Celebrities Take on Model Roles at Fund-Raising Fashion Show

“Just let her wear it home,” Bonnie Parker shouted over the din in the tent in the Beverly Hilton’s back parking lot. She was balancing her (and Jameson Parker’s) 7-month-old daughter, Katherine, on her lap, having just pulled over her head a couture-for-kiddie pink dress and managed a state-of-the-art diaper change. The two Parkers and close to 100 other moms and offspring were getting ready for Thursday afternoon’s annual Young Musicians Foundation Celebrity Mother/Daughter Fashion show.

Everywhere you looked in the hot tent were famous faces--Jaclyn Smith, Phyllis Diller, Barbara Eden, Linda Gray, Michele Lee, Shirley Jones, Sally Struthers, Alana Stewart. Also pretty faces that go with famous names--Kathy Hilton (her mother and housekeeper giving her a hand with her two bikini-clad daughters), Jane Morgan Weintraub and her trio of girls, Victoria McMahon and her dolly daughter Katherine, Anne Jeffreys Sterling.

The theme was Babes in Toyland, and it was organized with posed-for-publicity perfection that could make Oscar jealous. The moms and kids got marched past photographers, sat for quickie interviews with TV types, then into the ballroom packed with 1,200 people (even some dads) before the trip to the back-lot tent. Tina Louise and her daughter, Espree (celebrities’ children frequently have clever names or commonplace names spelled cleverly), posed for the photogs, mom in a short-shirt leather suit and daughter in white eyelet.

Backstage, the talk was very familial. “His father is a vice president,” Jayne Meadows explained to someone, as her grandchild Brandon played at her feet. “He’s very smart.” One 7-year-old, passing an 8-year-old: “Oh my gawd. You look so cute.”

Kathy Hilton stopped Wendy Goldberg, who was wearing a navy blue suit. “You should really buy that suit,” she told her. “It looks so good.” Goldberg smiled: “It’s mine.”

Then it was out to the runway. Watching from the audience: Barbara Davis, Joanna Carson, Juli Hutner, Ginny Mancini and Marianne Rogers. Backstage or on stage, the four women who put the day together--Donna Shiffren, Dona Bronson, Edye Rugolo and Margot Smith Thomas.

Jayne Meadows whipped out wearing a $200,000 lynx coat from Fendi (mouthing to the audience, “two hundred thousand”). Phyllis Diller (70 going on 45) looked fabulous with her daughter, Stephanie Waldron (and later bought the $880 sweater set she modeled). Kitty Boxleitner was a bride, as was Michele Lee (who will play the part in real life later this year).

“How much does the pink dress cost?” Bonnie Parker asked the woman from Tori Steele boutiques. When the reply was $450, the mom said, “No thanks. She’ll wear her own dress home.”

The American Film Institute Film Festival closed with a decided bang Thursday night, as celebs etc. filled the Hollywood Palladium after the premiere screening of Tri-Star’s “Amazing Grace and Chuck” at Mann’s Chinese. Stars Jamie Lee Curtis and William Petersen were there, and a large musical contingent, including former Springsteen cohort (and present anti-apartheid rocker) Steven Van Zandt, Stephen Stills, Bonnie Raitt and Tom Waits, paid studied inattention to the live band and made merry. Hollywood proper was represented by Jamie Lee’s mom, Janet Leigh; Buck Henry and Teri Garr; “Stand By Me” director Rob Reiner; Carol Kane; Stephen Collins and Elizabeth McGovern. Glimpsed: Columbia chairman David Puttnam, New World chairman Bob Rehme and “Miami Vice” moodmaster Michael Mann.