Aloha for Music Center Benefit

“Just casual clothes. No black tie.” You can’t beat that for $25,000, said Nancy Olson Livingston, the Music Center’s 25th anniversary chairman. She was referring to the once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Hawaiian island of Lanai hosted by David H. Murdock, chairman of Castle & Cooke Inc.

For the affair, 50 couples will donate $25,000 to the Music Center’s 25th anniversary. The reward is three days of relaxation at Murdock’s new luxury resort, The Lodge at Koele, when it’s completed.

Who’s going?

So far, Marion and Earle Jorgensen, Arianna and Michael Huffington, Lois and Robert Erburu, Roy and Lila Ash, Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson, Dan and Mia Frost, Sally and Robert Hunt, Joseph G. Hurley, Lod and Carole Cook, Frank Sherwood, Annette and Peter O’Malley, Robert and Elizabeth Laverty, James and Sally Thomas, Joseph Hurley, Ernestine and R. Stanton Avery.

IN THE MAIL: Invitations are out for the John Wayne Cancer Clinic Auxiliary’s Odyssey Dinner honoring James F. Montgomery, chairman and chief executive of Great Western Financial Corp. He’s been named outstanding chief executive officer in the savings and loan industry for the past six years by the Wall Street Transcript. The dinner will be April 8 at the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom.

WEDDING BELLS: Linda Payne, senior vice president of Trust Services of America, and Jeffrey Smith, an attorney with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, were married at the home of her parents, Nancy and Frank Payne, in Pasadena. The next evening the Paynes feted the couple at a cocktail buffet. It’s a second marriage for both; they’ll live in Pasadena.

OSCAR MAGIC: The Visiting Nurse Assn. of Los Angeles marks its 50th anniversary and expects to recapture the nostalgia of those early Hollywood days at a black-tie Oscar Night Party Wednesday in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt. The hotel was the site of first Academy Awards banquet in 1927, says VNA-LA board chairman Peter Chiarella. Appropriately, Charles (Buddy) Rogers, who had a starring role in “Wings,” a film which was an Oscar winner at that first 1927 ceremony, will be honored. . . .

More on Oscar Night. Tickets are $500 for the second annual viewing and celebration of the Academy Awards at the Mondrian Hotel to benefit Youth at Risk, Better World Society, L’Ermitage Foundation and Celebrity Outreach Foundation. Robert Mitchum and his granddaughter Cary Mitchum are co-chairs. . . .

And more that night. Actors Center has its first People’s Academy Awards Celebration, on stage at the center, which trains actors.

LONDON: Shirley MacLaine was on stage at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts black-tie soiree in the Great Room at Grosvenor House across from Hyde Park on Sunday evening, among the 1,500 ritzy attendees who saw Sir Alec Guinness receive the coveted BAFTA Award, presented by Sir David Lean. Also among the crowd, Anne Collins, former Angeleno appointed by President Reagan to be the United States’ liaison to the industry, and pretty blond Carol Adams of the Savoy and Claridge hotels in London, who’s a frequent Los Angeles visitor.

HONORS: Corporate attorney and benefactor Francis M. Wheat, senior partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, will be in the honor spot when the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles hosts its fourth annual Maynard Toll Luncheon on April 5 at the Biltmore. Luncheon chairs are James R. Ukropina and George G. Gregory with aid from Robert S. Warren, Jack Stutman, Edward Sanders and Barbara Yanow Johnson.

In addition, John Frederick Libby of Munger, Tolles & Olson will receive the Associate’s Award for his pro bono work. Proceeds will help support the Maynard Toll in Propria Persona Counseling Center, which provides free emergency assistance to indigent clients. Toll, a civic leader and senior partner with O’Melveny & Myers, died last year.

MAJOR MOVERS: The powers of the entertainment industry are supporting the American Cinematheque’s 4th Moving Picture Ball on Saturday at the Century Plaza. Already 800 insiders are booked, say co-chairs Fay and Frank Mancuso (chairman of Paramount Pictures), Ann and Bruce Ramer (entertainment attorney), Jane and Terry Semel (president of Warner Bros. Pictures).

The ball honors Steven Spielberg. Honorary chairs for the night will be actress/civic leader Lorraine Gary Sheinberg and Sid Sheinberg, president of MCA. Working with them are film maker Sydney Pollack (Cinematheque chairman) and entertainment attorney Peter Dekom.

More on the benefit committee are Leonard Goldberg, Susie and Ted Field, Melissa Mathison and Harrison Ford, Donna and Dan Aykroyd, Holly and Jim Brooks.

NEW LAUNCH: The California Special Olympics is launching a multimillion dollar endowment fund effort and the initial presentation comes Thursday at Ma Maison Sofitel when Susan Stein and Mark Hales clue individuals and corporations into the intricacies of giving.

This follows last week’s one-year anniversary of the Friends of the California Special Olympics support group headed by Dr. Richard Schachter. About 250 celebrated in Ma Maison’s Opus Ballroom, energized by the pleas of Los Angeles Lakers superstar A. C. Green and Rafer Johnson, president of CSO.

KUDOS: Nancy Malone and Linda Hope (executive producers of “There Were Times, Dear,” a film on Alzheimer’s) will be among receiving recognition at the Alzheimer’s Assn. of Los Angeles annual awards luncheon Friday at the J. W. Marriott in Century City.