People: Aug. 15, 1969 | TIME

The Metropolitan Opera’s beautiful soprano Anna Moffo has had more than her share of movie offers. But most of the roles were not for her, she said. They were just plain “dirty.” Now Anna has apparently found the film she was waiting for. She is in Rome starring in Una Storia d’Amore, playing the long-suffering mistress of a flashy young cad who makes love to her (while taking blue movies with a remote-control camera), then tosses her out into the street. Doesn’t all the naked grappling and wrestling qualify as dirty? Not at all, says Anna earnestly. “It’s not one bit in the category of lewd films because the wife goes back to her husband in the end. She is not just cheating her husband because her emotions are involved. She is basically a woman of our time. A very honest woman who has a moment of tragedy.”

“The first time I’ve ever been in love,” The Playboy was saying in Rome. “I’ve found what I’ve been looking for in all the other women: freshness and innocence.” As he spoke, he stroked the hands, hair and knees of the silent, smiling brunette by his side. After a career of elaborate bachelorhood spun out against a kaleidoscopic backdrop of beautiful faces and figures, Publisher Hugh Hefner, 43, was telling the press that his long-elusive heart had been captured at last. The girl was Barbara Benton, a svelte 19-year-old California coed who graced Playboy’s July cover and is already starring in her first film, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Business Like This? Has he already proposed marriage? asked reporters. “Not now—maybe later,” replied Hugh. But it was “a serious relationship” all the same. Well, would she say yes if he did ask? the newsmen asked Barbara. Said she with a smile: “It would be fun to say no.”

Postmarked Paris, the packages addressed to Moonwives Jan Armstrong, Joan Aldrin and Pat Collins contained curious-looking presents: three black wrought-iron keys. They are quite some keys, though—they open the front doors of three luxurious villas in a pine forest overlooking the Mediterranean. The ladies’ admirer is Mario Marello, a real estate developer who is building a community of $40,000 vacation homes near Fréjus on the French Riviera. While he followed the moon shot, says Marello, “I couldn’t keep my mind off the wives and children and the terrible anxiety they were feeling. I wanted to do something for the wives. So I decided to offer what I had—my houses.” Although Marello declares that he will make “absolutely no use” of the astronauts’ names, it is unlikely that NASA will allow the girls to accept the generous offer. In the past, the answer has always been: “Thanks, but no thanks.”

His bulldozing tactics on the gridiron made Jim Brown one of the greatest fullbacks in the history of pro football. Civilian life is something else again. Brown has been brought to court four times in four years on various charges, usually involving illegal use of hands on both men and women. He has yet to be convicted, but now he faces another rap. According to Hollywood police, Brown slammed his Lincoln into the rear of a car driven by Arthur Brush, a 52-year-old retired businessman. Brown refused to identify himself and drove away—running into Brush in the process and flipping him onto the hood of his car. Then, the cops say, Brown stopped, got out, threw Brush to the street and continued on his way. Five days later, Brown was picked up and charged with felonious assault. Said he at his arraignment: “I walk tall. I do my thing. They try to break you. They won’t break me.”

Madalyn Murray O’Hair is not only the world’s most vocal atheist, she is probably the most imaginative. Last week she filed suit in Austin, Texas, seeking to “enjoin the astronauts from further Bible reading and prayer recitation in space.” Mrs. O’Hair alleges that recitations from the Book of Genesis by Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman represented “unsound flight procedure” since the passages were actually printed on the flight plan. What’s more, she says, Apollo 8 was scheduled for Christmas only because NASA was in “financial trouble. NASA knows that if they can link the space program with religion, they’ve got it made financially.”

Over the past few years, South Africa’s dashing Dr. Christiaan Barnard has been photographed with more than his share of lovely women, among them Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren and Princess Grace. Last week the handsome, just-divorced surgeon turned up at Nice airport after a flight from Copenhagen —and there to meet him was quite possibly the most stunning beauty of all. Flashbulbs popped. Gossip buzzed. As it turned out, Shoanna Ryan, 18, was just welcoming Barnard for her daddy, a U.S. builder who had invited the doctor for a four-day vacation at St. Tropez. Barnard was soon off to Rome and Shoanna was back sunning herself on the beach.

ncG1vNJzZmismaKyb6%2FOpmaaqpOdtrexjm9tbG9jZ35wvMSop6WdXZbCqHmQbmRqcWZufA%3D%3D