People, Nov. 4, 1974

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She may not have been carried away by the wintry weather in southern France, where her film—fittingly titled Sombres Vacances (Gloomy Vacation) —is being shot, but Actress Catherine Deneuve had cause for celebration last week anyway. Abandoning the cameras and donning coats, Deneuve, Actors Claude Brasseur and Jean-Louis Trintignant and the film's company broke out caviar and champagne in honor of Deneuve's 31st birthday. Then the star settled down to read a batch of congratulatory telegrams. Among them was a sign of a hard-working actress's lot: telegraphed greetings from her children, Christian, 11, son of Director Roger Vadim, and Chiara, 2, daughter of Actor Marcello Mastroianni.

Home-Run King Henry Aaron will soon be hanging up his cleats for the year, but the 40-year-old slugger has at least one more road trip in mind first. On Thursday Hammerin' Hank flies to Japan for a home-run hitting contest against Sadaharu Oh, 34, star first baseman for Tokyo's Yomiuri Giants. Oh has 634 lifetime home runs against Aaron's 733 and expects to pass Aaron's total one day. At their Saturday contest, each batter will select a pitcher and then use half an hour trying to rap baseballs out of Tokyo's Korakuen Stadium. For his appearance, Aaron will make $50,000, win or lose. As for Oh, he warms up for each game by gulping down a secret mixture of Korean ginseng and honey, and expects to emerge victorious. "I'm younger than he," says Oh politely, "and I'm afraid Mr. Aaron would have to suffer from jet-age time lag." Oh, Hank.

While a proud Lord Snowdon recorded the event on film, his daughter Lady Sarah, 10, took to leotards for her first lessons with Dame Ninette de Valois, former director of the Royal Ballet and founder of the Royal Ballet School. Left unrecorded was the debut of Lady Sarah's mother, Princess Margaret, 44. Not wanting her daughter to get a leg up, Princess Margaret has begun taking ballet lessons herself —with the Royal Ballet's guest artist Rudolf Nureyev. "They dance together in a large studio furnished only with a mirror, a barre and a piano," reports a friend of Nureyev. "He puts her through the whole routine of pirouettes and arabesques. He also gives her ballet lifts high on his shoulder. Obviously, it is a marvelous way for the princess to keep fit." Not to mention Nureyev.