"Trial by fire" was the way Actress Candice Bergen, 29, described her newest role, that of photojournalist on NBC's early morning Today Show. Starting in January, Bergen will appear once a week to display her photographs and provide accompanying commentary on subjects ranging from rodeos and aging to feminism and the Ku Klux Klan. "I don't call myself a seasoned journalist, but I've been taking pictures since I was 19," said Candy, a touch defiantly. -

When he was 16, he ran away from his Queens home to join the Marines. "I was afraid the war would be over before I got in," said Columnist Art Buehwald, "so I gave some drunk a half-pint of whisky and got him to sign my papers as my father." Last week Buchwald was given the "Runaway of the Year" award—predated to 1942—by the Special Approaches in Juvenile Assistance Board. The funnyman allowed as how he had only one regret: "The old drunk who patriotically gave me to his country" was not on hand for the occasion. Unlike a journalist, Art wasn't writing down the name and address that day in 1942.

"I just need the money," claimed Caitlin Thomas, 60, explaining her decision to put 32 love letters from her late husband, Poet Dylan Thomas, up for auction in London. "Dylan wanted us to be young and unwise forever—to be permanently naughty children. He managed this by killing himself with booze, but I was left to grow old." And poor, apparently. The poet's letters, still in copyright to his trustees, failed to attract a suitable bid and went unsold.

"He was really like Andy Hardy, a starry-eyed boy who liked to have a good time," mused Author Gore Vidal about his latest subject, the Roman Emperor Caligula, who once appointed his horse as Consul and twice abducted brides of noblemen in the middle of their weddings. "He was a hedonist." Vidal's screenplay is scheduled to go before the cameras in Rome next year. Appropriately, the $7 million production will be financed by a 20th century hedonist, Penthouse Publisher Bob Guccione.

Queen Elizabeth's court is considered pretty starchy, but it does believe sinners can be redeemed by good works. For former Tory Minister John Profumo, the road to redemption led from Parliament to London's slums after his affair with Call Girl Christine Keeler in 1963. Last week Profumo, 60, was at Buckingham Palace with his wife, Valerie Hobson. The former Secretary of State for War had come to accept the Queen's thanks and investiture as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his work with ex-addicts, alcoholics and London's homeless.

His show had flopped, hers had been faltering, and so last week Sonny and Cher announced their plans to resume the old television partnership. Starting Feb. 1, Cher's Sunday-night variety series will once again become The Sonny and Cher Show. "It's only a business reconciliation, not a reconciliation of marriage," cautioned Sonny, referring to the couple's divorce last June and Cher's subsequent on-again-off-again marriage to Rock Singer Gregg Allman. Grumbled George Slaughter, Cher's current producer: "I'm producing a variety show, but I'm living a soap opera."