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

To raise money for a retired nurses' fund, Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan opened up his Sussex home to the public for one day, gathered more than $500 for the charity from some 2,000 who paid admissions, sipped soft drinks, gawked at the handsome gardens. In his best country-gentleman manner, the Prime Minister posed on the steps of Birch Grove House with wife Lady Dorothy and six blooming grandchildren: Anne Faber, 13, Alexander Macmillan, 14, Adam Macmillan, 10, Mark Faber, 7, Michael Faber, 12, and Joshua Macmillan, 13.

A skeleton in Michigan's family closet popped into the open last week when Governor G. Mennen ("Soapy") Williams' 15-year-old daughter Nancy penned for her school paper the hot scoop on why her daddy always wears a bow tie: Soapy is sloppy with soup. At one dinner with the late Governor Frank Murphy, young Pol Williams eased himself into a dining-room chair, sloshed his four-in-hand in the mushroom soup, stood up, dripped more soup down his shirt front. Mother Williams rushed for cleaning gear, allowed the rolls to burn in the confusion, choking the guests with kitchen smoke. But the evening was not lost. Commented Nancy: "It did succeed in breaking the ice with guests, though, and shortly all formality was forgotten."

Off to Europe for an art show and the beginning of Paris-Tokyo service by Air France, Japan's Prince Takamatsu took along some simple requests from the folks back home. On the wanted list: for Emperor Hirohito, an old pro at marine biology, scientific data on Hydrozoa and the latest French research on oysters; for Crown Prince Akihito, three kinds of tropical fish; for Prince Mikasa, the Emperor's youngest brother and a history prof at Tokyo Women's Christian College, a museum catalogue on archaeology.

For the late Queen Mary's 80th birthday in 1947, the BBC commissioned Mystery Writer Agatha Christie, by royal request, to do a radio drama called Three Blind Mice. Author Christie later expanded it into a stage play, The Mousetrap, thought it might run a couple of months at best. The day after The Mousetrap gave its 2,239th performance at London's Ambassadors' Theater, thus passing the musical Chu Chin Chow as the longest-running play in British stage history.* Producer Peter Saunders gave a hotel-jamming party for a few (1,000) friends, who cheered as Author Christie presented the theater with a gold-and-silver mousetrap. Murmured she on the triumph: "I suppose it's just like making sauce. Sometimes you get all the ingredients just right and you have a success."

No man to bother about such a little thing as an audience, overstuffed Tenor Mario Lanza was up to his jowls in trouble again. After scathing reviews at the first two stops of a five-city singing tour in Germany, ex-G.I. Lanza went over the hill. Twenty minutes after curtain time for a concert in Hamburg, Agent Kurt Collien told 2,200 impatient fans that their boy was sick, provoked a small riot. Mindful of the Lanza record for skipping dates, some 300 Hamburgers then marched off to his hotel, got steered away by 100 club-wielding cops. When Agent Collien next day chewed out his client for beering it up in Hamburg nightspots, Lanza huffed off to Rome, canceled his remaining concerts. Collien later hinted to the press that Lanza, hungry for a movie contract, did not want to spoil his chances by another bad review. But bad press was what he got. Commented West Berlin's Der Abend: "Rarely has the boundless self-conceit of a star been so clearly demonstrated."

The will of the late Showman Mike (Around the World in 80 Days) Todd, formally valued in a Manhattan court at "over $20,000," divides an expected $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 between the producer's Actress-Widow Elizabeth Taylor (who receives half the estate in trust) and his son Mike Jr.

The will of Watch King Arde Bulova, who died March 19 at 69, left an estimated $10 million to $15 million to charity and kinsfolk, cut off Bulova's Rumanian-born blonde widow Ileana, 30, who vehemently denies an estrangement, with $25,000 and freedom from all debts owed his estate.

Major General (ret.) Harry Vaughan, onetime military aide to Harry Truman, moved a step closer to tacking eight more medals on his broad chest. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a bill (still to pass both House and Senate) allowing Old Crony Vaughan to accept eight foreign decorations, among them France's Legion of Honor, Guatemala's Merito Militar First Class ("in behalf of personal merits"). Also to benefit from the bill: ex-President Truman, who can collect his Liberian Centennial Medal, Admiral Arthur Radford and General Matthew Ridgway, each to get nine awards, and Admiral Robert B. Carney, a ten-decoration winner.

* U.S. record holder: Life with Father, 3,213 performances.

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