Homework, Then FameWhat did you do on...

Homework, Then Fame

What did you do on your summer vacation? Jennifer Easton can say she got discovered. The 14-year-old North Hollywood resident is just back from Milan with some unusual snapshots of her trip. They’re of her, modeling in the spring ’88 shows of Milan’s Romeo Gigli, Alberta Ferretti and Giorgio Armani’s Emporio collection. Easton tells Listen that the assignments came her way after an Italian modeling agent spotted her in Rome--where Easton was vacationing with her parents--and suggested she enter a modeling contest in southern Italy. The teen says she placed second in the Aug. 29 competition, which led to both runway and photo work. Jennifer, an eighth-grader at Walter Reed Junior High who keeps photos of cover girls taped to her bedroom wall, says she hopes to go back to Italy for more modeling next summer. Her father, Jack Easton, is still on the fence: “It’s a little scary--I frankly wouldn’t have recognized Jennifer in some of the photographs that were taken,” the dad says. “If Jennifer keeps her grades up, feeds the dog and bird and takes the trash out--then she can go back.”

On a Ms-sion

On the theory that power is money and vice versa, Diane Von Furstenberg, Marsha Mason and Polly Bergen, along with Marlo Thomas, Gloria Steinem and Connie Chung, are among the sponsors of the Ms. Foundation for Women’s new economic development program. The $6.3-million endowment campaign, announced Thursday night in New York, benefits nearly 500 women’s groups, ranging from artists and artisans to displaced homemakers. “As independent women, we’ve each done well,” Mason explained. “Now we’ve come together, because all women’s economic independence is our business.”

Randy, Robin Rendezvous

When Listen heard that Randy Newman and Robin Williams had a chance encounter while shopping on the Westside the other day, our interest was more than piqued. So we tracked Newman down for the explanation. Turns out the performers ran into each other first at Maxfield boutique, and later that day at Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue. Newman and Williams, who had met each other a couple of times before, merely exchanged hellos. “Then,” said Newman, “I threatened to tell Rolling Stone he (Williams) was shopping at Maxfield.” It seems the chi-chi stores don’t mesh with either’s under-dressed image. Williams, in turn, “threatened me back.”

Bowling Them Over

Meat loaf and milk shakes will take a back seat to fashion Saturday night when a ‘50s-style Halloween party is hosted by Ed Debevic, the fictional bowling champ who lent his name to the trendy diner on La Cienega Boulevard. There will be prizes every hour on the hour for best costumes in categories such as most scary, most bizarre, best couple, best ‘50s costume, best imitation of an Ed Debevic’s waiter or waitress and the best Ed Debevic himself. No need to worry if you’re not wearing the perfect Halloween face. In addition to Hoola-Hoop and Monster Mash dance contests, there will be a roving makeup artist.

Self Seller

Several of Dennis Goldsmith’s black velvet “Marilyn Monroe” sheaths have literally sold themselves. A scintillating ad in the latest issue of Elle (Page 112) sent entertainers June Pointer and Troy Beyer scurrying to the source, according to Goldsmith’s publicist, Sharon House. Beyer, who played Diahann Carroll’s daughter on “Dynasty,” will don the sexy, long-sleeve sheath for the Black Achievement Awards in November. But Pointer is wearing it to work. She ordered one for her new video (in a Size 8), then had second thoughts and ordered two more for her backup singers.

Raising Their Sights

Last Saturday’s benefit for battling retinitis pigmentosa may all have been for charity--but it wasn’t without its decadent moments. The $175-per-person dinner and 100-piece fashion show by the Torie Steele boutiques featured a covey of celebrity models, including Perry King, Dack Rambo and Michael Beck, and some dressed-to-kill women as well. The most elegant moment at the Filmland fund raiser was “when Jane Seymour came out wearing a full-length Russian lynx-belly coat (price tag: $175,000),” Tom Bruno of the boutique recalls. But what brought down the house, he tells Listen, was another heartthob: Teri Copley, blond actress from NBC’s “We Got It Made,” “walked out wearing a short summer ermine jacket by Fendi, with only her panty hose and heels.”

Who Says It Won’t Wash?

We hear so much lately about channels--no, we don’t mean Cha nels . We’re talking about spirits who speak through ordinary folk, and spread “high-minded” ideas about the art of living. We decided to look into it. Fashion, of course, was the force that led us to a Mr. Darryl Anka of Encino, who says he channels Bashar, the extraterrestrial. For once in our lives (our current incarnations, that is), we were speechless and completely forgot to mention the word fashion. But Bashar brought up a related subject on his (her?) own. Beauty, more specifically bathing, bathtubs and showers. Bashar calls them inspiration booths. Why, we wanted to know? “Remember how many thoughts and inspirations come to you while you are in, what you call, the bath or shower,” Bashar answered. “These are some of the most powerful inspiration booths you have.”

True to the Name

Tracy Bregman, a regular on “The Young and the Restless,” the TV soap, lived up to the show’s title during a Somper fur fashion show the other night. When a model walked down the runway wearing a sporty leather-and-mink suit, young Bregman got restless, couldn’t wait to buy it during store hours the next day and claimed it right then and there. Listen heard from Lois Roslin, a spokeswoman for the store, that the suit is by designer Penny Jacobs.

Tie Breaker

Listen up, you Laker fans, there’s a brand new basketball necktie, and it’s at least as, umm, unusual looking, shall we say, as any others around. This one has a basketball-and-net design on the front, along with the team name. And while it’s not exactly the height of fashion or good taste--a little gaudy--it does the job. Nobody’d wonder which team you were rooting for if you wore one of these babies to the game. We hear the manufacturer, Belle Neckwear, also makes a sports tie for every other major athletic team around. And that the Forum will carry the Laker version starting next month, for about $20.