When Ladies Meet

The breathless eight-month rise of Evita Duarte from artistic obscurity to one of Argentina's highest paid radio contracts is the talk of Buenos Aires. Evita is lovely to look at--tall, svelte, brunette, alabaster-skinned, 26. She is also the favorite of Colonel Juan Peron, Minister of War and strong-boy of Argentina.

Fortnight ago Evita was at claws' point with Nina Cascallar, the favorite of one Captain Villegas, Argentine Federal Interventor of National Radios. Their tiff occurred on one of Argentina's national holidays, when so many government officials made patriotic speeches that Radio Belgrano, Buenos Aires' most popular broadcasting station, fell behind schedule. Nina, who goes on the air nightly ten minutes before Evita, wanted to be heard, although her time had already overlapped her rival's. But a Belgrano official let the Colonel's lady have her way.

Captain Villegas, who got a tearful earful from Nina, waited until Colonel Peron left town last week for an inspection trip in Cordoba Province. Then one night, shortly before Evita was scheduled to go on the air as star of My Kingdom For Love, a version of the Elizabeth-Essex romance, someone in the control room switched on the microphone prematurely. Listeners all over Argentina heard the announcer say: "That tart is on."

Affront to Culture. Although the announcer did not name the butt of his epithet, the Press-Propaganda office promptly hit Belgrano with a 48-hour advertising suspension for "expressions [which] constituted an affront to the nation's culture.and violated the fundamental principles of broadcasting, which today is the greatest vehicle for the diffusion of spiritual, social and moral culture." By the time Colonel Peron could return and lift the suspension, it had cost Belgrano $2,000 worth of advertising time.

Colonel Peron's lady has signed a six-month contract with Radio Belgrano.

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