Trumpeted to dinner by the horn blast from Aida, 232 guests marched into the dining room at the Birnam Wood Country Club in Santa Barbara, Calif., to raise hosannas to Soprano Lotte Lehmann on her 80th birthday. It was the sort of occasion that called forth a telegram of congratulations from West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and commanded the presence of such votaries as Tenor Lauritz Melchior, Actress Judith Anderson and Conductor Zubin Mehta. "I am excited and overwhelmed," said Lehmann, who retired 17 years ago but still teaches master classes in voice at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "It is not everyone who can say, 'I have lived exactly as I wanted to live.' "

The new Roman Catholic view of Lenten devotion holds that giving is one of the finest forms of penance, and Rochester's Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, 72, was more than agreeable. On Ash Wednesday he disclosed that he has turned over $680,000 worth of church property in downtown Rochester--1 1/2 acres of land, a church and a parochial school--to the Federal Government for use in an urban-renewal project. Some of the Negroes and Puerto Ricans who make up a majority in the parish were distressed at losing the church and school, but Sheen promised to support a new social center next to another Catholic church in the area.

At first glance, the photograph looks like the come-on for an interesting new dude ranch. But why would Actress Pamela Tiffin, 25, be mixed up in anything like that? She isn't. The picture is a still from an Italian film called The Protagonists, in which Pamela plays a secretary who goes to Sardinia for a weekend with friends. While there, the travelers decide to seek out a real bandit in his cave. To evade police, the frolicsome group dresses up like hunters--which explains Pamela's hip-hugging checked suit, her cartridge belt, and even the dead game look on her face.

Lest anyone get the impression that airline stewardesses are losing their allure, the Cantegril Country Club in Punta del Este, Uruguay, has just completed its second annual "Queen of the Airline Hostesses" contest, which drew 13 beauties from as far away as India. Winner: Jill Spavin, 25, an American Airlines stewardess who spent two weeks before the contest lounging around Punta del Este in a bikini, destroying the judges' recollection that last year's winner, Patty Poulsen, had also flown American. Jill currently works the New York-Los Angeles run, but no one dares guess how long she will last--Patty has been doing special publicity assignments for months.

In a show like Peyton Place, ABC's twice-weekly soap opera, there's no future for a female character after she's finally married the father of her child. That unlucky event came to pass recently for Dorothy Malone, the show's sob-racked mother figure ever since it opened 3 1/2 years ago--and she has been written out of the action as of early June. In to fill the vacuum will go able Movie Veteran Barbara Rush, 38, who has a string of first-rate acting jobs to her credit (The Bramble Bush, Oh Men! Oh Women!) but almost none of the usual Hollywood hurrah. Her road to fame in Peyton Place: a man-weary divorcee trying to bring up teen-aged daughter Tippy Walker.

As manager, treasurer, director and conductor of the ten-day Easter Music Festival at Salzburg, Herbert von Karajan, 59, takes on the most exhausting one-man musical spectacular since Richard Wagner ran Bayreuth. For the past month, however, the Austrian-born maestro has been flat on his back in hospitals in Munich and Paris, suffering first from flu, which developed into double pneumonia, and more recently from painful and incapacitating nerve inflammations in both legs. Though Von Karajan's recuperative powers are supposed to be second only to those of Lazarus, even his doctors are wondering whether he will be ready when rehearsals begin next week.

Just ten days of the meditative life with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh proved sufficient for Ringo Starr, 27, and Wife Maureen, who fled back to the more familiar vision of London. "The meditation camp is a bit like summer camp," said the littlest Beatle, who left his three confreres to finish out their month. "We all lived in chalets, and we used to go to the canteen for breakfast, then perhaps walk about a bit and meditate, or bathe. Then it was time for lunch." He and Maureen gave up such transcendental experiences, said Ringo, "because we missed the children. I wouldn't want anyone to think we didn't like it there. Of course, Maureen and I are funny about our food--we don't like spicy things."

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