After warming the bench for the Los Angeles Rams, Joe Namath is ready for action. And he gets it on a train speeding through the Alps in the movie Avalanche Express. Broadway Joe and Lee Marvin have guns, will travel as U.S. agents delivering a KGB defector (Robert Shaw) to the West. Along the way they are pursued hotly by Maximilian Schell and a band of Russians, who ambush their train and cause, yes, an avalanche to come down on their heads. "I'm about sixth or seventh place in the cast," says Namath. But soon he will get to be No. 1, as the star of his own television series, NBC's Waverly Wonders. Namath's role: a high school basketball coach struggling with a chronically losing team.

"Ole Wayne L.," as they call former Representative Wayne Hays in Ohio, just won't stay down on his farm. Having resigned from Congress in 1976 because of a scandal over his secretary, Elizabeth Ray, Hays is now running for the Ohio house of representatives. Is it a comedown to be aiming for Columbus instead of Washington? Not at all, says Hays, drawing a grand historical analogy: "Look at John Quincy Adams--he was defeated for his second term as President and then proceeded to serve in the House of Representatives until the day he died."

They asked the Georgetown neighbors if he had a drinking problem. They inquired up the street about his sexual habits. The subject of the investigation: veteran Statesman W. Averell Harriman, 86, who represented the U.S. at Yalta and led the American delegation at the Viet Nam peace talks. The snoopers: State Department agents performing a "routine" security check because Harriman has been nominated to be a member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. special session on disarmament later this month. Said he diplomatically: "I have utterly no objection. It's part of the rules and perfectly appropriate for anyone who has been out of Government service for more than a year." Those questioned, however, found it odd. "What are you supposed to say?" asked Columnist Art Buchwald, a family friend. "Ah, yes. I believe he knew Stalin well?"

Bangles and chains, a head scarf, a few phrases of Romany and presto, Shelley Winters is an ample gypsy queen in King of the Gypsies. Based on Peter Maas' saga about gypsy life in America today, the film describes the stormy succession to the throne of King Zharko (Sterling Hayden). During the shooting of a scene at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, Winters decided to see how authentic she looked. Sauntering over to diners in the Palm Court, she offered to tell their fortunes and was swiftly chased out by the management. Later came revenge. Winters watered the palms with whisky.

On the Record

Lieut. General James Doolittle, who led the U.S. air strike against Tokyo in 1942: "Our society has gone to the team effort. It is very difficult today for an individual to stand out the way it was possible in the simpler world of yesterday."

David Scott, Apollo 15 astronaut, on the blastoff: "You just sat there thinking that this piece of hardware had 400,000 components, all of them built by the lowest bidder."

Mo Udall, U.S. Congressman from Arizona, suggesting that the Post Office should handle inflation: "They wouldn't solve it, but they'd certainly slow it down."

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