Old Master: When comedian Red Skelton gets...

Old Master: When comedian Red Skelton gets called as a prosecution witness, it is he who holds court. Center Art Gallery owner William Mett and director Marvin Wiseman are accused in Honolulu of misrepresenting surrealist Salvador Dali and celebrity artists Tony Curtis, Anthony Quinn and Skelton in the marketing of reproductions of their works. On the witness stand Tuesday, Skelton said he was satisfied with how his works were handled. Skelton also gave his age as 77. “I would have been 78,� he said, “but we spent a year on Maui.�

Sore Loser: When Miss West Virginia, Lisa Bittinger, didn’t make the top 10 in September’s Miss America contest, she groused in public about the contest. But the winner, Debbye Turner, was not bothered. “She missed the point entirely about Miss America,� Turner said in Morgantown, W. Va., Monday. “Isn’t it great that in America a black, a Korean, a Japanese, a kidney transplant and a 95% hearing-impaired (person) can become Miss America and achieve success?� asked Turner, who is black. Bittinger commented after the contest about the ethnicity and physical condition of some winners. She could not be reached Tuesday and Wednesday.

Unmistaken Identity: Muhammad Ali was on his way home from visiting a teen-ager with cancer in South Bend, Ind., Tuesday night when he found himself in the middle of a disturbance--or so police thought. When officers responded, “they found it was just a group of juveniles talking to a celebrity,� Capt. Eugene Kyle said Wednesday. As a practical joke, officer John Collins brought Ali into the police station in handcuffs, claiming he had arrested the ex-fighter. After everyone laughed, the officers lined up for autographs.