Opera Star Pavarotti to Be Honored at Brunch on Bay

It’ll be brunch on the bay for opera star Luciano Pavarotti Jan. 3, the day before the tenor performs at a $500-per-person concert, a benefit for Opera Pacific, at the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Hosting Pavarotti--who promises to toss pasta, salad or shrimp for the affair--will be members of Opera Pacific’s prestigious Impresario Circle, those who donate a minimum of $5,000 annually.

Floss Schumacher, chairman of the board of Opera Pacific and founder of Impresario Circle, says 200 invitations have gone out to prospective Circle members (membership is limited to 40).

Planning to be on board: Impresario Circle co-chairmen Pat and Dick Allen and Nancy and Jim Baldwin (recently returned from a two-year world tour), Trish and John O’Donnell and Arlene and Dr. George Cheng.

No Lunch Bunch

Antonio Cagnolo, dashing proprietor of Antonello Ristorante in Santa Ana, played host to the high-profile types with a heart who attended the Food and Distribution Center’s annual “No Lunch Lunch” on Tuesday. In the “soup line” (an Italian vegetable-laced broth ladled up by Cagnolo himself) to remember the poor and hungry at Thanksgiving were Emma Jane and Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley; Supervisor Don R. Roth; Supervisor Roger R. Stanton with his wife, Karen; Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez; Howard Ahmanson; U. S. Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad); Donald Karcher; Judy Barry (for state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights)), and county Republican Party Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes.

Morsels

Dr. Michael V. Elam, Newport Beach cosmetic surgeon, will introduce his Creme La Vie to Orange County’s creme de la creme at I. Magnin, South Coast Plaza, on Dec. 9. The surgeon, comedian Phyllis Diller’s miracle man, says he has been concocting the formula for five years.

Elam’s latest “lift’? Actor/singer Jim Nabors. Word’s out that Gomer Pyle kept Elam’s patients in (more) stitches with jokes in the waiting room, even did some singing. . . .

Members of the private Center Club in Costa Mesa ( the place to be seen before or after-- never during--a performance at the Performing Arts Center), are wondering where service director Joe Gatto went.

Not to worry. The man who makes sure the martinis are desert-dry and the cinnamon stick is perfectly propped in the cappuccino cup will return around Dec. 5. Seems Gatto’s been busy-busy opening up the Marina City Club--like the Center Club, owned by Club Corp. of America--in Marina del Rey.

(By the way, the “A table” at the Center Club--where, in one year, the $5,000 membership fee has doubled--is the table directly in front of “Sun Glitter,” the gleaming copper sculpture by Carl Miles.)

Some heavy hitters have consented to serve on the board of governors of the new Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano, where the first, by-invitation-only, 100 memberships will sell for a snooty $50,000 each. Board members include: UCLA football coach Terry Donahue, society matriarch Athalie Clark, and Nolan Cromwell, all-pro defensive back for the L.A. Rams.

Keep it under your four-poster, but mentions of the Riviera Motel in San Clemente keep popping up in even the most polite circles. Not that the 17-year-old hideaway with the six- to eight-week waiting list is anything nouveau , but you need only a nonchalant ear to hear local professionals whisper about its “playettes”--rooms with padded floors and a swing chair.

She may be devastating as an ash blonde but Tamara Redhair--owner of Tamiro, Corona del Mar’s triple-chic boutique--will dye her mane to match her surname for the holidays. Redhair recently entertained jewelry designer Masha Archer, whose exquisite, beaded, mega-necklaces have been purchased by superstars such as Alexander Godunov for sex symbols such as Jacqueline Bisset, his longtime squeeze.

What Orange County journalist recently returned from a mini-sabbatical after penning the beginning of a roman a clef on Orange County society types?

What They’re Reading

Gen. Curtis LeMay, Newport Beach: “Red Storm Rising,” by Tom Clancy. Helen LeMay: “Heaven and Hell,” by John Jakes.

Sylvia Bishop, wife of comedian Joey Bishop, Newport Beach: “The Making of the African Queen,” by Katharine Hepburn.

Joey Bishop: “I’m reading her lips while she reads the ‘African Queen.’ Noooo, really, I’m reading: ‘How to Fall Asleep While Your Wife Is Reading in Bed,’ Noooooo. Really, I’m reading: ‘Criminal Violence, Criminal Justice,’ by Charles E. Silberman.”