AFI Fest Is Off to a Very Festive Start

If it’s not careful, the American Film Institute won’t be a two-week film festival (such as the one that opened Thursday night) but a year-round festival.

AFI is such a regular on the social-film-cultural scene that it was no surprise when its opening of the AFI Fest (with the avant-garde “Aria”) produced a full black-tie house, a good party and a continuing appreciation of what AFI means to Los Angeles.

The evening was eclectic and exciting, with lots of established film types and scads of younger film buffs. At the after-screening party at the Twenty/20 Restaurant and Club, TV director George Schaefer announced that he was off to yet another meeting of the National Council for the Arts. He seems to always get great assignments, such as directing the last two Katharine Hepburn TV films, two with Bette Davis and “about eight with Julie Harris”--or, as he explained it, “I’m great with the gals.”

Producer-writer Lynn Roth was wearing a knockout fur coat: “It’s my ‘Paper Chase’ coat, so it only looks expensive.” Remy-Martin Amerique’s Arthur Novell (they underwrote the party) rushed by in his trench coat, while British Vice Consul John Houlton seemed to float by. No wonder. He had attached a black balloon to the sling protecting his arm and separated shoulder. But indeed, he and British Consul General Donald and Elizabeth Ballentyne were very present, because “Aria” with its British roots is part of UK/LA. “Aria” producer Don Boyd was also very present.

In the crowd, Grover and Judy McKean, producer Pat Yorkin, actress Joanna Cassidy (giving AFI Director Jean Firstenberg a quick catch-up on her upcoming film appearance in Steven Spielberg and Bob Zemeckis’ “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”), a very happy Sheldon Adelson (the head of the Interface Group, the sponsors of the AFI Fest), Larry Hagman, Judge Reinhold, MCA’s Tom and Peggy Pollock, Anita Morris (she was in the Julien Temple sequence in “Aria”) and Lois and Arnold Pizer with a large retinue of Swedish film makers in tow, all getting ready for “The New Sweden” program on films that will accompany the visit of the King and Queen of Sweden, who will arrive in L.A. next Monday.

HEADING WEST--Herb Hutner serves as chair for the President’s advisory committee for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But Herb and his wife, Juli, know that nobody cares about the arts the way Los Angeles does. So, for April 30, they’ve put together the premiere West Coast benefit for the Kennedy Center, produced by Michael B. Seligman in association with the Jules and Doris Stein Foundation. It’s “Hollywood Salutes the Kennedy Center Honorees,” who are those top-flight representatives of the worlds of theater, film, music and dance honored each December in D.C. Juli Hutner is the dinner chair, while Ginny Mancini has lined up the entertainment. The fete at the Beverly Hilton should put together the crowd we love best: a little politics, a little show biz, a little bicoastal and a large amount of talent.

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE--Invites are pouring in. Top of the list: The Auxiliary of the Hathaway Children’s Services celebrates “50 Beautiful Years” with a party at the Beach Club April 28. The cocktails and dinner will highlight lots of goodies from Saks Fifth Avenue, including a showing of fine jewelry from designer Joan Boyce and a formal fashion show featuring the Best of Saks. Anne Stansfield is the benefit chair, Liz Sides is president of the board, Lucy McBain is the patron chair and Julie Andrews has signed on as the honorary chair. Hathaway was founded in 1919 as a residential treatment center for severly emotionally disturbed and abused children. . . .

The League of Women Voters honors feminist-activist Dorothy Jonas and businesswoman Caroline Ahmanson at their Women of Honor luncheon April 27 at the Beverly Wilshire. . . .

Please don’t forget that the annual SHARE (Share Happily and Reap Endlessly) Boomtown show is set for May 21 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It’s the 35th anniversary for this extraordinary group of women. Miriam Nelson Meyers and Walter Painter are this year’s choreographers; she’s also one of the five original members of the group. The others? Sheila MacRae, Marge Chandler, Joy Orr and Gloria Frank. They quickly signed up Jeanne Martin and Paula Blythe and from then on it was fund-raising history.