Every astronaut has to do it to see what it is like to be weightless way up there in space. And what's good for the fly-boys has to be valuable for the rocketeers who send them out of this world. So there was Dr. Wernher von Braun, 56, director of NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, floating around the cabin of a C-135 jet transport while the pilot flew a precise "over-the-hump" curve to produce 30 seconds or so of weightlessness. Von Braun made twelve of the trips and marveled that the sensation was "exhilarating. You cannot imagine what it is like unless you experience it."

Somebody was bound to try, and now Director Richard Fleischer is set to start filming 20th Century's biography of Che Guevara, Marxist folk hero killed while trying to export Castrostyle revolution to Bolivia. "We're already being blasted from left and right," says Fleischer. "The rightists don't want Che glorified, and the leftists are sure their idol will be defiled." As for the Cu bans, says Fleischer, "I don't think we'll be playing Che in Cuba--though they might acquire a print so they can shoot at the screen."

Manhattan ladies have been all atwitter about the Yves St. Laurent peekaboo dress that was such a stopper in the Paris fall fashion shows. Last week they saw it in the flesh at Alexander's couture-copy show. Out came the model, preening prettily in a floor-length drift of sheer black chiffon, with only a ruff of ostrich feathers around the hip to save it from moving out of the controversial category into the condemned. For customers who want the concoction, Alexander's was ready to supply a cop-out--a body stocking that would make the dress perfectly proper.

The lady took one look at the fellow under the bed and let fly with a series of swift kicks where it counts. Out rolled Anthony Quinn, dodging the barrage. Unrelenting, Anna Magnani followed with a smart boot in the rear, then dumped a strainer of noodles on his head after she had sunk her teeth into his neck. When Quinn complained about that toothy bit not being in the script of the film they were making, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Magnani silenced him with some logic of her own. "Never mind--I'm supposed to win this fight, remember?" When the cameras quit grinding, Anna hobbled off to a doctor and discovered she had broken a metatarsal bone during that exhibition of fancy footwork.

Like any proud father-in-law, L.B.J. was telling war stories about his two boys in Viet Nam. It seems that Airman First Class Pat Nugent, with a supply outfit, has volunteered for so many extra combat-supply missions he has logged more than his share of flights and has been temporarily grounded. Marine Captain Charles Robb, just reassigned to a staff job after commanding a rifle company for five months, has become a cool customer under enemy fire. One day, explained the President, Chuck was taking a shower when he heard the whistle of an incoming round. He listened, then kept lathering away, sure the shell would not disrupt either him or the plumbing. Right enough. It landed 75 yards away.

After downing five cognacs during a flight from Stuttgart to Hannover last March, Adolf ("Bubi") von Thadden, 47, leader of West Germany's radical rightist National Democratic Party, cruised out of the airport and crunched his Mercedes 200D into a construction barricade. That boozy little episode has cost him a one-month suspended sentence; he had his license lifted for three months and had to fork over $556.25 in fines and $750 in repairs. But Bubi still has his wheels: he has hired a chauffeur to drive him around.

Who should come tiptoeing out of the tulips and into the halls of justice but Tiny Tim, aquiver with indignation. Seems that in 1952, while performing under the name Derry Dover, he made an album for Bouquet Records. Now Bouquet has released the album, with the famous Tiny Tim visage on the cover, using the title With Love and Kisses from Tiny Tim--Concert in Fairyland. In New York Supreme Court, Tiny's lawyers argued that his vocalizing has changed as much as his name and demanded that Bouquet stop trying to cash in on his current fame. The judge agreed and slapped a restraining order on Bouquet Records.

"Ever since I became a bishop 20 years ago, I have been homesick for a pulpit," says Bishop Gerald Kennedy, 61, who presides over his church's 262,000-member Southern California-Arizona conference. Kennedy will now have his own flock to tend in addition to his administrative duties. He is taking over the 2,900-member First United Methodist Church in Pasadena, marking the first time an active bishop of the Methodist Church has also led a local congregation. "The local church is the front line, and a bishop needs to be where the action is," says he. There will be hazards, though. "I've been telling my ministers what they were doing wrong and how to do it right. Now I'd better produce or stop giving advice."

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