People, Nov. 22, 1971

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Once, when he was Archbishop of Paris, the late Pope John XXIII visited Rome to see Pope Pius XII and deliver a report to the papal secretary of state, Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini. Afterward, says the Milan newspaper Domenica Del Corriere, Pope John's secretary and protégé Don Angelo Rossi asked what had impressed him most about the trip; was it the audience with His Holiness? "No," was the reply, "I am always calm when I see the Pope. But if there is one personality I stand a little in awe of, that is Monsignor Montini. He always nitpicks my reports." Those reports could not have been all bad. Nitpicker Montini—now Pope Paul VI—eventually ordered an investigation, now in the works, of Pope John's qualifications for sainthood.

Heavyweight Champ Joe Frazier stepped into some jolting verbal punches at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, but he finished the bout without a mark on him. Many of the inmates, who were appearing with him on a TV talk show originating from the prison, were partisans of ex-Champ Muhammad Ali, whom Frazier defeated last March. "I don't think you beat him. It was the three-year layoff," somebody yelled. Ali had been in fine shape for the fight, countered Joe. "Before the layoff, I woulda beaten him up worse. He got suspended for a while. There's laws about this kind of thing. I believe in laws." "Doesn't it bother you, Champ, to know that some folks consider you the Great White Hope?" shouted another prisoner. "I was waiting for that," smiled Frazier, "and I'm gonna give it to you straight. The white man never had champs as great as black champs. But look at Clay. Every time I see him, he's got white folks in his corner. I call that the real Uncle Tom."

"For her own person," wrote Shakespeare of the great Queen Cleopatra, "it beggar'd all description." Right, says Edward C. Rochette, editor of the Numismatist. It beggared all description because it was so ugly. His evidence: coins struck during Cleopatra's reign and bearing her image. "Cleo was homely as a toad," claims Rochette. "Do you think a queen of her stature would permit issuance of coins depicting her as homely, if she were a raving beauty?"

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who will be 30 next year, plans to celebrate his incipient middle age by forming a new musical group and taking it on the road. Members of the group—probably to be called Wings—will include his American wife Linda (who has written some of the songs they will perform) and perhaps Singer Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Drummer Denny Silwell. McCartney says he has been trying to secede from Apple Corps, the Beatles' business firm, but so far, the other members are refusing to let him go.