For Britain's Princess Anne, there is no living down her occasional lapses in horsewomanship. At a charity fund-raising evening sponsored by the Grand Order of Water Rats, an entertainers' organization, Anne and Husband Captain Mark Phillips arrived to accept a check on behalf of the Police Dependents Trust. "Have you fallen off any good horses lately?" cracked Basil Brush, a puppet fox and star of a children's tele vision show. Replied Anne coolly: "You don't fall off good horses."
The ceremony came four years late, but last week Soviet Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn finally entered Stockholm's Concert House to accept the 1970 No bel Prize for Literature. "The Swedish Academy and the Nobel Foundation have probably never had as much bother with anyone as they have had with me," said Solzhenitsyn at a Nobel ban quet. The laureate was kept from attending the 1970 ceremonies by fear that he would not be allowed to return to the Soviet Union. The prize, declared the bearded exile, "has prevented me from being crushed by the severe persecution to which I have been subjected." The prize also enabled Solzhenitsyn to be on hand for some traditional Scandinavian Christmas festivities, including a meeting with Birgitta Gahne, Stockholm's Queen of Light.
Though never known as the king of deference, Actor Rod Steiger has plaudits aplenty for the co-star and the director of his newest film, now being completed in Saint-Tropez, France. The movie, tentatively entitled Damned Innocents, features Steiger as an aging husband and Romy Schneider as his wandering-eyed wife, and is directed by New Wave Mastermind Claude Chabrol. Says Steiger of Chabrol: "He understands the necessity of allowing his actors artistic freedom. There isn't that much money to be made, and we have to use all the talent there is." Which, presumably, includes Schneider. "Working with her makes me realize how ignorant I am," concedes Steiger. "She can speak English, French, Italian and German. I have trouble getting by in English."
"I came here eight years ago with $200 in my pocket, a small child in my arms, wondering if I had any future at all," recalled Australian-born Singer Helen Reddy, 33. Now a top-ranking female pop vocalist in the U.S. and composer of the rousing feminist anthem I Am Woman, Reddy last week joined ranks with her American fans by becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. With Bronx-born Husband-Manager Jeff Wald at her side, Reddy took the oath of allegiance in Los Angeles, then wept happily on the shoulder of Mayor Tom Bradley, who witnessed the ceremony. "This wonderful country is still the only place on earth where the boldest dreams can come true," exulted Reddy, who later celebrated by singing two concerts for women prisoners in a local jail.