There’s No Need to Take Aging on the Chin

Thank you, Elizabeth Taylor.

Your “chin tuck” announcement last week helped women feel better about keeping their chins up.

Two women, anyway. Two dynamite Newport Beach women--both swimming dead center in the mainstream, both highly intelligent and both committed to maintaining vitality for their lifetimes.

“It influenced my diet, my exercise program and helped me give up alcohol.”

She says the surgery, performed by Newport’s Dr. H. George Brennan, made her take a hard look at the rest of her body. “I take better care of myself now. I look in the mirror and think, ‘You don’t look so bad for an old bag.’ ”

Owner of Mead Travel Services in Huntington Beach, she is researching the youth spas of the world. “I’ve been to Mexico, Tucson, northern Italy and next, Hawaii. I believe in taking care of myself.”

And Mead has a diet-maintenance program she swears by: “I eat a hearty breakfast, share my lunch with a friend and give my dinner to an enemy.”

“In this day and age, women should be helped by any means they choose, and that includes plastic surgery,” says Hood, who lives with her husband, Bill, beside Newport Bay. “It’s important for your self-esteem to look as good as you can.

“Yes, I’ve had it done. And frankly, I think half the people in Newport Beach my age have. Life is to enjoy. We need to remember that it’s all right to look good in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and always. It’s all right to have a good time.”

Recently, Hood, who like Mead is an ardent supporter of Chapman College, became a partner in Promotional Concepts Inc., a company that sells pricey gift items.

Big Canyon’s Stephen Toth, the 50-ish husband of breathtaking socialite Kit Toth, says yes, he’s going for the cream that comes in a tube, albeit conservatively. “I’ve only been at it for a short time,” he says. “The primary reason I’m trying it is I have some sun spots on my face I’m concerned about.

“So far, I’m applying the cream just to those spots. Why spread it all over if it turns out not to work at all or it does something I don’t like?”

By the way, a few locals made the very most of their trip to San Diego last weekend. After the Super Bowl, they took a little trip to Mexico where, says an insider, an anti-wrinkle cream sells for “considerably less.”

That, plus the fact that Martin is an old pal of Balboa Bay Club President Tom Deemer, accounted for a good representation of Newporters at the nuptials and elegant reception staged at the Blackhawk Country Club.

On the guest list: Monica and Tom Deemer, Balboa Bay Club owner Bill Ray, Sassy and Roger Luby, Jim and Karen Ashton, and Newport Beach Police Chief Arb Campbell and his wife, Lavonne. Two who couldn’t make it: Charlene and Hans Prager, owner of the Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach. Prager has been undergoing medical tests, and while everything “turned out fine,” he says, the couple were unable to attend.

At least one Orange Countian has received an invitation to the event. The fact that she manages the local branch of Cartier at South Coast Plaza might have something to do with it. But the sad truth is, Donna Hochschild, 32, is with child, “and I don’t think I’ll be able to go,” she wailed. “Bad timing on my part.”

Hochschild expects her baby on Valentine’s Day. And speaking of valentines, Hochschild says the hottest gift item at Cartier for that special day is a “love bracelet.”

“It’s a gold bangle with a screw motif,” she says. “It has two functional screws that come out. When you take them out the bracelet falls into two halves. It takes two people to put the screws back. That’s why it’s called a love bracelet.”

Cost for the 18-karat trinket? A mere $2,350. “Princess Caroline has one given to her by her first husband,” says Hochschild. “And Robert Wagner and Jill St. John both wear one. Robert’s was given to him by Natalie Wood.”