Few Americans can readily identify Pamela Churchill Harriman, born Pamela Beryl Digby 76 years ago in England and currently U.S. ambassador to France. But in the international world of the redundantly rich and overpowered, she has been an object of desire, scorn, envy and grudging respect for more than 50 years.
Following a nasty marriage to Winston Churchill's dissolute son Randolph, Pam Churchill went on to form lucrative unions and strategic dalliances on both sides of the Atlantic. Her second husband was Broadway producer Leland Hayward, who died in 1971. She then married the aged Averell Harriman--Wall Street heir, Roosevelt New...