Zsa Zsa Gabor’s daughter, Francesca Hilton, phoned...

Zsa Zsa Gabor’s daughter, Francesca Hilton, phoned in on what she is calling her “Royal Wedding Hot Line” to give us an update on Zsa Zsa’s eighth trip down the aisle. “This time it’s royalty,” Hilton says. “Frederick von Anhalt of Germany is a prince.” When the bride says “I do” next Thursday, she will be wearing fresh flowers in her hair and an off-the-shoulder blue satin dress embroidered in white, by L.A. designer Ruben Panis. Hilton adds that Julius Bengtsson, a.k.a. Nancy Reagan’s traveling hairdresser, is tossing a bachelorette party for the bride-to-be the night before the wedding. And the morning after, Zsa Zsa’s taking off for Europe to start work on her next movie. As for what Hilton will wear, she says: “I’m the official photographer at the event, so I’m wearing a nice pantsuit I can walk in.”

Rumors running rampant on Rodeo Drive are that menswear retailer Jerry Magnin will open an 11,000-square-foot Polo/Ralph Lauren shop across the street from the Rodeo Collection, on property owned by Don Tronstein. The shop will reportedly carry Lauren’s menswear, women’s wear and home furnishings. Lauren’s recently opened New York shop in the old Rhinelander mansion on Madison Avenue is a smashing success, praised for both its architectural authenticity and sumptuous, home-like atmosphere. Lauren will reportedly use the same design team to create the Rodeo Drive shop. Wendy Gerber, Polo/Ralph Lauren publicity director in New York, said of the rumor: “No agreement has yet been signed between Polo/Ralph Lauren and Jerry Magnin, so any discussion is premature at this time.” Magnin concurred with Gerber, and at press time, Tronstein was not available for comment. More rumors on the Street of Retail Dreams (most of them disputed by representatives of the companies involved) have it that the Italian fashion firm of Giorgio Armani and the New York firms of Donna Karan and Anne Klein are exploring the idea of opening shops in the remaining space of Tronstein’s 45,000-square-foot property. Patti Cohen, fashion and public relations director of the Karan organization in New York, says the designer is “not considering a Rodeo Drive shop at this time.” Connie Francis, public relations director for Anne Klein, says she has not heard of a proposed shop opening in Beverly Hills, and Tomio Taki, chairman of Takihyo Inc., the parent company of Anne Klein and Co., and a partner in the Donna Karan firm, was unavailable for comment. The property in question used to contain the Cafe Swiss, a parking lot, Hediard of Paris and Williams-Sonoma.

We hear from “Nicholas Nickleby” player Jane Carr (you may remember her as Fanny Squeers) that she shopped on Melrose Avenue and bought four dresses in one boutique. At Neo-80, she tells Listen: “I found the dresses I’d been looking for all over the world.” There are four, including a cocktail dress with a sweetheart neckline and a taffeta evening gown with a ‘50s flair. She needs them because she loves to dress up, she says, and adds: “We didn’t realize how often we’d be invited out to dinners and parties in Los Angeles.” Carr has also been to the Beverly Center but found so many things to chose from, she couldn’t decide what to buy. “I was overinspired,” she says.

To be born a Benetton means clothes in the closet. Daniela and Franca Bertagnin, whose mother, Giuliana Benetton Bertagnin, is one of the principals of the Italian sportswear firm, prefer T-shirts, denims, sneakers and lots of jewelry. That’s what the teen-agers wore for knocking around Los Angeles recently. Listen ran into them at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, where they stayed for sightseeing after taking summer fashion courses in New York. Switching from English to Italian and back again, the sisters said they would look up lots of Benetton stores on their visit--a feat, considering there are 475 in this country. Both said they plan to join the family business--and already they’re developing an eye for fashion. They noted, for example, they can spot an Italian male on any street by his clothes. “The Italian guy in the U.S.,” says Franca, 17, “really likes to wear color. Lots of color.” Next she’ll apply her spotting skills in Germany, where she and Daniela, 16, plan to stay for a month “to practice our German.”

For those people who can’t remember what to do with the bottles and jars of creams and cleansers they’ve just bought at the store, Vera Brown has a solution. The skin-care expert, who tended to the complexion needs of Ethel Bradley during the summer of ’84 when Ethel and the mayor were hosts to the Olympics in Los Angeles, is now packing an audiotape with her starter skin-care kit. Right in there next to the clay masque, the honey-and-almond scrub, collagen (“Please refrigerate”) and heaven knows what else, Brown has slipped a few prerecorded words about her “Skin Care Regimen & Relaxation Break.” She’s supplying the kit at her Tarzana shop, Vera’s Natural Beauty Retreat.

So you want to be a writer? Well, try penning 150 words predicting “fashion in the year 2006,” and perhaps you’ll win a seven-day trip to Paris, courtesy of Nordstrom. Store execs tell Listen that entry forms for the essay contest will be available in Los Angeles and Orange Country stores starting Sept. 4.