Problems We Should Have: Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor,...

Problems We Should Have: Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster and Britain’s wealthiest man, says having all that money (an estimated $8 billion) isn’t all roses. Grosvenor, 39, told a BBC interviewer that he must daily deal with the “human failing” of envy. And, he added, inheriting all that money and the title never gave him a chance to choose his own career or determine his own lifestyle. On the up side, he said, was the fact he had received 500 marriage proposals before he reached the age of 21.

Casualty of War: The Pierre Balmain fashion house in Paris has announced it will no longer produce haute couture garments. “Haute couture is dying,” said Balmain spokeswoman Laure Chaffanjon. Blaming the Persian Gulf crisis and the economic downturn, she said, “There is no longer the potential for clients like Arab princesses and the wives of Texas millionaires.” Balmain will replace its haute couture with a new concept it calls “couture,” which will allow clients to order modified custom-made versions of cheaper ready-to-wear fashions

Doone Beat: Garry Trudeau, whose “Doonesbury” strip is marking its 20th anniversary, warned a young fan not to accept his cartooned view as pure history. “There may be a few holes here and there,” he cautioned a Yale student who said he had learned everything he knew about ex-President Richard Nixon and Watergate from “Doonesbury.”

Double Take: Texas governor-elect Ann Richards is now the grandmother of twins. Richards’s daughter Cecile delivered Hannah, who weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces, and Daniel, who weighed in at 6 pounds, 11 ounces, Saturday in Austin. Richards has two older grandchildren.