PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

NOT QUITE ETERNITY

CALVIN and KELLY KLEIN remained true to their design ideals even when dissolving their nine-year marriage: simple, stylish, nothing vulgar. The most puzzled-over and envied couple of their industry didn't even curtail their social schedule. They co-hosted a party and afterward broke the news to gossip diva Liz Smith. Nobody is saying whether the rift was caused by the pressure of being married to a man so famous his name is synonymous with underpants, or whether the oft-repeated suggestion that the marriage was a sham is true. "They intend to make every effort to work out any issues between them, but in any event intend to remain the closest of friends, as they are today," said a spokesman. One possible translation: she won't have to pay retail.

THE GREAT WHITE: MARLON BRANDO GOES KABUKI

Perhaps the best thing about being MARLON BRANDO is that no matter what fresh weirdness you engage in, nobody is shocked. So when the giant star suggested to The Island of Dr. Moreau director John Frankenheimer that Dr. Moreau should wear white gunk on his face because the ozone layer had been destroyed, Frankenheimer bought it. After all, he had agreed to take over the problem-plagued movie partly because of Brando. "He's a genius," raves Frankenheimer. "He sees things so clearly." As for Brando's famously mercurial ways (e.g., needing to be fed lines), he says, "You don't work with Brando and treat him like an extra."

IN LOVE WITH AMY

AMY CARTER, 28, First Daughter, anti-CIA activist and artist, is engaged. Her intended is James Wentzel, a computer consultant she met while working in a bookstore and living with her former fiance, Michael Antonucci. (The Carter Center announced a "postponement" of that wedding a month before it was to take place.) "I think they complement each other," says Wentzel's father James, who was "a bit shocked" when his son started dating a President's daughter. "Our son's very outgoing and people-oriented, and Amy's quiet and smart." They plan to marry in September.

SEEN & HEARD

Having had his fill of being on the news, Christopher Darden is taking his rhetorical skills to series TV. O.J.'s prosecutor will play a preacher in an episode of CBS's inspirational series Touched by an Angel, one of Darden's favorite shows. That should take the sting out of being bumped as a speaker at the G.O.P. convention.

Houston Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the most eligible Muslim bachelors around, is off the market. He just wed Dalia Asafi, 18, of Houston, in an arranged marriage. "There's no dating, no boyfriends and girlfriends in Islam," said Olajuwon, 33, who has a child from a prior relationship. His new wife, he says, "possesses a maturity, knowledge and wisdom beyond her years."