Nancy Reagan Slated for Q and A on Family Topics

The Music Center’s Blue Ribbon will prove its social potency when Nancy Reagan meets the 650 women members in a “family” question-and-answer program March 1.

One Reagan friend, Marion Jorgensen, a founding member of Blue Ribbon, will chair the Q-and-A session in the Mark Taper Forum and the luncheon following in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Blue Ribbon president Joanne Kozberg had the news at Wednesday’s “Bravo, Oscar” show of Oscar de la Renta fashions and luncheon--which put a flashy runway down the center of the usually formal Founders’ room and put the Blue Ribbon back in a strong social spotlight. With a family tradition of volunteer service behind her, Kozberg has a combination of arts work and political experience--clearly seen in the more decisive, more high-powered events that are being scheduled for this, her first year in the presidency.

Gastronomic Success

She had asked Dorie Pinola and Joni Smith to chair the event, which brought more than 100 De la Renta creations from Neiman Marcus (N-M’s John Martens was there with his Blue Ribbon member wife, Bridget), along with Jerry and Syd Shaw, who own the De la Renta fashion house.

And, hurrah! After years of complaints about the food produced in-house at the Music Center, the gastronomic tide has turned and the salmon coulibiac (that means fish wrapped in a pastry) was pronounced just swell, with kudos to the party chairmen.

Among the very fashionable crowd--Jean Smith (who said it was the “prettiest fashion show” in a long time), former Blue Ribbon presidents Nancy Livingston and Keith Kieschnick, advertising exec Adrienne Hall, Roz Millstone, Judy Carlin, Carole Kaye and Gloria Holden (seated next to the runway in what looked like identical yellow outfits), Florence and Marion Malouf, Ruth March and her daughter Nancy Vreeland, Dona Kendall, Armani’s Wanda McDaniel Ruddy, best friends Mimi Meltzer and Loraine Sloan (who, because of “lottery seating,” for once did not share a table), Annette O’Malley, Barbro Taper, Peggy Parker, Raylene Meyer, Betty Ann Koen, Geri Brawerman, Kati Domyan, and, among the few who could wear the more revealing fashions, Mary Milner, Debbie Lanni and Debbie Tellefson.

There had been a rush for tickets--but Kozberg said that the fire marshal had closed down the seating at 260. Too bad, because everyone had a wonderful time.

And only Blue Ribbon members, no guests, no hubbies, can attend the Nancy Reagan morning.

KUDOS, FRANK--Frank Sinatra, that is, who Wednesday night was honored with the Will Rogers Award at the Beverly Hills Diamond Jubilee Gala.

If you weren’t invited, you can catch it on TV in February--but pity poor George Schlatter, the show’s producer, who probably is going to have to leave the best bits on the cutting room floor.

“None of this can be used on television,” Don Rickles announced, well into his act. “Who cares? George Schlatter is looking for anything. Two minutes. Six seconds.”

Sinatra’s buddies just had too good a time at the black-tie gala--George Hamilton, who pulled up his tux legs and did his Julio Iglesias imitation, Sinatra crony Jilly Rizzo (who announced that he didn’t usually “show up at all without a subpoena”), the always glamorous Angie Dickinson, comedian Tom Dreesen (who announced, “Frank Sinatra punched every man Will Rogers ever liked”) and Sinatra himself (who turned a mix-up with cue cards into a very funny bit, including the line “Will Rogers never met Dan Rather.” (The TelePrompTer had read Geraldo Rivera, but Sinatra did a switch.)

There were Sinatra and Schlatter star buddies like Joan Collins, Lucille Ball, Paul and Ann Anka, Allan Carr, Lee Remick, Charlton Heston, Coastal Commissioner Mark Nathanson with Valerie Perrine, producer Gary Pudney with Joanne Carson, and Donna Mills with her very, very steady, Tony Coleman. There was only a smattering of Beverly Hills social types (like Ellen and Bernie Byrens, Henry and Sedge Plitt) and business types (Warren Ackerman, the Bistro’s Kurt Niklas, the Grill’s Bob Spivak, Theodore’s Herb Fink, and Don and Arletta Tronstein). And, back from Washington, Jerry and Jane Weintraub.

Ella Fitzgerald sang and brought the entire place to its collective feet.

As for glitches, the Bev Hills Hotel picked up the tab for the night but if the evening was supposed to be a public relations ploy, hurrah for the lobster appetizer but someone should have checked the veal with the coats.

Also, a guest list was released that not only gave the names of the folks who showed up but included the VIP’s who didn’t make it, like former President Gerald and Betty Ford, Mayor Tom and Ethel Bradley, Terri Garr, Fred Hayman and Sen. Pete and Gayle Wilson.

Showing up were former Ambassador Bill and Betty Wilson (he’s an adviser to the hotel’s owners, the Brunei Investment Co.) and their daughter, Marcia Hobbs, also an adviser to the hotel.

Co-chairing it all were Jackie Rosenberg and Annabelle Heiferman.

Oh, yes, and also there was Vanity Fair’s Caroline Cushing Graham, with Billy Hitchcock--who, of course, is a close relative of Tommy Hitchcock, one of the dashing polo players who long ago gave the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Polo Lounge its pizazz and personality.

PRISON PARTY--That’s right. It was the Grand Ballroom of the Regent Beverly Wilshire Tuesday night, but benefit co-chair Lynne Wasserman and the magic of the Disney studios had totally transformed it for the premiere of “Three Fugitives” benefiting the California Institute of the Arts. And, if CalArts is supposed to be unorthodox, unusual and unique, so was the party.

Gone were the banquet tables, the formality, the standard hotel fare. There was a guy with a cart with Dove bars, long buffet tables with Mexican food and fruit and cheese, waiters in prison garb. There were Western bars.

There was also a lot of political talk. That’s because Disney exec Frank Wells and his wife, Luanne, were there (and, of course, there is the constant talk that Wells will be making his first run soon for a major office), as well as back-to-Harvard Law professor Susan Estrich (the former Dukakis campaign manager) with her husband, Disney exec Marty Kaplan. (She’s commuting and spending every weekend in California.) Benefit co-chairmen Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg were on hand, but absent were co-chairmen Michael and Jane Eisner and Michael and Judy Ovitz. Too bad. They missed a great party.