Litterateurs

George Bernard Shaw, safe in his 89th year, proposed that "no woman . . . bear a child unless she is guaranteed by the man at least $8,000 for doing so. That would solve the problem of overpopulation."

Maxwell Anderson, lambaster of drama critics (TIME, March 11), had a drama critic in the family. Son Quentin, 34, was new play appraiser for the highbrow literary quarterly Kenyon Review. On his father's recent troubles, Critic Anderson refused to utter a word.

Zita Heinmuller, 19, appeared to be the next glamor girl to be trumpeted to literary fame for a fee. Brass-lunged Trumpeter Russell Birdwell (who puffed Nancy Bruff's The Manatee into a brief bestseller) worked on beauteous Zita bright & early: before Zita started her book. The new authoress, daughter of the president of the Longines-Wittnauer Watch Co., Inc. ("the world's most honored watch"), dashed off an outline, flew off to Havana to begin padding it out. Declared Birdwell: she would have the help of "research workers" who were beautiful models. Book's title: Park Avenue Tale.

Edgar McCarthy was being urged by publishers Simon & Schuster to write a life of Charlie Bergen--of whom he is said to be more than a little jealous.

Charles ("Lucky") Luciano, Manhattan racketeer freshly deported to Italy, toyed with the idea of writing his memoirs.

Dressers

Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and their clothes did splendidly in a preview of the first postwar silly season (June to September). A sudden spring tide of pressagents' panegyrations washed them each to glory: the multimillionaire sportsman to a place on the "best-dressed men" list of the Custom Tailors Guild of America; wife Jeanne to a place on the Fashion Academy's "best-dressed women" list. Jeanne, an heiress in her own right,* was one of those the Academy acclaimed for somehow managing to dress well on a budget.

Vincente Gonzalez Pardo, grandson of Peru's onetime president Manuel Pardo, and ex-Wife Ruth Piper Hollingsworth Foran Chatfield Pardo (four husbands) were sued in Manhattan by Hattie Carnegie Inc. for unpaid bills Wife Ruth had run up between the separation and divorce. A few items: a mink coat, $6,050; an ermine hat, $110; three nightgowns, $240; two beaded bags, $302.50. Grand total: $12,233.37.

The Diligenti Quintuplets of Argentina--Carlos Alberto, Maria Ester, Maria Fernanda, Maria Cristina, and Franco--posed for photographers and looked like a fine quiver-full for Papa. Their dresses and ribbons looked like the same they wore for their second-birthday picture last July. But Maria Fernanda now asserted herself --with a spit curl.

Comers

Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, pelted with bizarre job offers after Daughter Gloria Vanderbilt Stokowski suggested she go to work, chose to go into business for herself. Scheme: a Gloria Vanderbilt pamper-shop in Manhattan--soaps, lotions, perfume.

Frank Sinatra prepared a seat for himself on the swivel-chair side of the entertainment business. Incorporated in California: a million-dollar sports-&-spectacles arena (still on paper). Mr. Big: Sinatra.

Douglas ("Wrong-Way") Corrigan, who flew by mistake (said Corrigan) to Ireland in 1938, proposed himself for senator from California. He had no platform yet, hoped to be nominated by the Prohibitionists.

Shirley Temple's big brother, George, 26, made his professional debut in his chosen career. In a wrestling match with "Iron" Mike Works in Santa Monica, Calif., ex-Marine Temple won a one-fall, 20-minute go.

Just Folks

Ann Sothern said that she and her second husband, Actor Robert Sterling, had separated after two years, ten months, one child.

Diana Barrymore had the same news about herself and Actor-Husband Bramwell Fletcher, after three and a half years, no children.

Nancy Oakes de Marigny, geographically separated for nearly a year from Count Alfred de Marigny (who was acquitted in 1943 of the unsolved murder of her father, Sir Harry Oakes), suggested that the separation was as deep as it was wide. She was in Los Angeles; he was last heard from in Montreal. She just hadn't quite made up her mind, said she, about an "immediate divorce."

Charles MacArthur, playful Broadway-Hollywood pen-pal of Ben Hecht and husband of Helen Hayes, had the police of Nyack, N.Y., out on a boy-hunt for some twelve hours before Son Jamie, 8, returned from a river cruise, cleared things up. Frantic Papa, whom Jamie had briefly wakened at 6 a.m., had completely forgotten about giving the boy permission to go cruising.

* And a former model, who recently told the world through soap ads: "I kept nylons like new four years with Lux!"

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