Two courses that Shelley Hack never needed as a history major at Smith were how to handle a snub-nosed .38 and the proper way to kick nasty men in the ribs. Neither did she require such talents as the sybaritic Charlie perfume girl. But both are in her curriculum now that Hack, 31, has replaced Kate Jackson in the trio of Charlie's Angels alongside Veterans Cheryl Ladd and Jaclyn Smith. Artfully imitating her own earlier life, Hack will play a Seven Sisters seraph named Tiffany Welles. As such, she has to bite the Angel dust from time to time. In one early scene, for instance, Hack is overpowered by hired killers on a Mexican island; Ladd and Smith, of course, rescue her before the final commercials. Hack at least needed no lessons in how to look stunning when the Angels pause for cherubic cheesecake.

He is not even a purebred dog like a Doberperson pinscher or a Gerperson shepherd. So how does a mutt like Benji, though he is a movie star, get to be named co-chairperson of a humans' charity committee? It seems that the Marine Corps Reserve, launching its 32nd Toys for Tots campaign to provide Christmas gifts for underprivileged children, thought that dressing Benji in a space suit might lure more contributions. Television's Love Boat captain, Gavin MacLeod, agreed to be Benji's co-chairperson, ignoring the vaudeville maxim, never follow a dog act. "Listen," said MacLeod, "he's a better partner than a lot of two-legged dogs I've worked with."

Comforting yet another notable client was California Divorce Lawyer Marvin Mitchelson. She is doe-eyed Soraya Khashoggi, 33, wife of Adnan Khashoggi, 44, a Saudi Arabian entrepreneur whose business deals have earned him at least $4 billion. At 15, Soraya, born in England as Sandra Jarvis-Daly, changed her name and converted to Islam to wed Khashoggi. There followed five children and duties, she maintains, as his adviser and global representative. Then came a heartrending discoyery: he no longer loved her. Five years ago in Lebanon, Khashoggi divorced her. That divorce, suggests Mitchelson, was invalid. Nevertheless, citing "irreconcilable differences," Soraya last week sadly filed for a legal separation from Khashoggi, whose possessions include five jets and a $2 million Manhattan duplex complete with swimming pool. Never mind Lebanon; she filed in California, where community property laws could give her $2 billion plus $540 million for heartbreak.

In his tenth movie, Die Laughing, Robby Benson, 23, is practically the entire show. He stars, wrote the script with his father Jerry Segal, and composed five songs for the score. Benson plays a cabbie trapped in an espionage plot who is lucky enough to have Elsa Lanchester, 76, as a sort of guardian angel. Her explanation of her role is vintage Lanchester: "You see, I have to go up into the California vineyards in an effort to help Robby, who's been caught by alien agents because his monkey that I'm taking care of has the secret for turning waste into plutonium or something. But I'm giving away the plot." You are?

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, by Edward Moore Kennedy, Massachusetts' Senator: When the Congress finally adjourned, I carried on a family tradition. Gathering up 15 children, including my Kara, Teddy Jr. and Patrick, as well as Ethel's Christopher, Max, Douglas and Rory, Eunice's Mark and Anthony, and some of their friends, I set out in a camper for a fun-filled tour across my home state. We rode the roller coaster, the Dodgem cars and the wave swinger ride at the Riverside amusement park in Agawam. We camped out in sleeping bags. We canoed on Pontoosuc Lake, where Rory and I got doused good when our canoe overturned. We never had to send a single postcard because every place we went, we were trailed by reporters and television crews. All wanted to know when I would declare for the presidency. I told them, "I expect President Carter to be renominated, and I intend to support him." I do not think they believed me.

All Popes by doctrine are blessed with papal infallibility, but John Paul II appears to be the first who also possesses papal infantability. Certainly no predecessor within memory ever demonstrated the talent for baby kissing that the new Pontiff has displayed. During Vatican audiences and on his travels to Mexico and his native Poland, the sequence has been the same: John Paul reaches into the throng, expertly hefts a baby, and with arms burly from swimming and skiing, hoists the child overhead before bestowing a papal buss. Vatican aides are discomfited by the innovation, which slows processions and complicates protocol, but crowds love it, and the babies' mothers weep copiously. Visiting the U.S. this fall, John Paul should have plenty of opportunity to demonstrate his specialty in a country where baby kissing is an old political custom.

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