People: Oct. 24, 1969

• Share

Director John Guillermin got off to a very bad start with his leading lady. He reportedly began by asking her to strip so that he could see if she was qualified for the part. Swedish Actress Ewa Aulin, who had stripped willingly enough in Candy, objected strenuously. So did her husband. The way Ewa remembers it, Guillermin made matters worse by saying he could not understand her modesty and telling her, "You're no better than a whore." Bystanders kept her husband from Guillermin's throat, and Ewa dropped out of the cast of El Condor in a fury. "If the producer wants a show girl, he should contact one," she said. "It would be much cheaper for him all around." Ewa had previously objected to two "superfluous" skin bits in the Spanish western, one a bed scene with Jim Brown and the other a nude-at-the-window scene in front of a large crowd. "I don't object to nudity," she explained. "I object to crudity."

"I know Mia and Andre are going to give this baby the right kind of love and devotion. That's the whole point, isn't it?" said the prospective grandmother, Actress Maureen O'Sullivan. It had better be—because the prospective father, Composer-Conductor Andre Previn, will not even discuss the possibility of marrying Mia Farrow, who is expecting his baby in the spring. Andre, in fact, is still married to his second wife Dory. But the Previns have separated, and he has bought a little farmhouse in Surrey, England, where he and Mia hope to settle down after the Broadway opening of Coco, for which he wrote the music. "It's not a farm. Just a farmhouse. I couldn't manage a farm."

The conductor began by dropping the baton. He followed that gaffe by indicating one tempo with his hands while calling for another. Still, the musicians did not seem to mind, as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra staggered through Brahms' Third Symphony. "I have never in all my years on the concert stage conducted an orchestra," Artur Rubinstein had confided to the concertmaster. "I have dreamed of it since I was a little boy. You will think me a fool, but would the orchestra permit me to conduct a rehearsal?" The orchestra was only too happy, and the great pianist, 80, was delighted. "I learned a tremendous lesson today," he said when he had finished. "I now realize how much is involved."

He has yet to put in his bid for the moon, but Houston's multimillionaire promoter, Judge Roy Hofheinz, is getting closer all the time. He has the Astrodome and baseball's Houston Astros, has developed an "Astroworld" to rival Disneyland. And now he has Paul Haney, 41, formerly NASA's Voice of Apollo. "The voice of the astronauts will become the voice of the Astros," said the judge, as he announced that Haney would become the ball club's vice president for public affairs. Said Haney: "I understand there are three strikes and four balls. I'll learn the rest as I go. I was a part of the greatest show off the earth, and now I'm working for the greatest show on earth."