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The British are not notably enthralled with Lyndon Johnson. But when iconoclastic Director Joan Littlewood brought Barbara Garson's Mac-Bird to town, the critics threw every pan in the kitchen. After seeing the pseudo-Shakespearean parody about Johnson and the death of President Kennedy, the London Daily Mail's critic growled: "Immeasurably witless rubbish." The London Times sniffed: "It is pointless to get too indignant. The production successfully torpedoes what was already a fragile and leaky craft."
All went smoothly at a rehearsal for the debutantes' benefit fashion show in London, until Arabella Churchill, 17, Randolph's daughter, had to parade onto the runway wearing a silk gown split up the back to reveal its matching pants. "I do not want to show my bottom," snapped Winnie's granddaughter as photographers began shooting the view from the stern. Later, things got even worse when the prankish Duke of Bedford, the show's announcer, peeled off the detachable lower swath of a mink coat Arabella was modeling, leaving her in a sort of mini-fur. "I do not want to be a model!" she cried, bursting into tears. But by afternoon she had calmed down, and swept through the opening show with no tears. She even endured the duke's suave commentary on the fur. "There's nothing like a fur miniskirt," intoned His Grace, "to keep a girl's behind warm."