People, Oct. 22, 1973

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All over the town of Higuera Real, the posters announced the appearance of Angelita, the first woman torero to fight in Spain since a 1908 law was passed limiting women to fighting from horseback. But Angela Hernandez, 24, got gored, metaphorically speaking, before she even entered a corrida. Although a Madrid labor court upheld Angelita's right to fight on foot, the Ministry of the Interior refused to grant her a license. Working her cape close to the horns of the dilemma as she trained on a bull ranch near Seville, Angelita exploded: "These damned men. What do they think they are doing? Women fly planes, fight wars and go on safaris; what's so different about fighting bulls?" ∙ An odd couple, Wilt ("the Stilt") Chamberlain, 7 ft. 1 in., and Champion Jockey Willie Shoemaker, 4 ft. 11 in. But they have more in common than meets the eye, Little Willie told fellow roasters barbecuing Wilt on the Dean Martin Show to be shown Nov. 9. Born identical twins, said Shoemaker, "we both grew up to be riders." Only difference: "I ride horses. He rides referees."

∙ The most poisonous pen on Broadway is wielded by Critic John Simon. Reviewing the new play Nellie Toole & Co. in New York magazine, Simon dipped into strychnine to describe the star, Sylvia Miles, 41, as "one of New York's leading party girls and gate-crashers." Streperous Sylvia, who was acclaimed as the prostitute in Midnight Cowboy, wasted no time talking back. Invited to the same New York Film Festival party as Simon, she piled her plate with pat, steak tartare, brie and potato salad and dumped it over him. "Now you can call me a plate crasher too," she said. Spluttered the garnished critic: "I'll be sending you the cleaning bill for this suit." Rejoined Sylvia: "It'll be the first time it's been cleaned." Fellow actors planned to organize a Sylvia Miles defense fund to pay Simon's cleaning bill —but on one condition. That Miles repeats the performance once a week. ∙ Jean Cocteau said she had the head of a little black swan. "And," added Colette, "the heart of a little black bull." Caustic Couturière Coco Chanel, however, always had the last insult ("Colette preferred two grilled sausages to love; Cocteau was well bred. He had no talent, so he listened"). While stocking the modern woman's wardrobe (the little black dress, bellbottoms, turtleneck sweaters and costume jewelry), Mademoiselle was also busy needling her friends, enemies, lovers and other contemporaries. Now Psychoanalyst Claude Baillen, a companion of her last years, has put together some of Coco's sharpest jabs in Chanel Solitaire, which was recently published in London.

On Salvador Dali: "He wore a carnation behind his ear to take away the smell. He used to eat tins of sardines and put the oil on his hair."

On Richard Burton: "He looked at Liz with his mouth. He's working-class, you know; he stares at you as if he were taking your clothes off."

On Jean Harlow: "Always waggling her ass, looking for millionaires."

Beyond individuals, whole nations were condemned by Chanel dicta: "I don't like Italians. They're women dressed up as men."

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