March Winds Blowing In More Parties

Everybody’s partying this week. Mayor Tom Bradley’s supporters partied at $2,500 a head. Now-he’s-a-record-mogul Jerry Weintraub partied in his vice presidential tent (last used for a George Bush celebration). Even downtown lawyers and judges partied.

A big blast that will be announced this week is the monthlong Downtown Renaissance. Mayor Bradley will declare March the month of Renaissance as soon as he finishes declaring for governor. Lots of happenings--the First L.A. Marathon on March 9, the Downtown Women Center’s Walkathon on March 16, the Blessing of the Animals on March 29, the opening of the Seventh Street Market Place, and, the big fancy-dancy bash, the grand reopening of the redone Biltmore. More than 1,000 brand-name types--civic leaders, celebs, etc.--will gather late in the afternoon March 16 in black-tie or Elizabethan costume for partying throughout the elaborately restored Renaissance-style hotel. Horses and heralds and even Queen Bess--the party is proclaimed An Evening with Queen Elizabeth at Court--will be present, as will more than 100 performers. Bradley has invited four mayors--New York’s Ed Koch and San Francisco’s Dianne Feinstein (whose predecessors were present in 1923 when the hotel first opened) and Washington’s Marion Barry and Chicago’s Harold Washington.

SIGNIFICANT SEND-OFF--For $2,500 a head, the black-tied Bradley boosters got a fancy five-course meal Sunday night--and a chance to spend yet another $1,000 for a serigraph depicting Bradley’s life by Olympic artist Melanie Taylor Kent. The mayor kidded that the artist had studied his life so well she “even knew what kind of panties I was wearing,” then laughingly amended it to “athletic shorts.” Ex-athlete Bradley is many times in the painting--once as a runner--and is surrounded by people and images of his terms as mayor. The Biltmore’s Bernard Jacoupy had arranged for the preview of the redone Rendezvous Court, and gathered around for political chat were real-estate developer Allan and Dorothy Jonas, UAW’s Bruce Lee, and those active in raising money for Bradley’s gubernatorial campaign--finance chair Ron Lushing, Bateman Eichler’s Ira Distenfield, longtime supporter Sol Marcus (he’s a consultant to developers) and attorney Cynthia Maduro Ryan. Attorney Kathleen Brown (Rice before wedding Van Gordon Sauter) was in from O’Melveny & Myers’ New York office and came with Gil Ray, a partner in the firm. AFL-CIO county chief William Robertson and Dredsen Graham chatted over dinner with Gene La Pietra. Irene Tritschler, again the statewide finance director for Bradley’s gubernatorial campaign, said the $200,000-plus raised by the evening meant that more small but high-ticket events would be set for the future.

BACK IN THE TENT--A little different crowd from his party for Vice President George Bush, but Jerry Weintraub was nonetheless his usual genial host. The tent--built on a platform over the swimming pool at the Beverly Hills estate of Weintraub and spouse, Jane Morgan Weintraub--had the same red-white-and-blue carnations hanging above, but below--the rock ‘n’ roll business. Weintraub’s co-hosts were CBS Records execs Walter Yetnikoff and Al Teller and the party celebrated the new UA Records label and its prexy, Jerry Greenberg (CBS will distribute the new label). Chasen’s Tommy Gallagher made sure the chili was hot, and James Caan (an old friend of Weintraub’s from when they studied acting in New York) joined folks like Bruce and Linda Jenner (still separated, but friends) and Victoria Principal, with her little tall sister, Kim Alexia, a singer. Tony Curtis, introduced to the Weintraubs’ young daughter Jodie, took one look at the little beauty and declared: “She’ll be the fourth Mrs. Curtis.” United Artist’s Sid Sapsowitz, looking at the rented tent, said: “I’ll buy it for Jerry if he’ll give up swimming.”

WELCOME HOME--Retired state Supreme Court Justice Otto Kaus, with wife, Peggy, got welcomed back to the L.A. judicial community, this time as a partner in the firm of Hufstedler, Miller, Carlson & Beardsley. Also welcomed--new partner Richard T. Morrow. Lots of lawyers, so many that even Kaus’ son, journalist Mickey Kaus, couldn’t locate his father amid the pin-striped suits. “He looks just like the rest of them,” kidded the former jurist’s wife. Several “lawyering couples” were on hand--like Seth and Shirley Hufstedler, chatting with Justice Earl Johnson and his wife, Special Assistant Atty. Gen. Barbara Y. Johnson. Also seen--Bob Carlson with his attorney wife, Maureen. Shirley Hufstedler, the former secretary of education, said her firm was becoming to law firms what Hastings Law School was to law schools--a place for very distinguished people to have more opportunities “recycling their lives.” It’s not usual for a firm to give a “welcoming party,” so law partner Patricia Phillips (the former head of the L.A. County Bar Assn.) was asked when it would happen again. “We might give another one of these when we get somebody from the U.S. Supreme Court,” she quipped.

TIGHT SCHEDULING--In a city where two or three major events occur in one day, it should be no surprise that three major “public demonstrations” are all set for March 16. It’s the Downtown Women Center’s Walkathon, beginning at 9 a.m. at the new May Co.; the National March for Women’s Lives, beginning at 10 a.m. in Century City, and the Beverly Hills St. Patrick’s Day Parade, with Carmel Quinn beginning to entertain the pre-parade crowd at 11 a.m.

DEFINITION--Our resident cynic comments: “In New York, a producer is somebody who has a show on Broadway. In Hollywood, a producer is somebody who knows a writer.”

FROM OUR DESERT CORRESPONDENTS--It was dancing in the dark at the Rancho Mirage Estate of Leonore and Walter Annenberg Saturday night. Prince Charles of England and the 40 couples who were guests at the $25,000-per-couple benefit for Charles’ pet charity, Operation Raleigh, were in candlelight after a 1975 Dodge van crashed into a power pole nearby. Electricity was gone for about 30 minutes. Sheriff’s deputies and British officials said that although a backup generator reportedly kept the 309-acre estate’s security perimeter intact, the guests who danced between courses to a live band did it in the dark.