Cher must have been in a jungle...
Cher must have been in a jungle mood recently when she bought a leopard-print, hand-painted purse and a zebra-stripe ceramic bowl at the Taylor-Gratzer Boutique on Sunset Plaza. Soon after that, Cassandra Pierson, TV’s Elvira, bought one of artist Susan Seaberry’s hand-painted, leopard-print ottomans. Animal prints, allows the store’s Nancy Taylor, “seem to be the hot item right now.” That may change, however, when the store receives its shipment of “Impressionist shoes,” white leather pumps painted in the style of Matisse, Picasso and Gauguin by L.A.’s Lindah Lauderbaugh.
If your idea of a health club is a place to see celebrities sweat, the Sports Club/LA has a membership list for you. So far, the names include Jack Nicholson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tommy Lasorda and Germaine Jackson, and the club doesn’t open until November. Its owners, Michael Talla and Nanette Pattee of Sports Connection-founders fame, say monthly dues will range from $400 to $1,000 and facilities include press conference rooms. Sounds like a little bit of Hollywood in West L.A. (Sepulveda Boulevard at the corner of Missouri Avenue, to be exact.)
Larry Speakes, President Reagan’s deputy press secretary and a one-time p.r. man in the private sector, went to a Rodeo Drive party this week where he was guest of honor, we hear from party hostess Jo Ann Miller. She’s director of her own advertising, marketing and public-relations firm, and she tells Listen: “Larry is my mentor, since I did some coordinating work with him for the White House in 1984.” As for the party, Miller says, she’s celebrating the opening of her new Rodeo Drive office as well as honoring the man who set her on the right road with this bit of advice: “If you’re a lobbyist, be on the White House side of the Potomac.” Miller, who specializes in fashion and beauty, says she’s translated that to read: “If you’re in fashion, be on Rodeo Drive.”
Penciling in some dates on our fall calendar, we came across an invitation from Mayor Bradley. He’s hosting a fashion bash the evening of Oct. 7 at the new California Plaza. His co-hosts will be members of the Fashion Advisory Committee. It’s the sixth annual salute to the nation’s retailers, most of whom will be in town on a shopping spree to stock their stores with spring styles by L.A. designers. Along with bigwigs from all the majors (shop talk for the city’s leading department stores) and committee chairwoman Barbara Trister, we’ll be watching for designs from Jill Richards (First Lady Nancy Reagan has several of her styles somewhere in the closet) and Irene Kasmer (she tells us she’s custom-crafted clothes for Linda Gray) to Rudy Cervantes of Mickey Mouse necktie fame. Talk about rubbing elbows with the friends of the famous.
How to ring in the year 2000? With a ring (or a necklace) that has three worn-looking zeros depicting the end of the present century and three unblemished ones representing the century to come, flanking the number 2. The idea belongs to Paul Sanzenbach, a positive-thinking associate professor of sociology at Louisiana State University, who says he wanted a way to respond to all the negative talk he’d been hearing about the upcoming millennium. New York jewelry designer Tom Solow turned the notion into novelty rings and pendants made of sterling silver and 14- or 18-karat gold. Priced from $40 to $200, they’re sold by mail order from T.S. Productions Inc., 36 West 47th St., Suite 202, New York, N.Y. 10036.
The folks at Max Factor have found a new way to determine your type. “Sophisticates” are women who’d like a walk-on part in a prime-time TV show. Younger free spirits would rather appear in an MTV video. Details on the contest, called “Your Chance to Be Discovered,” can be found at your favorite cosmetics counter.
Lane Bryant, the large-size women’s retailer, is increasing its glamour quotient this fall by hiring a beauty queen as its spokesperson. Wanda Gayle Geddie is a former Miss Mississippi and third runner-up to Miss America in 1984. More intriguingly, she weighs 160 pounds and wears a Size 14. The 27-year-old is touring the country for Lane Bryant this month, and if Listen can believe company statistics, Geddie won’t have to look far for her audience: Vice President for Marketing Susie Phillips says 30 million women in the United States wear a Size 14 or larger.
The annals of makeup videos will be one stronger when one-time Wonder Woman Lynda Carter comes out with a how-to tape in time for Christmas. The actress says her tape, tentatively called “Lynda Carter: Secrets to the Perfect Makeup,” will illustrate personal makeup tricks, like using the palm of her hand as a palette and applying blush to ears and shoulders when those areas are exposed. She says she opts for a soft, smudged-makeup look lately--except when she wears no makeup at all. “Unless I’m going out,” Carter says, “I like to keep my skin really clean and breathing.”
