A pressagent for Cinemactor John ("Duke") Wayne explained why Wayne is willing to endorse Gillette razors on TV ("He believes in the product"), but would not plug American Express Co. traveler's checks, currently touted in advertisements featuring well-heeled celebrities rejoicing in the safety of their less-than-$50 wallets. Said the flack sincerely: "Duke carries $3,000 to $4,000 in cash at all times."

Having taken two wives in tribal rites, Cyprian Bhekuzulu, 38, well-upholstered Paramount Chief of the Zulus, married for keeps in 1945 in an Anglican ceremony. His choice: Amazonian (2501sh Ibs.) Clementine, fiftyish, whose African name is Thokozile. Cyprian's happy subjects saluted her with the honorary title of Ndhlovukazi (Female Elephant). Soon enough, Clementine began to throw her weight around. She had met the king when he was a schoolboy and she a student-teacher, and she was loath to give up her schoolmarm's authority. On occasion, Female Elephant, according to testimony in a South Africa divorce court last week, has threatened to kill Cyprian, ripped his royal robes, even smashed all the palace windows. The king told the judge that Clementine's furies had driven him from his own kraal. The judge ordered Cyprian's marital rights restored. If Clementine, now hiding in the hills, does not come home and be a good Female Elephant, a divorce may be granted two months hence.

On Louisiana location, between takes, oldtime Silent Movie Cowboy Hoot Gibson, cantering out of retirement at 66, relaxed in the saddle while Cinemactor William Holden basked beside him in the Dixie sun. They are making a War Between the States epic titled The Horse Soldiers. The film will re-create the rousing story of Colonel Benjamin Henry Grierson and his Union cavalry raiders, whose 600-mile dash across the South in 1863--to Baton Rouge, La.--helped shorten the war.

At the U.S. summer embassy at Baguio in the Philippines, U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of State C. Douglas Dillon was chairing a conference including 13 Far East ambassadors and assorted U.S. military brass. Glancing out of a window, Dillon noted a grass fire creeping up a hill. He swiftly mobilized one of history's most distinguished, impromptu, and short-winded teams of volunteer fire fighters. Among the grandees who helped stem the blaze within 20 yards of the embassy: U.S."1 Ambassador to the Philippines Charles E. ("Chip") Bohlen, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Douglas MacArthur II, and Admiral Harry Felt, commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific.

Flitting into Los Angeles from Rome, Cinemactress Gina Lollobrigida, looking more matronly than is customary, was Hollywood bound for her first movie to be shot in the U.S., Never So Few, co-starring Frank Sinatra. Her flight companion: her cherubic bambino, 21-month-old Milko Skofic Jr., whose smile is as winning as mamma's.

Francisco ("Baby") Pignatari, 42, current No. 1 Playboy of the Western World, met Ana Maria de Carvalho, 18, during Brazil's carnival in lazy, colonial Salvador, capital of Bahia state. Disguised as an Arabian sheik, he was tossing ice cubes and confetti, brawling in nightclubs, when he spotted eye-filling (Miss Bahia, 1958) Ana Maria right on Salvador's main stem. Baby stopped, whistled, shouted, "Hey, beautiful!" But Ana Maria, blue-blooded daughter of a wealthy Bahian cattle rancher, industrialist and political potentate, sniffed: "Impertinent and presumptuous."

But a month after Baby discovered her, he asked for Ana Maria's hand in marriage. Papa de Carvalho protested that "Senhor Pignatari has lived a very full life, and my daughter is only a child," but he soon gave in. That night, Baby called for champagne, slipped a jeweled ring on Ana's finger. Then Baby flew off to Rome. The gossip that bounced back might have shaken a less eternal love: Baby arm in arm with Princess Doris Pignatelli. Baby dating Actress Rosanna Schiaffino. Baby dispatching red roses to former Queen Soraya of Iran. Baby dancing with his ex-wife Mimosa. Back in Rio, Baby found Ana Maria full of doubts, but he smothered her in flowers and loving attention. Last week Baby even set a wedding date of sorts--some time in May. i

Each of the two national party chairmen made a significant concession to the opposition. Setting aside a G.O.P. practice that has been observed almost invariably since 1946, the new Republican chairman, Kentucky's Senator Thruston B. Morton, announced that, personally he will continue to refer to the enemy as "the Democratic Party," instead of continuing the "Democrat Party" label applied by his predecessors. For his part, Democratic Chairman Paul Butler confessed to a high political crime: he has sometimes voted for a Republican. "But in each case." explained candid Ticket-Splitter Butler, "I have always prayed for forgiveness."

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