`Widow Of Opportunity' Faces Undiplomatic Mess -- Pamela Harriman Fights Charges Of Squandering Money

NEW YORK - Her 74 years have been filled with privilege and power, with tribulation and, some say, titillation.

Now, while she is the U.S. ambassador to France, she has become embroiled in a decidedly undiplomatic, domestic mess: a court brawl over her late husband's millions.

The life of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman is seldom humdrum.

Pamela Harriman - coincidentally or, detractors say, calculatingly - achieved a lifetime of lucrative love interests in an era when a woman's success often depended on a man. Then, last year, she stepped from behind the scenes, soaring solo with a high-profile career as the head of a major embassy.

Publicity about her family's blue-blooded backbiting could bring her crashing to Earth.

Her late husband's children and grandchildren - described as cringing at the prospect of airing their soiled, old-money laundry - are doing just that in Manhattan federal court.

Pamela Harriman and other "faithless fiduciaries," they charge, "betrayed a trust and squandered a family's inheritance" to the tune of about $30 million. Harriman says she wasn't responsible for the soured investments.

"She gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the children and grandchildren," both as advances and gifts, said her lawyer, Roy Reardon.

"These are the same children, grandchildren who have sued her," he said. "These same people who are suing her owe her millions of dollars in loans and guarantees."

NEWEST INSTALLMENT: A LAWSUIT

The latest installment: a lawsuit filed in Virginia by those heirs, who want repayment of millions they say she borrowed from trusts there.

The newspaper France Soir has called Harriman - unflaggingly energetic, astutely self-educated - "the iron lady in the silk suit." But a sometimes sizzling past is portrayed in "Life of the Party," an unauthorized biography. (Harriman began collaborating with the author, Christopher Ogden, and then changed her mind).

There were, Ogden writes, "few men . . . who would not crawl over broken glass to have Pamela."

"After a few moments spent in conversation with Pamela, those men sensed that no one else in the world existed for her," says the book.

British-born Pamela D.C.H. Harriman was an agile climber in a world of thousand-dollar cocktail dresses and living-room Picassos. She has been toasted by President Clinton, sipped tea with Raisa Gorbachev, and palled around with a host of Kennedys, from JFK on down.

So how did she get all those names? She divorced, then was widowed twice. From last to first, her husbands were:

-- HARRIMAN, Averell, the U.S. statesman and polo-playing son of a railroad magnate who aroused her involvement in - and, eventually, her sway over - the uppermost echelons of the Democratic Party.

-- HAYWARD, Leland, the Broadway and movie producer ("South Pacific," "The Sound of Music," "Gypsy") and talent agent (Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Judy Garland).

-- CHURCHILL, Randolph, the politician son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

She was born Pamela Digby, the daughter of a British baron and product of a French finishing school. By age 19, she was partying at the family castle of a friend, where Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. flocked to ride, shoot, golf and swim in a pool of filtered moat water.

A chance meeting brought her together with Randolph Churchill, who proposed on their second or third date.

When her new father-in-law, Winston, became prime minister, Pamela became a valued resource. "It seemed natural for me to be entertaining General Marshall or General Eisenhower," she once said.

She gave birth in October 1940 to Winston Spencer Churchill.

Soon, her husband's gambling plunged the family into "a financial abyss," the biography says. Pamela sold their wedding presents, got a government job, hustled dinner invitations and vowed "never to feel so helpless again."

COMFORT DURING AN AIR RAID

In 1941, while her husband was away at war, she met Harriman. The book claims they found comfort in each other's arms during and after an air raid. But duty - to country and to wife - called; he departed for the time being.

Solace reportedly was supplied, for a time, by broadcaster Edward R. Murrow.

In December 1945, Pamela was granted a divorce from Churchill, on the grounds of desertion. Still, she remained friendly with the Churchill clan.

The wags can't forget some of the widely rumored liaisons that followed: Aly Khan, son of the Muslim spiritual leader, Aga Khan; Gianni Agnelli, the billionaire Fiat heir; Elie de Rothschild, of the Chateau Lafite vineyard family.

At one point, the book says, Pamela and Gianni were the houseguests of his close friend, Count Rudy Crespi. During morning coffee with their host, Gianni, "as was his frequent habit in private in hot weather, wore nothing."

"Pamela entered, naked as well, walked straight over to Crespi and, without batting an eye, shook his hand."

She met Leland Hayward in New York; his wife, vacationing in Europe, lent him to Pamela as a theater escort. A messy divorce ensued, and Leland married Pamela in 1960.

Hayward's career turned sour, and in 1967, he became seriously ill. They sold their home and lived off their savings, and Pamela devoted herself to his care until he died in 1971. Later, one of Hayward's daughters reviled her in a book.

Friends said what happened after Leland's death was a matter of fate. Detractors, though, dubbed her the "widow of opportunity."

Within a month of Hayward's death, Pamela renewed the acquaintance of Averell Harriman, whose own wife had recently died. Within six months, they were married. She was 51; he was 79. As a wedding present to Harriman, she became a U.S. citizen.

CRAM COURSE IN FOREIGN POLICY

After Averell became President Carter's intermediary with Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, his wife gave herself a cram course in foreign policy, hired a political adviser and formed a political-action committee.

In 12 years, she raised $12 million for the Democrats. She was renowned as a matchmaker of future movers and shakers, and continued her mission after Averell died in 1986.

On June 30, 1993, she became President Clinton's ambassador to France, bringing along reminders of home: artwork for the embassy's walls.

The lawyer for Averell's children and grandchildren said the art included a $60 million Van Gogh painting, "White Roses," and contended that shipping the painting abroad indicated Harriman wanted to get valuables out of the offspring's reach.

But a judge refused last month to freeze her assets, saying that taking the art for public display at the embassy was understandable and suggested "no impropriety justifying attachment."