People: May 3, 1963

“Doe Rabbit” and “Buck Rabbit,” as they called each other before the magic went out of their twice-dissolved marriage, have finally split for keeps. Dropping her appeal to the second divorce (May 1962), Muriel Marston, 49, third wife of ailing Tobacco Heir Richard Joshua Reynolds, 57, will let him go unfettered to a fourth wife he had somehow acquired between court hassles. Cost to Reynolds by terms of an out-of-court settlement: $2,142,624 in alimony (largest recorded in Georgia history), including $500,000 for Muriel’s lawyers, plus a written guarantee not to disturb a $2,000,000 trust that will bring Muriel and her mother $32,000 a year for life.

Of all people to be interested in moon rockets and such stuff—there at Alabama’s Huntsville space center was former first magnitude Film Star Gloria Swanson, 6.4, hearing all about other worlds from a man she had long admired, Rocket Scientist Dr. Wernher von Broun, 51. “I felt self-conscious taking his time,” said Gloria. “If you’re a woman, people think you have feathers in your head, especially if you’re from Hollywood. But I poked around asking what’s this, how does that work, what’s that little green thing? It was fascinating.”

Firsts seem to be a specialty of Hamilton Holmes, 21. He set off a furor in 1961 as one of the first two Negroes to enter the desegregated University of Georgia as a transfer student from Morehouse (Negro) College in Atlanta. Once the initial excitement was over, he burrowed into his books, became the first Negro to win acceptance at Atlanta’s Emory University Medical School, which he enters next fall. And last week Holmes gained further distinction as the University of Georgia’s first Negro member of Phi Beta Kappa. His grades to date: 24 A’s and A-pluses, four B-pluses, one B.

Venus Imperiale is the title of her newest film, and coroneted Gina Lollobrigida, 33, looked type-cast for the part. At a

Paris premiere, she queened it quite fetchingly with Georges Cheiko, European movie director who has been Lollo’s fre quent escort while movie commitments keep her from her husband, Dr. Milko Skofic, who is home in Italy.

An alert reporter noticed an unusual gap in the always busy schedule of New York’s Governor Nelson Rockefeller, 54. It was blank from May 9 to 31. True, confirmed Press Secretary Robert L. Mc-Manus, he knew of no “official activities” for the Governor between those dates.

“That does not mean there will not be any, however.” Well, did that mean that Rocky would seize the moment to marry recently divorced Margaretta Fitler (“Happy”) Murphy? No one was saying.

But there was that tender photograph of them dancing at the Governor’s 1959 Inaugural Ball.

French police pulled in a cloak-and-dagger suspect, a darkly handsome colonel who commanded the 5th Infantry Regiment in Blois, 100 miles from Paris, and —according to recently captured documents—passed military secrets to anti-De Gaulle activists. His name in the documents was “Ulrich.” But Ulrich, now transferred to the security prison in Paris, turned out to be Henri Fournier-Foch, 50, grandson of heroic Marshal Foch, Allied Supreme Commander of World War I.

Blonde, beautiful, and serenely inaccessible to all but her oldest friends, Princess Grace of Monaco, 33, made the oh-so official visits to Philadelphia landmarks, her visit back home climaxed by a gala Crystal Ball, where she greeted 600 elite guests, among them Contralto Marian Anderson. Though honored by the sponsoring Fashion Group of Philadelphia, the Princess bypassed local couturiers for a deep blue organza gown by Balenciaga. Grace’s mother, Mrs. John B. Kelly Sr., wore a blush pink satin frock purchased in Atlantic City. Said she unblushingly, “I don’t pay any attention to designers.”

“The stronger the man, the more self-restraint he must exercise,” said New York Supreme Court Justice Saul S. Streit, counting out retired Heavyweight Champ Rocky Marciano, 39, who lost a decision to Gene Schoor, 45, author of the recent biography Young John Kennedy. Schoor claimed he was boffed by the Rock back in 1960, following an argument about a ghostwriting deal, and “my ears have been ringing ever since.” Schoor’s balm is $5,000.

Italian Designer Emilio Pucci, 48, used to push pink, but that was before he went into politics. Visiting Manhattan, the originator of those skintight Capri pants had to hurry right home for last-minute speechmaking as a Liberal Party candidate for the Chamber of Deputies. “I am running, but I am not interested in the office,” he said. “I just don’t want people to vote Communist.” Win or lose, Pucci was doing his bit for capitalism. His high-fashion models handed out bright silk scarves with the Pucci signature and the slogan “Vote Liberal”—and Florentines were peddling them to tourists for up to $15 apiece as Pucci originals.

Newest name to be linked with Eliza beth Taylor is, of all people, Vincent Van Gogh. Liz’s yen for the finer things crept into the news when California Art Dealer Francis Taylor, representing his daughter, traipsed off to Sotheby’s London auction rooms and paid $257,600 for a Van Gogh landscape, View of the Asylum and Chapel of St. Remy. Already on loan from Liz to the Los Angeles Museum are a Renoir, a Cassatt, a Modigliani, a Rouault and a Frans Hals.