Holiday Vignettes Aid Human Options

The holidays are upon us; for entertaining people, that means bringing out our holiday best--our best china, our best plates, our best stemware.

But “holiday best” means different things to different people, as was made clear by the 14 vignettes displayed as part of “Entertaining People,” four events at the Irvine Hilton and Towers last weekend. The series, which benefited Human Options, a shelter for battered women and their children, focused on the holiday traditions of notable Orange County families.

Bob and Martha Fluor, for instance, most enjoy “6:15 Christmas Morning,” while Emma Jane Riley cherishes “After Mass Midnight Supper” with her husband, county Board of Supervisors Chairman Tom Riley.

For home builders Robert and Lori Warmington, the holidays mean “An English Christmas Tea,” complete with trompe l’oeil effects; for developer Kathryn Thompson, an elegantly understated “Oriental Christmas,” and for marketing company president Vince McGuinness and his wife, Joy, a dramatic “Family Christmas in Sun Valley” complete with simulated snow.

“This has been the most complicated thing I’ve ever gotten involved in,” confessed Entertaining People benefit chairwoman Donna Devine, at the Preview Night gala Friday. “You start out trying to get all the hostesses, then they’ve got to get designers, then you’ve got to get the program together, which means all the hostesses have to be interviewed and have their pictures taken--it’s endless.”

Response to the various affairs was off as much as 100 attendees from expectations, according to Katharyn Sherman, director of catering at the hotel. The series included the gala preview dinner-dance, attended by 200, and luncheons Saturday, Sunday and Monday featuring, respectively, Marlene Sorosky, author of “The Dessert Lover’s Cookbook,” KABC talk show host Michael Jackson and Irvine Co. fashion merchandise manager director Kitty Leslie.

But if numbers were down, sales at the “Entertaining People” boutique were up: $50,000 was generated for Human Options, according to Devine. A big hit were “Huggit” dolls: When you hug them intently enough, they vibrate.

According to its executive director, Vivian Clecak, Human Options currently houses nine children and seven women. Clecak said there has been one major change in the last year--”We’ve doubled our size”--but there have been others: In addition to its hot line and counseling programs, the shelter is now taking its nonviolent message into the high schools.

“We’re trying to teach people when they’re 15 and 16 years old that you don’t need to hit or be hit,” explained Clecak, “that you can say you’re mad without getting physical, or (say) that you don’t like something before you get so upset that you go bang. “

Door prizes included your weight in chocolate truffles, a popular item at benefits these days, donated by Pam Goldstein of Le Cake Laguna. “There’s no fudging on your weight or you won’t get the prize,” dinner chairwoman Hyla Bertea warned winner Ruth Ann Moriarty.

Bob Fluor, who’s won round-trip tickets to Vancouver and a trip around the Hawaiian Islands at various parties in the last two weeks, won a $500 shopping spree at Amen Wardy for his wife Martha. (Everybody had a good chuckle at the prospect of getting out of Amen Wardy for under $500.) Linda Campbell won a dress designed by Janelle Berte, which she subsequently modeled for the crowd on the dance floor.

The Sounds of Music orchestra provided music for dancing.

Vice chairwoman was Sharon Winterhalter; honorary chairwoman Gloria Deukmejian failed to show.

When a fire alarm went off Friday at the Irvine Marriott, none of the 900 women attending the Orange County Philharmonic Society Women’s Committees luncheon panicked. In fact, when the loudspeaker boomed, “Please exit the room,” they just blithely picked up their purses, their raffle tickets and their bottles of wine and did just that. “The fire drill went beautifully,” quipped Dorothy Ralston. “Were you responsible?” (The alarm was triggered by a can of Sterno in the kitchen.)

The Philharmonic Society’s executive director Erich Vollmer re-announced the recent donation of a new Music Mobile (to take music education programs to schools) by Container Corp. of America, then introduced 9-year-old violinist Corinne Chapelle, who he said would play Bach’s A-Major Concerto. (Discerning Philharmonic supporters chuckled smuggly as Chapelle proceeded to play the first movement from Bach’s much-loved A- Minor Concerto.)

According to Vollmer, proceeds from the 26th annual fashion show, called “Fantasy in Movement,” are expected to exceed last year’s all-time high of $47,000, for which event chairwoman Mary Sabatasso said she “sacrificed her body”--her Mercedes’ body, that is.

“I smashed it twice in the garage on my way to meetings,” she related. “After the second time, when I closed the garage door and smashed the antenna, my husband said, ‘Mary, I don’t think we can afford for you to do these fashion shows.’ ”

Saks Fifth Avenue’s imaginative staging included a dance sequence in which Eugenia Lane was carried in convincingly like a mannequin by Lee Wiggins, then came to life. Lane is Sabatasso’s ballet teacher. Enjoying the show were Women’s Committees chairwoman Jane Grier, committees’ executive vice chairwoman Joyce Reaume, Philharmonic Society board chairwoman Louis Knobbe and president Eva Schneider.