Names make news. Last week these names made this news:

A few hours after jettisoning his third wife in a Nevada court, money-laden Sportsman Cornelius Vanderbilt ("Sonny") Whitney, 58, took a fourth: Phoenix Socialite Mary Lou Hosford, 32, mother of four and star of a Whitney-produced movie titled The Missouri Traveler. Sonny Whitney wept at the wedding. Earlier he had celebrated his divorce decree by pounding his chest and exulting: "I'm a free man." But as far as the State of New York and wife No. 3, onetime singer and airline receptionist Eleanor Searle Whitney, were concerned, Multimillionaire Whitney was mixed up: two months ago a New York court banned his Nevada action on the ground that Whitney is a New Yorker and not a legitimate Nevada resident. Cried Eleanor, when told of Sonny's decree: "He is still my husband, and I have never agreed to this divorce. Our own New York courts will protect my marriage and my son [Cornelius, 13] too. I am still married to Mr. Whitney."

Canceling his plans for a flying visit to London to vote in the House of Commons' economic debate (see FOREIGN NEWS), Sir Winston Churchill, 83, taking his ease on the French Riviera, unwittingly stirred up a spate of rumors that he is in bad shape. A member of his household had explained Sir Winston's absence by pointing out that Churchill was "rather tired." A swift investigation by newsmen showed that Statesman Churchill is energetic enough to paint, read, play gin rummy and eat zestfully, in a packed vacation schedule. Sample lunch: hors d'oeuvres, duck with olives, French pastries, champagne, two cognacs topped off by two cigars. Churchill also drove 22 miles to dine with a Riviera neighbor, Author W. Somerset Maugham, 84, last week. Maugham observed his birthday by making his perennial remarks about quitting his literary endeavors once and for all. Peering into the future, he also decided that his slight physique may entitle him to many more years: "If you are small, death may quite likely overlook you."

On the verge of a new cinemacting career, Sloan Simpson, erstwhile TV Chit-chatter and ex-wife of New York City's onetime Mayor William O'Dwyer, freshened her makeup while lounging provocatively in a barber's chair at a Bronx (N.Y.) movie studio. Sloan's first movie role will be as a cop's wife in an "it-could-happen-to-you" dope opera titled The Pusher, now in production.

After co-starring in a TV drama, two cinemoppets of yore, Jackie Coogan, 43, and Margaret O'Brien, 21, hearti'y agreed that a child actor's life can be just jolly and not a bit traumatic. Coogan's daughter Leslie Diane, 4, will soon portray Jackie as a kid in a screen biography.

At the Rome Opera, scene of Soprano Callas' celebrated walkout due to "lowering of the voice" (TIME, Jan. 13), the boards again groaned under the strain of artistic temperament. During a rehearsal of Verdi's Don Carlos, famed Bulgarian Basso Boris Christoff and Italian Tenor Franco Corelli craftily maneuvered to gain the coveted stage-center spot. By the time Act II's libretto called for Corelli to draw his sword in defiance of Christoff (who played Philip II, Don Carlos' father), both singers were ready to fight. They drew, and Verdi was forgotten as the prop swords swished with real abandon. The impromptu dialogue was splendid: "Criminal! Madman! You're trying to disembowel me! I'll crack your skull!" Winner: Corelli, who got only a scratch, sent Christoff sulking off with a bloody hand. Boomed the basso later: "He was standing too close; simply to make him draw back, I touched his sword with mine." Declared the tenor: "I was no longer faced with my father, the King of Spain, but with an unleashed Bulgarian who appeared to have lost his wits!"

Without fanfare, the Palace of Monaco issued a fluffy communique: "Princess Caroline will be one year old [Jan. 23]. She now has six teeth. She weighs [roughly 22 Ibs.]. She is a superb child, laughing and gay, who loves to enjoy herself and is very sociable."

The Soviet Union's top tippler, Nikita Khrushchev, has turned upon one of his closest friends, John Barleycorn, according to Pravda. In Minsk for a pep talk to collective farmers, Khrushchev warmed to his subject by calling for a crackdown on moonshiners: "He who makes home brew, he who gives drink to the people, acts against the interests of the state, against society, and deserves punishment!" This brought him around to his distaste for "wet propaganda" in films and plays. Said Nikita soberly: "I have seen a film, Before It Is Too Late, made by the Lithuanian film studio. In this film the hero drinks vodka very often. It is not seldom in plays on the stage the hero is shown with a large bottle of vodka. We must not permit drunkenness to be made a cult!"

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