People, Mar. 22, 1971

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The Virgin Mary got support of a sort from two embattled females at Washington's Catholic University last week. Ti-Grace Atkinson, mighty mouth of Women's Liberation, told an audience of students, priests, nuns and laymen that in the Virgin Birth poor Mary had been more "used" than if her Son had been conceived normally. "I can't let her say that!" yelled Patricia Buckley Bozell, the managing editor of a rightist Catholic magazine, Triumph, and sister of right-wing Columnist William Buckley and Senator James Buckley. To the podium stormed Patricia; she aimed a hefty slap at Ti-Grace, who managed to ward it off. Hustled outside, Pat shouted, "To hell with Catholic University!" then knelt to say the Rosary in protest, together with a group of students that included one of her ten children, Cathy, 19. Ti-Grace, considerably shaken, cut her speech short. "That face," she said later, "I've seen it in so many churches—the hysteria, the desperation. I felt for her. It's outrageous that it's the women who are the sufferers."

Ah! The sweet music of thunderous applause fell upon the pink ears of Prima Donna Joan Sutherland after her premiere performance of Lucia di Lammermoor in Hamburg last week. But oh! Boos followed for the weak conducting of her husband Richard Bonynge in the orchestra pit. Shaking her fist in fury, Miss Sutherland stomped onto the stage and stormed off again —refusing further curtain calls. Next day the Hamburg papers carried jittery editorials, worrying about whether Sutherland & Co. would pack up and go. No problem. Soon she was down at the Hamburg docks, her fist clenched now around a champagne bottle, with which she smilingly christened a new container carrier, Columbus Australia.

It should be an emerald-green evening —St. Patrick's Day Eve at the White House with Ireland's Prime Minister John Lynch himself on hand for the jigs and songs. But it will also be Pat Nixon's birthday, and Daughter Tricia Nixon, 25, is planning to turn the shamrocks into orange blossoms with the announcement of her engagement to Harvard Law Student Edward Finch Cox, 24. The official word adds up to something less than real news; Tricia has been wearing his ring since Christmastime, and Eddie's curriculum vitae (he was once one of Nader's Raiders) has been served up in plentiful quantity in the press. The day will be June 12. The place: the White House. The minister: the Rev. Edward Latch, Methodist chaplain of the House of Representatives. The couple will spend the summer in Manhattan, where Eddie has a temporary job, then go back to Harvard for his final year.