By E. Graydon Carter

The three-week bicycle tour through China's Guangdong province by Entertainer Ben Vereen, 35, and Actress Kate Jackson, 33, was perhaps intended as a wide-eyed Baedeker, Hollywood-style. But the tour, filmed for an upcoming TV special, quickly lapsed into a Sesame Street type of learn-along, staged at an elementary school in the town of Foshan. Skillfully exploiting an opening for his cheery brand of showmanship, Vereen guided some 500 of the school's five-and six-year-olds through their "do-re-mis" and "ABCs." Old Macdonald Had a Farm, an old stand-by that may not bring them out of their seats back home, also seemed to hit just the right note with the youngsters. Every time Vereen made a barnyard-animal sound, the children squealed with delight. Vereen--who played Chicken George in TV's Roots and is a song-and-dance veteran of Broadway (Pippin)--was pleased with his performance, but admitted to feeling "a bit shaky." Said he: "I was afraid of being too emotional and teary-eyed."

The audience was dressed to the hilt--formal wear was mandatory for the occasion, the 97th Annual Gridiron dinner thrown by the Washington press corps. But that did not prevent members from poking fun at Honored Guest Nancy Reagan, 60, and her reputation for the name-wear of haute couture. They produced a barbed, post-dinner skit, to the tune of Second Hand Rose, that featured such lines as "Secondhand dress/ Goodbye, you old worn-out mess/ I never wear a frock more than once/ Calvin Klein, Adolfo, Ralph Lauren and Bill Blass/ Ronald Reagan's mamma's going strictly first class." The ditty elicited rousing applause and, to the surprise of everyone, a bold, well-prepared rejoinder from the First Lady. As a garment rack was dramatically wheeled out from the wings, Nancy strode onstage--in a veritable riot of pantaloons, yellow rubber boots, an aqua skirt with red and yellow flowers, a feathered boa and a floppy feathered hat. Only the third First Lady to tread the Gridiron boards, but the very first to sing--Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter in years past had danced a few steps--Nancy gave the bandleader a confident nod, then in a clear and courageous voice delivered her own secondhand prose, written for the occasion by Sheila Tate, her press secretary, and White House Speechwriter Landon Parvin: "Even though they tell me that I'm no longer Queen/ Did Ronnie have to buy me that new sewing machine/ Secondhand clothes, I'm wearing secondhand clothes/ I sure hope Ed Meese sews." Among those cheering in the audience was Husband Ronald Reagan, 71, who laughed harder than anyone else, it seemed, when his wife accompanied the lines "Even my trench coat with fur collar/ Ronnie bought for ten cents on the dollar/ The china is the only thing that's new" by smashing a replica of a White House china plate on the floor.

If the faces are familiar, soon the figures may be too. Shedding modeldom's longtime penchant for mystery in the competitive and highly sensitive area of fees, New York City's aggressive Elite agency recently provided clients with an astonishingly explicit schedule of the hourly and daily rates of its stable of talent. Although the fee for a high-profile beauty like Carol Alt, 21 (Lancome), is listed as "negotiable" -- meaning that if you have to ask, you probably can't afford her -- the agency nonetheless appears to have something to offer almost any budget. Prices begin at $2,000 a day for, say, blond Beauty Nancy Donohue, 24. Like some thing more in the middle range? How about $1,200 a day for green-eyed Donna Stia, 20? And for the budget-conscious, Priscilla Ogilvie, 15, who is one of the agency's "new faces," is available for a relatively modest $875. Prices slightly higher west of the Rockies. No mail or phone orders, -- please. By E. Graydon Carter

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