Queens of a certain age here are beside themselves because, as part of her world tour, Liza Minnelli will shortly set foot on Mexican soil after a ten-year absence. Among her activities will be a concert at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City on April 28. One hopes that the fragile diva, who has been giving it all she's got for over 40 years, will not collapse and fall off the stage, as she did in Stockholm four months ago.

Then again, presumably the Swedish queens of a certain age who attended that performance will now have a story to tell their grandchildren -- or at any rate their grandneices and grandnephews -- which they would not have had if the concert had gone off without a hitch.

What I wonder is whether the 70s superstar has any idea that throughout Mexico there is a chain of boutiques that almost, but not quite, bears her name. The stores in Mexico City have been around for as long as I can remember. The clothing that they sell might be considered fashionable, or even glamorous, depending which turnip truck the beholder just climbed out of.