USA for Africa Planning Event That’ll Top ‘World’

USA for Africa is trying to pull off a first-ever event that will top the success of “We Are the World.” Organizers, headed by superpromoter Ken Kragen, are trying to keep the lid on, but with a hoped-for 8 million people involved in a nationwide event, an announcement has to come soon.

GIRL’S BEST FRIEND--Boxing fan Farrah Fawcett and steady Ryan O’Neal were just like any young couple out for a date at the fights Sunday at the Hollywood Palladium, watching Olympic gold medal winner Paul Gonzales score a win over Jose Torres. The slender blond actress must be pretty strong herself. How else could she hold up the little American flag with the weight of all those knock-out seemingly diamond bracelets on her left wrist?

THE NEXT HURRAH--President Reagan makes his first post-surgery big-time appearance outside the White House on Thursday night at a $1,000-a-plate benefit for the California Republican Party. Arriving at the Century Plaza at 6 p.m., the President meets briefly with stalwart GOP types and old friends--like Earle Jorgenson, Henry Salvatori and dinner co-chair Margaret Brock. She put together 31 supporters who gave $10,000 each toward the dinner and became Founders of the new GOP state headquarters in Burbank named for the President. And she’s still looking for another $500,000, since only the Founders’ contributions go to the building, while the bulk of the $1 million raised by the dinner goes to the general state party fund. At 6:30, Reagan addresses the 1,000 folks who each paid at least $1,000 to hear him. Then, at 7 p.m., he and Mrs. Reagan head over to the nearby home of her good buddy, Betsy Bloomingdale, for a very intime gathering. The President’s abbreviated stay at the black-tie fund-raiser, insiders say, was arranged long before the surgery and his recuperation time at the ranch.

SUPPORT--New York Gov. Mario Cuomo hasn’t heard it yet, but he’s picked up some strong support in California. UC regent and persistent liberal Stanley Sheinbaum is going to sign on for any Cuomo presidential effort. “He’s the only Democrat in sight with sufficient appeal to win,” said the Westside rainmaker, an expert in getting those money clouds to open up. In October, Cuomo is set to be in L.A. for a large fund-raiser--but this cash goes for his gubernatorial race in ’86.

MADONNA MADNESS--Or maybe it’s Sean Penn. For sure, the wedding tonight has set off paparazzi fever (although the common refrain from older entertainment types is, “I didn’t know they were that big”). Last weekend, they looked like any ole young couple, shopping at the Brentwood Country Mart in their muscle shirts--Penn sporting an upper-arm tattoo. At a pre-wedding dinner party Saturday night, guests got to see Madonna cuddled up on the groom’s lap all evening. Security for the wedding is so tight that the 200-plus guests had to call Thursday to find out the site of the party. The glitz-trade rumors, such as that floral centerpieces are being built around spike-heeled shoes, continue to flow. Such a PR rush seems surprising, one prospective partygoer said, when only half the guest list showed up several months ago for Madonna’s party at the London Club following her appearance at the Universal Amphitheater, “and the biggest name there was David Lee Roth.”

POLI SIGH--With so much lineage as to who from out-of-state is running which Democrat’s campaign, please note that local political whiz Ron Smith has signed on to run Rep. Ed Zschau’s campaign for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination . . . and here’s a mighty boost up for Republican Rep. Dan Lundgren. Reagan intimate Henry Salvatori has signed on to Lundgren’s senatorial steering committee.

DELIGHTFUL DIGS--When real estate magnate Howard Ruby flung open the doors of his Bel Air Italian villa Monday night in a “thank you” for supporters of Sen. Pete Wilson, even the blase blanched. Put together over the past four years--and kept very out of the public eye--the stunning mansion is awash with goodies, like an onyx bathroom, a garden carved out of a tennis court (yep, in that order) and marble and luxury everywhere. “My wine cellar has everything but cobwebs,” Ruby kiddingly told Lynn Wasserman and Don Livingston. Wasserman retorted, “Don’t worry. We’ll just send some painters over from the studio, and they’ll give you cobwebs.”

LOOK FOR . . . invites to a huge Hollywood benefit supporting the Sanctuary Movement and the 12 clergy and laity awaiting trial in Arizona for using their churches to harbor what they call political refugees from Central America. Putting it together are producer Sarah Pillsbury (“Desperately Seeking Susan”), Patricia Hill, Linda Hunt and Josh Baron. . . . Mulholland Tomorrow, the legal defense fund dedicated to “saving the Mulholland corridor,” is planning a benefit concert Sept. 18 at the Universal Amphitheatre. The audience could have as many stars as the stage, since this brand-name neighborhood group includes folks like Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Donna Mills. On stage, a show that reportedly includes Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Stevie Nicks.

PUDDING PRIZE--Those Harvard types always have time for Hasty Pudding Theatricals. And alum Puddingers will get together Oct. 26 at the Beverly Wilshire for “Putting On the Pudding,” a one-night reprise-review of some real class acts to raise scholarship funds. Produced by Ciji Ware and chaired by Suzanne Marx and Anne Murphy, the evening’s tentative lineup includes Jack Lemmon in a number from the ’46 show, Fred Gwynne and Alan Jay Lerner from 1939’s “Fair Enough.”

MOVING ON--The Boy Scouts are looking for a new Scout Executive for their L.A. Area Council now that John Claerhout announced he’s leaving Oct. 1 to become top scout in the Greater New York Council.

STAR RANCH--George Lucas will give outsiders a first look at the first phrase of his new ranch-movie production complex in Marin County. When all phases are completed (sometime in this millennium) the reported tab will be $80 million. No word on whether still-best friend Linda Ronstadt will be on hand.

RANDOM READINGS--The new book on the Reagans, “Ronnie and Nancy, a Very Special Love Story,” by their literary agent Bill Adler, contains 11 pages of conversation from their first date. Amazing--especially since the date happened long before pocket tape recorders. . . . This year’s book designed to bring out the greed in everyone is Stuart Jacobson’s “Only the Best.” Jacobson, from Dallas and New York, just knows everybody, and he’s asked them all what their best gift is. A sample: The christening cup David Niven Jr. got from Noel Coward was a cocktail shaker.

STARTIME--They love him in L.A. But now, Chuck Pick of Chuck’s Parking--”I’ve been parking for a quarter of a century. Some people work the room. I work the streets”--is going national. October’s Vanity Fair--in which the folks from the East will write about the life styles of folks from the West--is set to feature a profile of Chuck, by none other than Dominick Dunne. Wonder who’s doing the expected pieces on Rodeo Drive and the Marina singles bars?

WHAT’S YOUR SIGN--Folks most worried about what the stars hold are Capricorns--at least they are the people most using the “Call Jeane Dixon Horiscope Phone Service.” Most calls on the toll-number come in between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. (So that’s what those Capricorns are doing at the office!)

SCRATCH SAN FRANCISCO--Tony Bennett might have left his heart in S.F., but he’s giving his artistic bent to L.A. An amateur painter (under the name Anthony Benedetto), the singer is working on a portrait of Mayor Tom Bradley. The mayor will catch Tony’s other talent at the Westwood Playhouse during his late August-early September run. Bennett will L.A. debut “City of Angels,” the new anthem penned by Fred Astaire.

FASHIONABLY--The fashion designer Hiroko Koshino opens a boutique at the Rodeo Collection Sept. 5, all to benefit the Venice Family Clinic. . . . Sept. 11, the Amanda Foundation, which places homeless animals, holds a star-stuffed fashion show at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Putting on the dog on the runway, with fashions from Holly Harp and Jerry Magnin, are Catherine Oxenburg, Cheryl Ladd, Loretta Swit, Gregory Harrison, Jamie Farr, Tony Danza, Melissa Gilbert, George Chakiris and Maud Adams. “Class Reunion’s” Shelly Smith is chairing the benefit.

HERE’S ED--It’s been 35 years since Ed McMahon first went on TV, as co-host of “Take 10” back in Philadelphia. His wife, Victoria, buddies Ginny and Bob Newhart and Mary Ann Mobley and Gary Collins, plus lots more celebrate at a black-tie anniversary party Thursday night at the Bistro Garden.

CHANGE OF VENUE--The invitations still aren’t in the mail, but the Sept. 19 benefit for Aids Project L.A., originally set for the Century Plaza, has sold out. So organizers of the black-tie bash--featuring dozens of stars, like Diahann Carroll, Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Reynolds and Burt Lancaster--are moving the party to the Bonaventure downtown. The Century Plaza holds up to 1,800, but the Bonaventure will hold 2,800--and all those additional seats could go before one invite goes out, says Bill Melamed, who is putting the benefit together.