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The canonization of Lenny Bruce, the Dr. Johnson of four-letter words, continues. Seven years ago, Bruce died a junkie's death in Hollywood, hounded by obscenity charges. To many admirers, he was a martyr to middle-class morality, and now he is being hailed as the most influential social satirist of the era. A dozen-odd records of Lenny are available, plays and films have been made of his life, and now another movie is under way in Miami. Dustin Hoffman, 36, has the lead in Bob Fosse's Lenny, and, on location, he came up with his own analysis of Bruce. "He was a man who loved his country and believed in the Constitution, in the right to freedom of speech." As to whether Lenny was pornographic, Hoffman declared: "The words weren't used to make the audience horny."
The day that Diva Maria Callas, 50, was to appear at her first New York recital in nine years, the phone rang at Impresario Sol Hurok's hotel. There was, said the operator, a lady friend of 20 years' standing who wished to speak to him. "That's not nearly long enough," said Hurok, refusing to take the call. He got the message anyway. Callas was canceling because of a sore throat. The 2,800 fans, some of whom had paid as much as $100 a ticket, were disappointed, even tearful, but not altogether surprised. Maria had done the same thing in London in September. Many promised to try again when the volatile soprano is next scheduled to visit New York, later in her current three-month North American tour. The turn of events may have actually raised sales for future Callas appearances. As one fan put it: "The cancellation of this recital is more exciting than any concert I've been to this year."
No sooner had Princess Elizabeth of Toro, 34, accepted the post of Ugandan Ambassador to Egypt last month than General Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada changed his mind. Deciding that he could not part with Elizabeth or her talents, he appointed her instead Uganda's Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ugandan observers consider the promotion a practical rather than romantic measure. Not only does Big Daddy, a Moslem, already have four wives, but he is sadly short of Cabinet talent among his cronies, mostly former NCOS and privates. Before Elizabeth's appointment, he had flayed the Foreign Affairs Ministry as "the weakest and most inefficient I have ever seen." That was after the Ugandan Ambassador to France, Paulo Muwanga, allegedly had absconded to London, taking 500,000 French francs and 25 Ugandan passports "for his family."