As a duo, they weren't bad. Willie Nelson's slightly nasal baritone complemented Rosalynn Carter's soft soprano, and the crowd clapped rousingly to the music. The First Lady had no trouble with the lyrics since both she and Jimmy know Nelson's hits by heart. The setting was the White House lawn, where Nelson, the king of outlaw country, put on a stompin' good show last week. The most eye-opening song of the evening: Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother. The President himself, a stock car racing buff and Nelson's No. 1 fan, had planned the party for members of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, some of whom rolled up to the "diplomatic entrance" in their Day-Glo colored "stockers." Alas, Jimmy couldn't get away from his Israeli and Egyptian guests at Camp David, and Rosalynn was left to entertain the down-home folks.

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The spooky, spaced-out waif of Carrie and 3 Women is growing up--and dressing up. "I love to get all duded up. It's one of the real me's," says Sissy Spacek, 28, who struts about in diamonds and furs for her first role as a mature woman in Heart Beat. The movie tells the story of the late Beat author Jack Kerouac and of Neal Cassady, a onetime car thief and the model for Dean Moriarty in Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road. Spacek plays Carolyn, a well-bred commercial artist who is married to Neal. To research the role, Spacek read a 1,400-page manuscript written by Carolyn and concluded that she was a well-educated, glamorous, "classy lady." Portraying her, reflects the new, womanly Spacek, is a challenge. "Before, I've always stretched backward in time," she says. "This time I'll be stretching forward."

The Sandown raceway in Melbourne was packed with 61,500 people, there to see the car that had been flown in from Stuttgart and the driver from Argentina. "It's like meeting an old friend," said Juan Fangio, 67, five-time world racing champion, as he clambered into the cockpit of the Mercedes-Benz "Silver Arrow" that he had driven to victory in world title races in 1954 and 1955. "But," he added, "please do not think I am going to do the same things I did many years ago. This car has been in a museum and soon I will be in a museum too." Fangio warmed up by driving in a regularity trial with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, a fast-car enthusiast, sitting in the mechanic's seat. Then in an event billed as "The Race of Champions" Fangio drove alone in the Mercedes, touching 165 m.p.h. during the 8.7-mile course and crossing the finish line one length behind three-time World Champion Jack Brabham, 52.

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Each evening they stroll through the streets of Rome, she holding fondly on to his arm. Then Author Simone de Beauvoir, 70, and Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, 73, sit and sip aperitifs at an outdoor cafe and dine in their favorite restaurants in the Piazza Navona. The Parisian couple's mutual devotion during 49 years of intimacy is nearly matched by their attachment to Rome--where they have spent part of every summer for the past 25 years. "We have no work plans at all right now," says Beauvoir. "We're just enjoying our vacation." As a friend describes the pair's dolce vita, "They're leading a calm life, and trying to make the most of their time--just like any retired couple."

On the Record

Kylene Barker, the first Miss Virginia to take the long walk as Miss America, after winning the crown: "Ah hope Ah can always be fresh and bubbly."

Pope John Paul I, speaking about God at his regular Sunday Angelus blessing in St. Peter's Square: "He is Father. Even more, God is Mother, who does not want to harm us."

Charles Schulz, creator of Snoopy: "We used to have a dog named Snoopy, you know, a real live dog. I suppose people who love Snoopy won't like it, but we gave him away. He fought with other dogs, so we traded him in for a load of gravel."

Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill, Sir Winston's cousin, who has decided to go into the men's wear manufacturing business: "A Churchill has to do whatever comes along."

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