Gen.Alexander Haig in the Social Whirl

Gen. Alexander M. Haig Jr., former secretary of state (in the Reagan Administration) and White House chief of staff during the Nixon Administration, was in town earlier in the week to attend an MGM board meeting. But right off the plane from Washington, accompanied by Sherwood D. Goldberg, the general’s partner in Worldwide Associates, a consulting firm, he was swept into a nice social whirl by Dale and Charles Snodgrass. “We promised him we’d have him back in his hotel by 11 p.m.,” said Snodgrass as the dinner party at Jimmy’s wound down at precisely five minutes to 11.

Earlier the general and Goldberg stopped off at the baronial home of Robert and Jane Kramer for caviar, champagne, and a look at the Kramers’ new bichon frise who has been named Sheba. That’s where the general had a chance to exchange views (even when he doesn’t want to make a statement, you can tell where Haig stands on an issue by his facial expressions) with Dwight and Minnie Stuart, Sachi and Larry Irwin, Leonard and Ruth Gross and Suzy (she got out of a sickbed to meet the general) and Frank Cross.

Before he settled down to his dinner (Jimmy’s salad, veal, ice cream and berries) the general did a bit of table-hopping. Over to a corner table to embrace U.S. Office of Information director Charles Wick, his wife Mary Jane, their son Doug, a movie producer, and Doug’s friend Lucy Fisher. The Wicks had Fourth of July dinner with the President and Mrs. Reagan at the White House and then accompanied the First Family to Camp David.

Morgan Mason, formerly of the State Department’s protocol office and now into all sorts of movie deals, turned 30 a few days back. He pretended to be in a panic and spent the earlier part of his birthday sprucing up his tan at the beach. And that’s where he discovered what he described as “an age spot” on one hand. Yikes.

His mother, the smart and sassy Pamela Mason, threw a birthday dinner party for her son that night and moaned. “If he tells everybody he’s 30, how old does that make me?”

Of course, they were only jesting and everybody lucky enough to be invited got a kick out of their outrageous behavior.

In the video room Gladyce and David Begelman ran into Ed and Victoria McMahon and the “Tonight” show’s producer Fred de Cordova and his chic wife Janet. Great huzzahs as Gladyce and Ed compared notes on their new grandchildren. It’s now four for Gladyce and two for Ed. Said Ed to Gladyce, thinking ahead to a possible liaison, “Will your grandson come into money?” Whispered Gladyce, “Yes.” The baby’s grandfather happens to be Lew Rudin, the New York real estate tycoon.

The dress code was informal. Janet, who was wearing Yves Saint Laurent’s white silk blouse and pants, said informal to her meant “anything that’s over a year old . . . white that’s not so white anymore.” There were guffaws from all her chums.

Dinner, served buffet style in the dining room, was consumed at tables in the patio. Morgan wandered about hand in hand with his best friend, former Go Go Belinda Carlisle. Morgan’s sister Portland sat with Dr. Mark Saginor, the diet guru who is now managing Touch, the private club; Hugh Hefner was accompanied by winsome brunette Carrie Leigh; Jacqueline Bisset and a very slim Alexander Godunov sat at a table for two. And elsewhere were literary agent Irving Lazar and his wife Mary; Greg and Niki Bautzer; Stewart Granger; Marvin Mitchelson, the palimony attorney whose date was the former Mrs. Peter Pulitzer of Palm Beach; the Dick Van Pattens; Howard Koch Jr. and Joanne Pakula. Making a grand entrance and also a grand exit--Joan Rivers with husband Edgar Rosenberg.

Musical Chairs: Luigi Leonardi, general manager of Gucci, Beverly Hills since 1982, has returned to New York where he is now executive vice president of Fred Joaillier Inc., the American branch of Fred S.A. founded in 1936 by Fred Samuel.

Mark Lamia, formerly general manager of Fred’s in Beverly Hills, has joined Sol Laykin as vice president and CEO for all the Laykin et Cie. shops in the I. Magnin stores.

And Bonnie Kyle, the new general manager of the Regency Club, is planning a very special dinner menu Friday night to show off the talents of the club’s new head chef Axel Dikkers. Dikkers was sous chef at the Regency for several years after operating his own restaurant, Camelot, in Holland. He was also a chef at the famed L’Oustau de Baumaniere where another L.A. cooking star, Wolfgang Puck, got his start.

The Fourth of July weekend was a nice long one, long enough to take in several parties (both bucolic and sophisticated), long enough to enjoy a few days of cool fog in Malibu.

When Michael Douglas, the actor-producer lived there, the Fourth of July was always party time. And the evening’s highlight was always watching the fireworks from the terrace.

This year there were no fireworks. But the house’s new residents, attorney H. Bradley Jones and his wife Mary, gave the party anyway. And no one, really, missed the Roman candles and the sparklers. The conversations were that scintillating.

In the Joneses’ group were a raft of chums--Jerry and Virginia Oppenheimer, Hillevi and David Schine, Jayne and Henry Berger (they went on to Dallas a few days later), Eric and Frances Skipsey, Alyce and Warren Williamson, Jimmy and Martha Kilroe, Claudia Mirkin, Suzanne and Dr. Joe Marx, Jack Pike, Alden and Sheila Pierce, Billie and Roger Converse. Plus, to add to the good fun--Jack Pike, Peggy Ward, Nancy and Tim Vreeland, Dee and Stuart Cramer, Coco and Frank Viault, Barbro Taper, Harold and Diane Keith, Florence and Bones Hamilton, Alfredo de la Vega, Eleanore Phillips and Joyce MacRae.

The party went on like this--hors d’oeuvres and popcorn on the terrace, buffet dinner inside (hot dogs, knackwurst, mushroom quiche, asparagus vinaigrette, vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce and brownies). All very American. Rah! Rah!

Out in Malibu at La Scala it looked like Hollywood by the Sea. Sylvester Stallone was there with his current love Bridgitte Nelson; Garry and Barbara Marshall were dining with friends; Jay Bernstein was strolling around wearing his “Mike Hammer” pin on his lapel and saying he’s “hoping to do another two-hour movie (on Hammer) and then go back into the series.” Jeff Wald was wearing a rustic cotton sporting outfit. And Marvin Hamlisch was with Cyndy Garvey as usual. Still more in the jampacked restaurant that’s across the road from the entrance to the Malibu Colony: Colony resident Toni Zellerbach Haber with attorney (and former Beverly Hills mayor) George Slaff and his wife Eve; Edward Albert; Penny Marshall; Wink Martindale; New Yorker Clint Wade (on his way the next day to visit with Fredric March’s widow, actress Florence Eldridge in Santa Barbara) with Burks Hamner and Father Maurice Chase. Jean Leon Jr. runs the place, but Dad, Leon Sr., stopped by on his way home and sat down to talk about his vineyards (near Barcelona) and his wines which just recently won silver and bronze medals in major European competitions.

To celebrate the big holiday Jacques Camus was at his Laguna Beach condo with his mother and Le St. Germain’s Paul Bruggemans and his mother; Bob and Jane Kramer were at the Donald Simons’ Malibu pad (temporary quarters while they rebuild the Beverly Hills home which burned to the ground); and Mike and Tom Kreiss, with friends and family, cavorted on the sand in front of their parents’ beachside home. Pere et mere, Norman and Eileen Kreiss, were en route from Italy to Monte Carlo, Cap d’Antibes and other joyful resorts.

Love Notes: A few days back Mrs. Richard Barton and Francis Sellers McComb were married in Newport Beach. They’ll celebrate the event with a black-tie dinner dance at Montecito’s Birnam Wood Golf Club. And on July 24 some of Patty Barton’s friends--Marji Brandeis, Paquita Machris and Dee Cramer--are hosting a ladies luncheon in honor of the bride at the Bistro Garden Pavilion.

One of our pals reports having seen Claus von Bulow of New York and Newport and his fiancee Andrea Reynolds at the Grand Hotel de la Pace in Montecatini, Italy. A little R & R perhaps. Mud baths, anyone?