By Guy D. Garcia

The Manhattan gala was meant to showcase an exhibition of mountain photographs, but the stunning scenery hanging on the walls at the International Center of Photography last week was fully matched by the scenery hanging out together at the party. Robert Redford, 46, who still turns an eye, was the host of the $250-a-head benefit. Also present were three of the camera's best friends: Brooke Shields, 18, Cheryl Tiegs, 36, and Christie Brinkley, 28. Compared with Tiegs in a floor-length chinchilla and Brinkley in black leather, Shields in a modest pattern-made dress looked like the college freshman she is. Not that the Princetonian is always averse to putting on the glitz: recently she agreed to the use of her name on a line of platinum jewelry.

If actors can become politicians, then why can't politicians become actors? The answer is they do it all the time, but they are doing it for real on ABC's The Crisis Game. The program is airing in four segments this week as a follow-up to The Day After, the ABC film on the consequences of a nuclear exchange. Two weeks ago the network taped a strategic war game in which onetime officials and politicians role-play an unrehearsed version of how both sides might handle a superpower showdown. Former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, 69, is cast as the U.S. President. (Muskie will have to watch the program from a hospital bed; he suffered a heart attack at his home in Maine last week.) Former Defense Secretaries James Schlesinger, 54, and Clark Clifford, 76, portray the Secretaries of Defense and State respectively. The result, says former Assistant Secretary of State Hodding Carter III, who plays a senior adviser on the program, "will be as close to reality as anything but real events themselves." For most viewers, that should be plenty close enough.

It was at Treetops one day 31 years ago that then Princess Elizabeth received the news her father King George VI had died and she had acceded to the British throne. As she hurried off for London, the new Queen vowed to come back some day to the legendary lodge in central Kenya. Elizabeth II, 57, fulfilled that promise last week by making the popular game-viewing spot part of a jubilant five-day state visit to Kenya. The Queen remembered her first visit well enough to note changes, commenting on the loss of trees and inspecting the ruins of the original lodge, which was burned in 1954 during the Mau Mau rebellion. After her Kenya visit, the Queen and Prince Philip went on to India, where she visited the cremation site of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the leader of yet another independence struggle that led eventually to the end of British rule.

Before he quit in 1965, former Cleveland Browns Fullback Jim Brown, 47, set the alltime National Football League record for yardage gained with a nine-season total of 12,312 yds. But with Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris, 33, beyond the 11,000-yd. mark and closing, Brown is seriously considering dusting off his pads. "I'm not in a grave," steams Brown. "I'm active, alive, and I don't like to be talked about like I'm dead." Brown has set a few conditions, however. He wants to play with the Los Angeles Raiders. Harris must also actually break Brown's record and then agree to race him in a 40-yd. match race. If Brown loses, he vows to give up his comeback attempt. The whole thing may never happen, but it sure beats the civilized insincerity of those athletes who profess to be delighted when their records fall.

--By Guy D. Garcia This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.