Ronald Reagan held both Gorbachevs spellbound with Hollywood stories during the Geneva summit, according to the latest tales from the White House, but after Raisa Gorbachev sparkled in dinner table conversation, Nancy Reagan fumed: ``Who does that dame think she is?'' Former White House chief of staff Donald T. Regan, in his book, ``For the Record,'' published Monday, portrayed a first lady who tried to keep presidential spokesman Larry Speakes from uttering the word ``cancer'' when a malignancy was found in her husband's colon and who kept Regan from riding the helicopter to Bethesda Naval Hospital because helicopters were too ``presidential'' for staff members' use. And he told of a president who perks up in the presence of women _ and unfailingly offers a fatherly wave to the pretty stewardesses across an airport tarmac. Beyond his disclosure of Mrs. Reagan's reliance on a Nob Hill astrologist, Regan's book gave out-of-school tales about a first lady with a pervasive, protective role in her husband's presidency. The Iran-Contra arms and money affair made Mrs. Reagan's ``sensitivity to criticism more acute than ever,'' Regan wrote, and as a result Mrs. Reagan gave him frequent directions on how to handle the matter. ``The first lady's telephoning was so frequent that I was spending two or three times as much time talking to her as to the president,'' he said. Mrs. Reagan was influential in Regan's unceremonious departure from the White House. By then, hard feelings between the two were common knowledge in Washington. In recalling all _ the latest in a series of White House gossipy memoirs about disarray within the Reagan presidency _ Regan described how Raisa Gorbachev, the stylish wife of the Soviet leader, upstaged Nancy Reagan at their first social session _ a dinner during the 1985 Geneva summit. Mrs. Reagan was hostess, he wrote, but Mrs. Gorbachev ``did not confine herself, as most other wives of heads of state and government did in such meetings, to cross-chat with Mrs. Reagan on palace housewifery and other harmless subjects. ``Mrs. Gorbachev was a highly educated woman _ a professor of Marxist-Leninist theory,'' Regan said. ``At this dinner party and the later one at the Soviet Mission, she did not hesitate to make use of the opportunities offered to her to educate the president of the United States on the intellectual and philosophical basis of Soviet policy. ``It was evident that she was mistress of her subject, an intellectual with a truly impressive grasp of a specialty that she regarded as the key to understanding Soviet society and the world beyond,'' Regan recalled. ``Reagan listened to Mrs. Gorbachev's extremely detailed and fervently argued opinions with gallant courtesy. ``Gorbachev, like any husband in his circumstances, kept his peace,'' Regan said. ``Mrs. Reagan, however, chaffed under the monologue. After the door had closed behind the Gorbachevs, she said, `Who does that dame think she is?''' As for Reagan, he entertained the Gorbachevs with stories about his acting career. They questioned him about how movies are made and how the Hollywood stars live. ``The Gorbachevs devoured every detail,'' Regan said. ``Like any other movie buffs, they were very pleased to be in the company of somebody who had known Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart and nearly every other famous movie star personally, and was able to describe what they were really like. Regan wrote dryly that the president did not tell the leader of the communist world about his role of driving communists from the union during his terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild. Reagan tends to glow in the company of women, Regan wrote: ``The presence of Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick or Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole at a Cabinet meeting always made for a heightened presidential mood; he was more amusing, more talkative, more of a participant than a presence. Regan said everyone who travels with the president has come to believe that Pan American World Airways assigns its prettiest stewardesses to the plane carrying the White House press corps. ``This happy circumstance did not escape the president's notice,'' he said. ``When Air Force One landed, the president always looked for thePan Am stewardesses from the press plane and gave them a fatherly wave. They waved back enthusiastically, pretty young women in their uniforms smiling at the most famous man in the world. ``It was a moment everyone looked forward to on presidential journeys.''
