Got the Word on the QT

Lauren Bacall walked purposefully through the Brentwood Country Mart the other day, looking for a certain fashion magazine. Which one, Listen wondered, following closely but quietly behind the star. Bacall’s outfit--a man-tailored stripe shirt and white pants--should have been the tip-off. But who would have guessed before she found what she was looking for? It turned out to be the the latest issue of GQ, the menswear magazine.

Allyce Babies Her Skin

What does a woman ponder in the last days of pregnancy? Actress Allyce Beasley, who gave birth to son Andrea Joseph Sunday morning, seems to have had her mind on skin care. Just days before the birth, Beasley dispatched her husband, actor Vincent Schiavelli, to the Georgette Klinger Salon in Beverly Hills to pick up several items in her home skin-care program. Maureen Dunbar of the salon tells Listen that the “Moonlighting” actress called ahead with a lengthy list of needed products, including facial masks, cleansing lotion, eye cream and moisturizer. Schiavelli ran the errand like any dedicated spouse, saying of his wife: “She has to have her things.”

People in Glass Houses

Lee Brevard, jewelry designer to the stars, has pioneered a new kind of perfume bottle. He tells Listen his innovation features real diamonds, rubies and sapphires blown into the glass of bottles he’s had made by glass blower Bruce Freund in Inglewood. Brevard, who’s been known to create brooches, earrings and rings for the likes of Cher and Elizabeth Taylor, won’t tell us if he graced Hollywood’s Queen Elizabeth with one of the new, jeweled bottles. It would make good sense if he did, however, because Taylor now has a fragrance of her own to fill it with.

One for the Books

Listen caught sight of Robin Givins, one of the brainy kids on “Head of the Class,” and asked her what she’s been wearing lately. She says she’s usually dressed in Ralph Lauren sportswear on her TV sitcom. But the real Robin’s fashion taste is another story. (We noted her shiny boxer short-shorts and her closely fit T-shirt.) Fall fashion, in Givins’ book, is going to be “tight and short or big and funky.”

New-Age Price Is Right

Having read Shirley MacLaine on the subject of Guatemala as a center of spiritual awakening, Listen headed down that way. And what did we find but fashion. In Antigua, Guatemala, we had close encounters of the third kind with alligator belts ($6 each), hand-woven bedspreads ($150 for one that costs twice as much in the States) and dressmakers who can copy garments for under $10. And then there was the Denburg rug and fabric factory, owned by three brothers from New Jersey. They said they hadn’t seen MacLaine, but they knew about Hollywood’s Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. He bought one of the Denburgs’ hand-loomed rugs for his house in Washington, Eliot Denburg told Listen.

Paloma Means Business

Paloma Picasso is about to expand her fashion empire yet again, by adding accessories and leather goods to her list of designer products. With her husband-business partner, Rafael Lopez-Sanchez, she’ll show her premiere collection of handbags, belts and scarfs in the spring, under the R and P Concepts label. For a touch of California flare, Picasso named Sonja Caproni, former vice president of fashion at I. Magnin in San Francisco, as president of the new company. Now there’s Picasso jewelry (for Tiffany), fragrance (for Cosmair Inc.) and sunglasses (for Optyl Ltd. as of fall), as well as the accessories. Can Picasso fashion collections be far behind?

Setting Stage for Romance

So you stayed in town Labor Day weekend. Not actress Delta Burke. The cast member of TV’s “Designing Women” escaped to Honolulu for a three-day weekend with boyfriend-actor Gerald McRaney of the “Simon and Simon” series. The couple met a few months back on the set of her show, where McRaney guested in the role of one of Suzanne Sugarbaker’s ex-husbands. For the Hawaiian getaway, Listen hears from a Burke associate that the actress packed a characteristically bright wardrobe, including a fire-engine red cinched-waist dress, hot pink-and-black blouse with tight black pants and some other Hawaiian prints. Burke’s weekend luggage count? One large suitcase, a carry-on bag and a separate makeup case.

Hello, ‘Dolly’

“With hair and heels, she’s probably 5 feet 8,” says designer Tony Chase of his latest charge, Dolly Parton, whose musical variety show “Dolly” premieres later this month. Chase, who also has costumed singer Patti LaBelle, has been working all summer on outfits for the country singer. He tells Listen that Parton will wear about a half-dozen costumes per show--many veering from the familiar brassy-blonde image. “You can put her in anything: punk, glamorous, down home,” Chase reports. “I always refer to her as my dress-up doll.”