plays Cosmo, a 1940s street hustler who hangs out with a beautiful hooker (Joyce Ingalls). The dialogue, raw and raunchy, is written by--who else? But not content with being both author and star, Sly is also making his directing debut. His early impressions: "I'm learning how the other half lives through others from a new perspective. "Directing is like playing chess with people."

"Sherr-lee Mah-klen, Sherr-lee Mah-klen," gasped the Russian visitor, recognizing the smiling redhead in the lobby of the Havana Riviera hotel. It was indeed Shirley MacLaine, autographing napkins for guests and talking up her new film, The Turning Point. Would she have a chance to meet Fidel Castro? "Oh, I'll see him at the Cuban premiere of my picture --the Premier at the premiere, I guess--tomorrow night. That's at the Carlos Marx theater." As it happened, Fidel did not catch the flick but caught the star, inviting her to the Palace of the Revolution, where they sipped daiquiris.

She does get around. For ten days, it was an endless whirl of parties in Ireland. Back in the U.S., Miss Lillian barely had time to unpack before she was out on the town in Manhattan. At a lunch celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Indian city of Jaipur, the President's mother, 79, gamely put on a sari. Miss Lillian never got to Jaipur during her stint as a Peace Corps nurse outside Bombay in the late '60s, but she couldn't resist the luncheon invitation: "I have nostalgia for India. I love it." So much so that she stayed on for the Jaipur Ball that night at Studio 54, a discotheque hastily redecorated to resemble a maharajah's garden. Has her eldest son ever set foot in a nightspot? "I imagine he has, but he wouldn't tell me about it," she said. "My other son would."

Carla Sue Garrett, 10, comes by her talent naturally; her father--Carl--is a running back for the Oakland Raiders. Carla pitches for a Santa Fe Little League and plays basketball, but after tossing the football around a few times with her dad, she decided that her true passion was the gridiron. Carla even dreams of being in the Football Hall of Fame someday. "I don't know why," she says, "I just think it's a pretty neat sport." Carla, 5 ft. 1 in. and 139 Ibs., entered a punt, pass and kick competition sponsored by the Ford Motor Co. Beating out some 28 boys in the initial rounds to make the area contest--a feat accomplished by only two other girls in 17 years of competition --Carla bruised some male egos. "How am I gonna tell them a girl beat me?" wailed one young M.C.P. Last week the boys got a temporary respite; Carla was edged out just short of the semifinals. Wait till she turns eleven.

On the Record

Elizabeth Hardwick (Seduction and Betrayal), ruminating on Soviet Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "I would not want to meet the striding Armageddon on the road, glowing as I imagine him to be with eschatological fires and accompanied by menacing dogs."

Jody Powell, White House press secretary, hedging about appearing on NBC's Saturday Night: "I'll let you know if I decide to make an ass of myself on national television for an extended period of time rather than briefly, as it has been up to this point."

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