Neighbors of Watts to Put on a Dazzler

Neighbors of Watts celebrates its 20th anniversary--and is putting on a show with a crowd of a dozen show-stopping stars.

The wonderful Joe Williams, writer Maya Angelou, the Ray Brown Trio, “Hollywood Shuffle,” Robert Townsend and Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. are just some of the stars who will be up on stage Saturday at the Santa Monica Civic. All the proceeds go to the South Central Community Child Care Centers and other Neighbors of Watts projects.

Started by Dixie Jewison, Dawn Wolper and Suzanne Turman, Neighbors of Watts brought together women from the entertainment community to assist a struggling organization, the Mothers of Watts. Now the Harriette Evans Shields and Ella Fitzgerald centers provide comprehensive development programs for 96 children from low-income families.

ROLLING ALONG--Everybody loves the story of the little charity that could. Cuisine a Roulettes fits the bill--and fits it now in an Ungaro gown.

Cuisine a Roulettes is the fairly young support group for St. Vincent’s Meals-on-Wheels--and one of the two primary beneficiaries of the lavish annual Spago-inspired American Wine and Food Festival. But March 2, this crowd moves into fashion when co-chairs Debbie Lanni and Eva Elkins host an Ungaro fashion luncheon at the Ma Maison Sofitel. (How perfect and how perfectly French.)

St. Vincent’s Meals-on-Wheels serves 1,100 meals daily to housebound people in Los Angeles. Nelly LLanos is the president of the group that she, with Kathy Kilroy, founded just a couple of years back, a group that now has dozens of women members, and a few fellows, like Charles Elkins and Glen Holden.

Winnie Schweitzer, a member of the group and owner of the Ungaro Boutique in Beverly Hills, has made sure that all proceeds from the lunch go to St. Vincent’s Meals-on-Wheels.

SUIT UP--Of all the annual benefits coming around the track, nothing keeps up speed like the annual Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon. This year it’s on Sunday, April 5. To kick off the proceedings, Corwin and Nanci Denney host their annual star-crowded reception honoring Stewart and the perennial marathon chair, Robert (R. J.) Wagner.

The celeb race committee includes Bob Hope, Charlton Heston, Bruce Jenner, Heather Locklear and Shirley Jones with hubby Marty Ingels. Of course Jimmy and R. J. are such swell fellows that this event annually turns out to have more famous people than photographers present (a rare occasion in Hollywood).

MORE, MORE, MORE--Concern Foundation for Cancer Research and Concern II present “A Very Special Evening With Stevie Wonder and Friends” on March 5 at the Universal Amphitheatre. . . . More stars, this time Lou Rawls, Debbie Allen and Loni Anderson, will be among those saluting Jose Feliciano on Feb. 11 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where he receives the 1989 Humanitarian Award from the Women’s Auxiliary of California Pediatric and Family Medical Center. . . .

The Golda Meir Club of Israel Bonds launches its Founders Circle with a luncheon Tuesday at the home of Barbara and Bill Belzberg--a home that just happens to be the site of the club’s first meeting a decade ago. Alice Peerce, the vice chairman of national Israel Bonds and widow of opera star Jan Peerce, will speak. . . .

When Robinson’s spring catalogue comes out, the inside cover will feature an untitled work by Sam Francis. The original work will be auctioned off this spring at an evening for art collectors, with the purchase price going to the Sam Francis Foundation for medical research on infectious and environmental diseases. Robinson’s also hosts a Feb. 23 luncheon at its Santa Monica store--this one benefiting KCET-TV. . . .

Judge Joseph Wapner and his wife, Mickey, will be honored by Alternative Living for the Aging when they receive the Sheldon Andelson Award on Sunday at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Michele and Arlen Andelson, Susan and Tom Houston and Dorothy Corwin are among the co-chairs.