By E. Graydon Carter

There was a time when there were so many Connie Francis hits, such as Who's Sorry Now? and Where the Boys Are, that the singer had eleven million-seller records by the age of 23. When her popularity waned, life became an endless road trip of one-nighters. Then, after a performance in Westbury, N.Y., seven years ago, Francis was raped in her hotel room at knifepoint. She tumbled into a deep and lengthy depression and was unable to perform until last week, when she returned to the same Westbury stage and a standing ovation. Said Francis, 42: "I'm a gutsy girl and once I've done it in Westbury, I can do it anywhere."

"In public, her appearance in photographs and motion pictures is based on tantalizing allure and a veiled hint of eroticism." Such was the opinion last week of New York Supreme Court Judge Edward Greenfield, 58, on Actress Brooke Shields, 16. At the end of a four-day trial, Greenfield ruled that Brooke and her mother, Teri Shields, could not halt further publication of nude photographs of Brooke taken six years ago by Photographer Garry Gross. Published in a book called Sugar and Spice, the shots show Brooke standing demurely in a bathtub. The judge called Mama Teri "exploitative," and added: "You had a role in choosing her films. You chose Endless Love, not Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm."

For her two-week fill-in stint this December for the vacationing Lauren Bacall, 57, in

Broadway's Woman of the Year, Raquel Welch, 41, has

been going through a grueling monthlong song-and-dance rehearsal. Though Welch has displayed her musical and other talents for the Las Vegas crowd, she has never faced the jaded playgoers of Broadway. Says Welch: "I've always had a dread of the New York critics, but they can't close me because I'm closing in two weeks anyway."

The occasion was his first visit to the White House since he was shot last March during the attempt on President Reagan's life. Wheeled into the West Wing for the reopening of the renovated press room, Press Secretary James Brady, 41, gave a cheerful thumbs-up sign to the crowd of some 200 White House reporters, who gave him a welcoming ovation. Brady should be home from the hospital by Thanksgiving, and although he is still partially paralyzed on his left side, he will eventually be able to walk with a cane. A full recovery is still uncertain. Even so, the press secretary's impish wit was much in evidence. Joined for the ribbon-cutting in the press room by the President and First Lady Nancy Reagan, Brady smiled as the President told reporters, "This room is built over a swimming pool. It isn't true, however, that the floor has been hinged." Riposted Brady, who has always enjoyed a friendly joust with the press: "Oh, yes, it is."

--By E. Graydon Carter

On the Record

Donald Regan, 62, Treasury Secretary, after being asked to count from one to 25 and back again eight times while a faulty microphone was checked during a taping of ABC'S Nightline: "You know, I had to take this same test to become Secretary of the Treasury."

George J. Callcott, 52, professor of history at the University of Maryland, on why the personal papers of former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, donated in 1974, have not been catalogued: "A majority of it is historic junk."

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