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On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the death of Lord Byron, Actor Anthony Quinn, 58, announced that he too was going to Greece. He will make three movies funded in part by the Greek junta (see THE WORLD) in an effort to bolster the national movie industry that has sagged since the right-wing colonels' coup in 1967. In Athens to confirm the deal, Quinn enjoyed an afternoon in a taverna, then got off to a challenging start by saying he wanted as his co-star Actress Irene Poppas, an opponent of the regime. Quinn said that he had been guaranteed "carte blanche" in his artistic efforts. That was immediately challenged by Greek Emigre Melina Mercouri, now working in Manhattan on a documentary about repression in Greece. "If Quinn can make movies in Greece without censorship, he would then be unique in the world," she said. · It was not exactly an emotional family reunion. "I called my grandfather after I was released [by the kidnapers]," explained E. Paul Getty II. "But he didn't come to the phone. He was afraid something was going to pop out and hurt him." The 17-year-old grandson of one of the world's richest men was describing his efforts to thank Grandpa for finally coughing up the $2.9 million that won his release from the Italian bandits who held him captive for five months. In the current Rolling Stone, Paul's account of his ordeal is capped by his failure to get through to Grandfather J. Paul Getty, 81. Instead, he had to make do with an aide. "I told the aide I wanted to thank him for paying the money. The aide said my grandfather said I was welcome. I told the aide thanks again. Then I told the aide goodbye. The aide told me Grandfather said good luck."
"Yes, I am working on a new film called The Freak," said Charlie Chaplin, renouncing the idea of retirement even on his 85th birthday. Well bundled up against the cold in a fur-collared coat, the lord of Manoir le Ban in Vevey, Switzerland, greeted well-wishers with the observation that modern movies are "generally better than in the old days." Chaplin refused to elaborate on his own new movie and acknowledged a little sadly that "the older you get, the more you think of the past, the more you think of death." But his eyes twinkled again when a troop of local schoolchildren arrived to wish him "Bon anniversaire," and as he went indoors to join a family party given by his wife, Oona O'Neill Chaplin, 49, and attended by six of his eight children, his infirm step seemed to have a vestigial jauntiness.