With Jackie Mason on Hand, Benefit Could Be a Laugher

Jackie Mason--that rabbi-turned-comedian who delivers side-splitters such as, “You show a Gentile carrots and peas and he eats carrots and peas. You show a Jew carrots and peas and he says: ‘Wait a minute, why are there so many carrots compared to the peas?’ “--will bring his Broadway show to the Orange County Performing Arts Center on June 12 to benefit the Jewish Senior Center of Orange County.

Seventy-six tickets in the $1,000-per category have already been snatched up, and a very long line is forming.

“We’re selling tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis,” says Raya Jaffee, president of the senior center. Show tickets at that heady price include a posh, black-tie dinner at the Center Club and the chance to mix with Mason pre-hysteria time.

(When, if you’re lucky, Mason will waltz up and tell you this one: “I grew up in a tough neighborhood. We played hopscotch with real Scotch.” Or this one: “I was so self-conscious, every time football players went into a huddle, I thought they were talking about me.”)

Concert-only tickets will cost from $50 to $250, Jaffee says, and proceeds will go toward the senior center’s operating costs, estimated at $185,000 this year. Her husband, Mel Jaffee, president of National Lumber, is event co-chairman with developer Tom Tucker.

High-profile types who have already said, “But of course” to the show and din-din: Elaine and Clifford Heinz (of ketchup fame), Elizabeth and Tom Tierney (of vitamin fame) and Judge Sheila Prell Sonenshine and her husband, Ygal.

“We need to take care of our elderly,” Raya Jaffee says of the Garden Grove center, which offers transportation, lunch and special activities to seniors. “It’s right there in the Ten Commandments: ‘Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.’

“My mother passed away 20 years ago. I feel by helping the center I am paying respect to her memory. Mel and I are blessed with a wonderful life. And we really want to reach out and touch the life of others.”

Puttin’ on the Ritz: Harry and Leona Helmsley--the billionaire and baroness of the hotel industry--were among guests at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point on Thursday night when the American Automobile Assn. presented its Five Diamond Award to hoteliers from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Helmsleys received the hallowed nod for their ultra-tony Helmsley Palace in Manhattan. The secret to operating the most glamorous gathering place this side of a Venetian palazzo? “Working,” Leona said without a second’s hesitation.

Also on the diamond list, which included L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills, was the Ritz-Carlton. Ritz general manager Henry Schielein said the secret to running a grand hotel is “an enthusiastic and best-possible staff--backing up your commitment to service.”

The grand-style evening with a Roaring ‘20s theme began with a whoosh when Robert Gourdin of France decapitated a magnum of champagne with a saber and sent its contents spilling into a pyramid of 1,000 sparkling glasses.

Dinner, dreamed up by the Ritz-Carlton staff to impress their peers, featured pheasant consomme, fresh Sonoma duck liver, New England lobster flan with asparagus tips and black Angus beef fillet.

The life of Riley: Sure ‘n’ it’s St. Paddy’s Day, but you’re not going to find Orange County’s most popular Irishman dining on corned beef and cabbage and tippin’ ale. Not even close.

County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and his wife, Emma Jane, will join close friends for dinner at the Chinese Palace in Newport Beach tonight. “I won’t be drinkin’,” Riley says, “because I don’t drink. We’re going to celebrate quietly--sounds terrible, doesn’t it?”

But Riley will be wearin’ the green. “Green trousers, green tie and green coat,” he says. Does he plan to be pinchin’ and kissin’ folks all day? “I think I’d better stick to the kissin’, don’t you?”

And for all of you, Irish or not, Riley offers his favorite Irish toast: “May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. And may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”