The sins of the sons are visited upon the father, as West Germany's Foreign Minister Willy Brandt discovered two years ago, when young Peter Brandt put his signature on a Communist-front petition accusing the U.S. of atrocities in Viet Nam. This time Peter, 18, has teamed up with his young brother, Lars Brandt, 16, to play in a film version of Guenter Grass's neo-Gothic novel, Cat and Mouse. The mousetrap is that Lars, as Joachim Mahlke, the adolescent hero of the story, appears in one scene wearing bathing trunks and twirling an Iron Cross, Germany's highest medal for bravery. Germans grumbled about the "tastelessness" of that little bit, as well as some explicitly sexual scenes, and the Interior Ministry, which granted a $75,-000 subsidy to help make the movie, threatened to recall its cash unless some scenes are cut.

The final act at Manhattan's old Metropolitan Opera House resounded to an anvil chorus performed by wreckers and an anguished lamento from civic-minded spear carriers who had campaigned to save the old firetrap as a city landmark. But the house, which for 83 seasons had provided an echo chamber for virtually all the world's great voices, was sort of a wreck already, with no rehearsal space, some acoustical dead spots, a dusty stage that choked the singers, and a dingy exterior. Besides, the Met, which moved last September to its new $45 million Lincoln Center home, desperately needs the $488,000 annual rent it will collect from developers planning to erect an office building on the site. Even so, as wreckers began tearing up the roof and stage, A. & P. Heir Huntinqton Hartford, 55, perennial patron of lost causes, warned dolefully: "This is going to give America a black eye for years to come."

They made a slightly unlikely pair of jet-set Bedouins. Novelist Truman Capote, 42, took the road to Morocco with his old pal Princess Lee Radziwill, 34, Jackie Kennedy's sister. Though Lee's husband, Prince Stanislas Radziwill, had to stay behind in London, she and Truman were off for a vacation that will last, as Truman announced in his adenoidal purr, "as long as the country is interesting." Settling briefly at the new Rabat Hilton, Truman explained: "I came because Lee was here twice last year and she was so enthused. Lee as usual is riding the horses, and I am having a good little doze."

The Women's National Press Club gathered in Washington to hear the U.S. Senate's seven freshman members recite political japeries. The frosh were all droll, but the smash of the show was a sleeper: Virginia's deadpan Democrat William Spong Jr., 46, who told the girls about some upcoming legislation. Well, drawled Spong, one of his first acts will be to end the piracy of U.S. music by Hong Kong publishers who don't pay royalties. So he's going to consult Hawaii's Senator Fong and Louisiana's Senator Long, and then the three of them will introduce the "Long-Fong-Spong-Hong-Kong Song Bill."

Her mode has never been especially mod. In fact, Britain's catty fashion press has sometimes accused Princess Anne, 16, of being somewhat dowdy. Now it seems that Anne has turned into a bit of a bird. On her way back to Benenden School in Kent after holidays, the princess showed up in London's Liverpool Street station wearing shiny black boots and a quasi-miniskirt cut three inches above the knee. Of course she still has a long way to escalate before raising any eyebrows in the Chelsea group, but all the same the Fleet Street headlines blared: "AT LAST, A REAL ROYAL FASHION SWINGER!"

Ever since Landlord Charles de Gaulle evicted NATO from France, General Lyman Lemnitzer, 67, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, has been househunting in the neighborhood of the new SHAPE headquarters now abuilding in Belgium. At last he settled on the Chateau Gendebien near the town of Mons. The chateau sits in a pleasant 30-acre parkland populated by pheasants and wild rabbits. Unfortunately, the house is pretty much in a state of nature, too. No one has lived there since 1959; five years ago, three vandals broke in and tore the place apart, smashing windows and yanking down chandeliers. It will take more than a year to renovate the shambles and install a few modern conveniences Mrs. Lemnitzer is likely to ask for. Unless, of course, she prefers to pump her own water in the kitchen.

Actually, argued Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay, 25, fighting isn't very timeconsuming. It takes up only 10% of his waking hours, leaving the other 90% free for his "ministering" as a Black Muslim parson. Trouble is, he can't seem to convert his Louisville draft board to the view that his religious vocation entitles him to an exemption. Nor should his claims to being a conscientious objector keep him from serving, the board ruled. Now training in Houston for his Feb. 6 bout with Ernie Terrell, the Greatest conscientiously objected, bawling: "We're gonna take this all the way up to the Supreme Court, man." It may not go that far, but as his lawyer filed yet another appeal, it began to be a question of which would overtake Ali first--the draft or old age.

Chicago Criminal Court Judge Maurice Lee was getting nothing but moot replies in Spanish from two Puerto Rican complainants in a disorderly-conduct case. Was there an interpreter in the house? Up stepped Danny Escobedo, 29 (TIME Cover, April 29), who has been kindly disposed toward the law ever since 1964's Supreme Court decision in Escobedo v. Illinois, voiding his murder confession on grounds that he was denied his rights to counsel. Since his parents are Mexican, Escobedo was sworn in as an interpreter and translated the Puerto Ricans' side of the case. A few minutes later, Danny was before the court himself, and the judge dismissed a disorderly-conduct charge stemming from a street brawl last March. That still left Danny with a problem: robbery charges involving a restaurant heist last November.

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