SARAH BERNHARDT, French actress died (b. 1844); Her friendship with Louise Abbema, a French impressionist painter fourteen years her junior, was so close and passionate that the two women were assumed to be lovers. She later married Greek-born actor Aristides Damala (known in France as Jacques Damala) in London in 1882, but the marriage, which legally endured until Damala’s death in 1889 at age 34, quickly collapsed, largely due to Damala’s dependence on morphine…oh and his being a homosexual. During the latter years of this marriage, Bernhardt was said to have been involved in an affair with the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII. Can we say “publicité”? Bernhardt was not known to be a religious person, and once stated, “Me pray? Never! I’m an atheist.”