He was perhaps the first cowboy with discriminating tastes—Keats' poetry, Chateau Haut-Brion and Ming porcelain competing with his gun for his affections. He was called Paladin, and between 1957 and 1964 Actor Richard Boone made him one of television's most popular heroes, bringing home to CBS a tidy profit of $14 million plus millions more for his patented outfit: black hat, black pants, black shirt and a calling card that read "Have Gun, Will Travel. Wire Paladin, San Francisco." One viewer, however, thought he must be seeing his double. Rhode Island Cowboy Victor DaCosta, who had been making a hit since 1946 at New England fairs (his cards read: "Have Gun, Will Travel. Wire Paladin, Oaklawn, R.I.") found Boone to be his dead ringer, right down to the black outfit and the derringer tucked up the sleeve. Last week, after 17 years' litigation, DaCosta, now 65 and a mechanic, won his suit charging that the series had been copied from his act. A Providence court ordered CBS to pay him "the proceeds of their wrong." Yet to be determined, the sum should be enough to allow DaCosta to copy Boone/Paladin's tall-in-the-saddle style of life. · Theatrical dynasties are common enough in England, but the Redgrave clan is unique. All five members are currently in action round the world. In London, Vanessa Redgrave, 37, is starring in Noel Coward's Design for Living.
Mother Rachel Kempson, 63, is appearing in a Thames Television series on Winston Churchill, playing his grandmother, the dowager Duchess of Maryborough. Brother Corin Redgrave, 34, is finishing a film in Australia, and Father Sir Michael Redgrave, 68, opened last week in The Hollow Crown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Arriving in New York City, he hastened to congratulate youngest daughter Lynn Redgrave, 30, for scoring her second success on Broadway, as the demon slimmer of My Fat Friend. Said Lynn ebulliently: "It's nice to know we're all working and can finally pay the rent." · Dinner with the boss is the kind of awkward evening that wives have to learn to cope with. But Nancy Maginnes Kissinger, 39, seemed to take it in stride when she appeared at her first official White House dinner (in honor of the Latin American foreign ministers), even when the boss singled her out. Said President Nixon: "We welcome Mrs. Nancy Kissinger on her first visit as the wife of the Secretary of State." Perhaps feeling that he had overdone it, he added a rider: "She's a little liberal, but otherwise she is all right." Then he underlined his doubts: "Don't interpret the word liberal too literally either."