Portly Fur Scion John Jacob Astor barely got off the legal ground in his effort to break the will of his late half brother Vincent and win an Astor-size slice of Vincent's estimated $120 million estate (TIME, Aug. 3). On the eve of the trial, J.J. threw in the towel, settled for a tax-free $250,000--a relative pittance that seemed little more than the price of sparing Vincent's executors the nuisance value of J.J.'s action. J.J. will be paid off by the Vincent Astor Foundation, whose main purpose is to improve the lot of the human race, especially poor folks.

Athina ("Tina") Onassis, 29, sued Shipper-Dealer Aristotle Socrates Onassis, 53, for divorce in Manhattan. She availed herself of New York's restrictive laws on divorce grounds to invoke the untidy one of adultery, named one "Mrs. J.R." as corespondent. To Tycoon Onassis, Tina's legal blockbuster came as a "surprise." For Soprano Maria Callas, 36,, for weeks in print as a friend of Onassis, and separated from Italian Industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, the suit triggered a quick conference with Onassis in Monte Carlo. Then Maria flew back to her villa in Milan, pleading innocence of any and all storm-brewing. But who was the shadowy Mrs. J.R., accused by Tina of being Onassis' great and good friend on a semi-global scale over a seven-year period? To some newsmen, it was all Greek, but others soon zeroed in on an American, a handsome, blonde Riviera expatriate, J. (for Jeanne) Schley R. (for Rhinelander), 34, divorced in 1952 from Manhattan Landynast T. (for Thomas) J (for Jackson) Oakley Rhinelander. To Jeanne, self-described as "a devoted friend" of both "Ari" and Tina, it was all "a blow." In her villa, outraged Jeanne got good and mad at Tina: "My name was proclaimed the subject of a scandal in which I had no part." Shipowner Onassis kept mum. That was a shrewd move, because Tina--whose father. Greek Shipping King Stavros Livanos, reputedly has more drachmas than Onassis--had proclaimed that she is not interested in any part of Onassis' wealth.

Too late to be a Halloween goblin, too early to be a Christmas Santa. Actor Charles Laughton was trapped 'tween seasons with enough facial forestry to make a sensation at a woodchoppers' ball. Actually, he had let himself go to seed for a role as King Lear at Stratford-on-Avon's Shakespearean theater. Leaving London on a brief trip to Paris, where presumably he would roam incognito. Laughton muffled: "I'll be glad to get a lawnmower on this lot!"

With the U.S. Communist Party and its onetime boss, old (68), grey Earl Browder, both at a decrepit pass, a 1952 federal perjury rap against Browder was dropped by the Government. One of the Government's key witnesses was dead, the other "unavailable."

Ill lay: sultry Cinemactress Elizabeth (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) Taylor, 27, with virus pneumonia; torchy Songbird Judy (Over the Rainbow) Garland, 37,; with hepatitis; both comfortably hospitalized in Manhattan.

At 56 and only eight months after his election to eight more years on the bench, Michigan's Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker, more widely known as best-selling Novelist Robert Trover (Anatomy of a Murder), made up his mind. He will soon resign from the court. "I must either leave the court or abandon writing," explained he. "And I feel the latter course a psychological impossibility [for] a writer who finds himself increasingly immersed in characters taking shape in his mind." To critics of his decision (notably Republican legislators in Lansing) the judge countered with a blunt opinion: "While other lawyers may write my opinions, they can scarcely write my books!"

For weeks France's National Assembly has debated the cases of nervous Draftee Jacques Charrier, 23. cinemactor bridegroom of Cinemactress Brigitte Bardot, and Civilian Yves Saint-Laurent, 23, twice-deferred head of Paris' high-fashion House of Dior. Last week France's Defense Minister Pierre Guillaumat himself spoke up: hospitalized Charrier is really "an urgent case for observation and treatment"; willowy Designer Saint-Laurent will be drafted--come hell or high fashion --next September.

On the button at 7:50 p.m. a Rolls-Royce discharged Sweden's King Gustav VI and Queen Louise at London's Haymarket Theatre where they were to see a performance of Graham Greene's The Complaisant Lover. When there was no trace of a royal welcome, the Queen murmured: "Where are our friends and our tickets?" Gustav shrugged. It was then they learned that the play was a quarter mile away at the Globe Theatre, where an audience had begun mumbling and grumbling while the curtain was being held for the Swedes' arrival. Dashing for a cab. the royal couple were quickly embroiled in a horrendous Piccadilly Circus traffic snarl, including fire engines, but they got to the Globe only 15 minutes late. The King smiled fleetingly when the Queen said that the Haymarket had been her error. The Haymarket, which had so briefly and unknowingly enjoyed the pleasure of His Majesty's company, was playing Samuel Taylor's The Pleasure of His Company.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.