The hug that Actress Lillian Gish, 83, bestowed on John Huston at a Lincoln Center film gala last week honoring his work was particularly affectionate. No wonder. "He seems like a relative," explained Gish. "I took my first curtain call at the age of five on the shoulders of his father Walter. We were touring in Rising Sun, Ohio." Years later, in 1960, Gish played for Huston in The Unforgiven, one of the 35 movies for which the grizzled director-actor was being honored, including such epics as The African Queen and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Huston, 73, listened to the compliments by stars with whom he had worked during a 39-year career, including Lauren Bacall, Jose Ferrer and Richard Burton. Then, hardly pausing for rest, he flew off to Hungary to work on his 36th movie, Escape to Victory.

Trekking is a popular pastime in the Himalayas, but when World Bank President Robert McNamara, 63, comes along, that obviously makes it a star trek. McNamara's band, on his second visit to Nepal, includes Wife Margaret, seven friends, five Sherpa guides, 26 porters, a Tibetan pony and a yak. The group is making two treks, one a 60-mile walk reaching 15,000-ft. altitudes, the other a 50-mile hike at even higher levels. Exults McNamara: "For people who live at sea level, high altitudes exact their toll. You think the top of your head is going to separate from the rest of you. It is absolutely godawful in terms of headaches. But it's worth it."

Ever since he succeeded his father Franc,ois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier as Haiti's President for Life nine years ago, Son Jean-Claude has been known among a few close friends and many mocking enemies as Baby Doc. Though he still carries a lot of baby fat at 28, Jean-Claude is obviously a big fellow now. Over the protests of his mother Simone, he is about to marry the woman he loves, delicious Divorcee Michele Bennett, 27. Mother objected principally because her future daughter-in-law's former father-in-law Alix Pasquet led an attempted coup in 1959 that nearly toppled Papa Doc. Then too there was the question of titles. After the nuptials Simone will become "First Lady of the Republic for Life." Michele will be "Wife of the President for Life." In time Baby Doc may become a Papa Doc too.

"Applaud all you want," said Johnny Carson, flashing the monologue moue that has become a Tonight show trademark. "I'm stuck for three more years." Stuck? Well, yes, if $5 million a year or so is mucilage. The real sticking point in the latest contract battle between Carson's Carnac the Magnificent and Silverman the Munificent, however, was not money but exposure. Carson demanded less of it than his present 4 1/2 hours a week. NBC President Fred Silverman insisted on more. Eventually they compromised. The Tonight show, as a result, will be cut from 90 minutes a night to 60, but Carson will appear four nights a week instead of three. With so many fringes that you should eat your hearts out, Merv and Mike.

It was an elegant reception that Ottawa laid on to open the two-day visit of Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira. Flags fluttered, crowds cheered, a red carpet was rolled out. But then a military band marched up Parliament Hill playing--could it really be?--the Colonel Bogey March. Snappy, yes, but also the tune of defiance, as all Bridge on the River Kwai film fans know, that the movie's P.O.W.s whistled while they worked for their Japanese captors in World War II. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, escorting Ohira into the House of Commons, was followed by a string of officials whose faces matched the carpet. "In the long, meticulous planning for this visit," groaned one, "this particular portion slipped by."

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