By E. Graydon Carter

In the film Frances, a studio mogul leans toward Jessica Lange, 33, playing the troubled actress Frances Farmer, and proffers a word of advice: "You're an actress, and your job is to act, tootsie." The studio boss knew his stuff. In Tootsie, Lange floored almost everyone with her smoky vulnerability. And so, with two of the most highly praised performances of the past year, she is an odds-on favorite to garner two Academy Award nominations next month, the first double designate in four decades. Back on the arm of her longtime beau Mikhail Baryshnikov, 34, Lange finds that her most challenging current role is warding off rumors that she has become a temperamental star. "I wish all the people so up in arms and offended by my behavior had met Frances," says Lange. "She tore people to pieces. I'm like a lamb compared with her."

Bubbling over with enough "relationship" and "starting over" cliches to fill a week of Phil Donahue shows, New York Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner, 52, last week announced "a new era for the third time." And with that flourish of Rotary Club optimism, he introduced as the Yankees' new manager Billy Martin, 54. "I'll be handling all the trades," said Martin stagily, playing off the pair's old Lite beer ad. "What do you mean?" Steinbrenner blustered. "I'm handling all the trades . . . And if you don't like it, you're fired." The canned comeback from Martin, whom Steinbrenner has dumped twice before: "You haven't even hired me yet." The born-again manager has a reported fiveyear, $2.5 million contract, but if he cannot inject some pennant fever into last year's fifth-place finishers, George no doubt will bounce Billy ball once more.

A low-budget 1977 sleeper that was based on a magazine article, Saturday Night Fever took in some $145 million at the box office. For his long-planned sequel, Producer Robert Stigwood, 48, persuaded John Travolta, 28, to repeat his role as Tony Manero in Staying Alive. The star agreed, but on the condition that he be allowed to map out the film's story line. Not missing a trick, Stigwood also hired Sylvester Stallone, 36, to direct the film. As Travolta and Stallone have planned it, Staying Alive will move Tony up six years and into Manhattan, where he lands a Broadway chorus job and--are you ready?--a chance at the lead. Travolta also graduates from white acetate suits to warmup outfits that show off his director's influence better. Six days a week for four months prior to filming, he followed the rigorous training schedule that Stallone used to hone his body for Rocky III.

As "conductor for life" of the fabled Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, 74, long ago grew accustomed to governing his orchestra with an autocratic hauteur that was seldom challenged. So the conductor expected no back-chair back talk when he named Sabine Meyer, 23, as the new solo clarinetist, and only the second female member in the philharmonic's 100-year history. But an overwhelming majority of the 118-member orchestra voted to oppose Von Karajan's protegee as "unsuitable" because of her alleged weakness as an ensemble performer. Outraged, the conductor coolly informed his musicians that henceforth he would fulfill only his contractual obligations (half a dozen or so performances a year) and would cease doing most of the concert tours and recording sessions that provide the orchestra members with the bulk of their incomes. The standoff has Berliners contemplating the very real possibility of an end to 44 years of beautiful music from the maestro and the philharmonic.

--By E. Graydon Carter

On the Record

I.F. Stone, 75, journalist: "The first President I shook hands with was Calvin Coolidge. In those days the President would shake hands with any high school class that arrived in Washington. There was so little for him to do. Reagan is very similar to Coolidge."

Judith Martin, 44, the columnist "Miss Manners," on not wanting to kiss fellow TV talk-show guests: "It's a form of name dropping. I simply come out and say, 'How do you do?' very stiffly. It drives them crazy--and it's not without malice." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.