PERSONALITIES

986: That was the year that was, and we were there to watch the antics of the famous and not-so-famous and would-be famous. There were milestones, half-milestones and a few things hardly worth mentioning ...

Mitch Snyder, who spends his winters living out in the cold, became the subject of a made-for-television movie, "Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story," starring Martin Sheen. The movie and the stars threw a cast party catered by black-tie Ridgewell waiters and invited the homeless. During the filming here Washington had some of the clearest, warmest days of the winter. When the movie had its premiere at the National Theatre, it was a star-studded gala complete with a fancy party in a tent in front of the Willard Hotel ...

Which, incidentally, reopened after years looking like a homeless derelict on Pennsylvania Avenue and immediately took the lead in the city's ever-growing luxury hotel wars ...

The best parties of the year were the ones celebrating the 150th anniversary of the National Theatre and all those connected with the National Gallery of Art's blockbuster "The Treasure Houses of Britain" show. Attendance at the exhibition broke all previous National Gallery records ...

Sir Oliver Wright, the British ambassador, was so busy with royal and titled guests staying at the embassy while in town to see "Treasure Houses" that he observed at the end of the show: "We were able to keep the sheets changed, but the beds never cooled down" ...

We can't seem to decide on how he spells his name; we're only certain that we don't like him very much, and the president doesn't like him even a little bit. Gadhafi (Washington Post), Gaddafi (Time Magazine), Kaddafi (Newsweek), Qadhafi (U.S. News & World Report), Quaddafi (The Economist) ...

Brat pack star Sean Penn became the brattiest of the Hollywood brats as he traveled about the world picking fights with photographers. But as the year ended it began to look as though his wife Madonna was tiring of him as much as everyone else. Penn may soon have to pick a fight in the hope that someone will notice he's still around ...

Former health, education and welfare secretary Joseph Califano, ever the enemy of smoking, led the winning battle to end smoking in his law firm of Dewey, Ballantine. Next the firm's office building and who knows where next ...

Washington developer Alan Kay shelled out about $4.5 million for Merrywood, the home of C. Wyatt Dickerson and Nancy Dickerson. He then took the great house where Jackie Kennedy Onassis grew up and Jack Kennedy wrote "Profiles in Courage," and spent nearly another $5 million to expand and remodel. The renovations even included moving the swimming pool ...

Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy Dobrynin, the dean of the diplomatic corps, not exactly a socialite, returned home to a big job in Moscow. One of the most socially active members of the diplomatic community, Swedish Ambassador Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister, became the new dean. He's also much in demand on the tennis courts, where some of the most important business of Washington is conducted ...

It was the year of the wedding: Nebraska Gov. Bob Kerrey still doesn't know what happened, but one day actress Debra Winger was "very serious" about him and the next thing he knew she was married to actor Timothy Hutton ... Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger made it legal and Maria's brother Timothy Shriver married Linda Potter in a quiet Georgetown wedding ... Caroline Kennedy married her older man Edwin Schlossberg ... ABC interviewer of the stars Barbara Walters wed TV executive Merv Adelson ... And Zsa Zsa Gabor, who likes being married so much she is trying it for the eighth time, to someone identified as Prince Frederick von Anhalt ... Comedian Dick Smothers wed former Washington debutant Lorraine M. Martin ... And the wedding of the year: Sprightly, unabashed, refreshing Sarah Ferguson married Prince Andrew. If anyone can change his "Randy Andy" image, she can ...

And Johnny Carson, who obviously can afford it, announced he is getting married again. He says his third wife is to be a young lady named Alex Maas, someone he reportedly met on the beach near his Malibu home. Where else does one meet his future wife in California? ...

And just when we thought she had found true happiness, "Dynasty's" Joan Collins dashed our dreams by filing a suit for annulment to her marriage to her Swedish husband Peter Holm ...

Art Buchwald, the son of Hungarian immigrants, gave a group of about to be naturalized citizens a lesson in freedom by telling jokes at the president's expense. As he said, not only can he make fun of President Reagan, but he gets paid "large piles of money" to do it and no one can stop him ...

The slap heard around the world, or at least around town and across Canada, was when Sondra Gotlieb, the ambassador's wife, slapped her social secretary in the face. And nothing was quite the same ever again ...

Fred Grandy, "Gopher" on "The Love Boat," is now a congressman-elect. Clint Eastwood is the mayor of Carmel, Calif. And why not? Other actors have made it in politics. Eastwood's new hit movie about tough marines, "Heartbreak Ridge," is hot at the box office but the corps finds the profanity too much for its taste. Marine sergeants apparently only say things like "Oh shucks|" ...

Actor Sylvester Stallone may be really tough and fearless and could single-handedly close the missile gap, but reportedly wouldn't go to the Cannes Film Festival because he was afraid of terrorist attacks. Stallone had his publicist deny that allegation ...

Former senator George McGovern thought he had the presidency of St. John's College in Annapolis all sewn up. So did a number of others, but someone on the board had different political leanings. McGovern was hurt, but philosophical: "I'm just destined not to be the president of anything. This is not the first time I've been nominated but not elected" ...

President Reagan's popularity was so high this summer that there was talk of repealing the 22nd Amendment, the one limiting a president to two terms. Rep. Guy Vander Jagt (R-Mich.) was pushing hard for it. Funny, no one is saying much about the 22nd Amendment lately ...

World-renowned tenor Placido Domingo worked hard on the title role of Gian Carlo Menotti's new opera "Goya," but during rehearsals for the Washington Opera's world premiere, he made certain a color television set was close by so he could also watch the World Series ...

The Miss America pageant, trying again to find some class and to show that it doesn't consider women sex objects, for the first time didn't reveal the contestants' measurements. However, once Kellye Cash won she quickly pointed out she's 35-22-35 ...

They're still not speaking to each other. Duke Zeibert has recovered from bypass surgery and Mel Krupin is recovering from having a kidney removed ...

One of the year's true milestones: Courageous, diligent U.S. District Judge John Sirica decided to retire at 82. He had been appointed to the court by President Eisenhower and was instrumental in forcing President Nixon to resign when he subpoenaed Nixon's White House tapes. Sirica will always be remembered as a man who served his country by serving his profession and maintaining his honor ...

One of the best quotes of the year: When President Reagan invited 15 political cartoonists to the White House for lunch, three of the most famous cartoonists in the country were pointedly missing: Herbert Block of The Washington Post, Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury," and Paul Conrad of the Los Angeles Times. As Trudeau said when asked if his invitation might have been lost in the mail: "If I were he {Reagan} I wouldn't have invited me either. But I'm surprised he didn't invite Herblock, the dean of American cartoonists" ...

And the Personalities Column's Personality of the Year: Sarah Ferguson. First Diana and now Sarah. There's hope for the dour, dull Windsors yet ...

Moira Mulligan assisted with this column.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.