People, Nov. 7, 1977

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Lally Weymouth, sometime writer and the daughter of Washington Post Publisher Katharine Graham, threw a par ty in New York last week, and it turned into a swinging affair indeed. Among the guests: Norman Mailer, 54, and Gore Vidal, 52, two longtime antagonists who had a stormy set-to six years ago on the Dick Cavett Show. Mailer, who had called Vidal "a liar and a hypocrite" back then, was apparently still irritated by his literary rival. While 100 guests looked on in amazement, he splashed Vidal with a drink and then poked him in the kisser. Afterward, Mailer grumbled that Vidal had been "systematically insulting" him for years, and that "there was no way I could ignore him." Said Hostess Weymouth: "It happened so quickly I didn't know who was hitting whom. Needless to say, I was not thrilled to be having a fistfight at my party." Noting that "it's not easy being a failure like Norman," Gore quickly demonstrated that his wounded lip still worked pretty well. Mailer "used the Pearl Harbor attack," Gore later sniped. "He sneaked up and threw a drink in my face, and then when I was blinded, he threw his tiny fist at my face. Once again words failed him."