He Can Decide His Political Future on a Full Stomach

Talk about power meals. Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley will have breakfast with local industry leaders today at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach. On the agenda: whether or not he should seek another term. On Monday, Riley will lunch with community leaders--same reason, same place.

“I’ll be talking from the heart,” said Riley, who has been a supervisor since 1974. “I’ll ask them: ‘Do you think I should run?’ ”

Due to health problems, Riley, 77, has been uncertain about taking on another campaign. “But recently, two doctors told me I’m in better shape now than I’ve been in five years,” he said.

“His diabetes was acting up because he’d gone off his strict diet,” said his wife, Emma Jane. “But now he’s careful about what he eats and feels like a million.” And he looked like a million on Saturday at a benefit for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers.

The Gypsy in her soul: Tyne Daly, star of the musical “Gypsy”--opening at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Tuesday night--will attend the post-performance bash at Birraporetti’s, the Irish-Italian bistro that has become Orange County’s answer to Sardi’s.

Members of the Performing Arts Center board are expected to celebrate with Daly and the rest of the cast, enjoying pizza, pasta and Bellini cocktails--heavenly combinations of peach nectar and champagne. Pianist Confrey Phillips will entertain.

Miller goes to Washington: Maj. Gen. Donald E.P. Miller, Orange County’s top military leader (as base and wing commander at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station), and his wife, Dixie, leave on Aug. 20 for Washington, their 19th move in 29 years of marriage.

But before they go, the affable couple will host the Aug. 19 wedding of their daughter, Deborah, 25, at the El Toro Marine Chapel. Deborah is a first lieutenant in the Air Force. “But she had the good sense to marry a Marine,” the general deadpanned recently.

The secret to surviving the whirlwind that is Washington? “Patience,” Dixie said. “ Lots of patience. You take one thing, try to enjoy it, make the most of it, then go on to the next thing.”

Wieder goes to Cambridge: Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder left Sunday for Harvard University to participate in the “Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government” at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. While there, Wieder, who has said “yes” to seeking a fourth term as supervisor, will focus on government issues relating to transportation, legislation, affirmative action and law enforcement.

Happy anniversary: Richard and Sandy Sewell, donors of $500,000 to Circle 1000, the fund-raising support group for Hoag Cancer Center that Sandy founded, will celebrate their 30th anniversary at the Four Seasons Hotel tonight.

“With 300 of our most intimate friends!” Sandy said with a giggle. On the dessert menu: fruit-filled, heart-shape meringues. “This is going to be fun for us! We love parties,” said Sandy, a 12-year survivor of breast cancer. And the Hoag Cancer Center loves the mega-generous Sewells.

A grand opening: James Yoch, an English professor at the University of Oklahoma, will attend the opening party on Saturday night of “The Reign of William and Mary,” the new exhibition at the Center for the Study of Decorative Arts in San Juan Capistrano.

Yoch, a college chum of Gep Durenberger, the center’s director, is the author of “Landscaping the American Dream,” a book about his cousin Florence Yoch, who designed the gardens for the movie “Gone With the Wind.” James Yoch has designed a Dutch garden for the center’s new exhibition.

All that P’zazz: Well, it’s here and it’s making other boats look like surfboards. The P’zazz, the 120-foot floating manse that belongs to Bob and Beverly Cohen (new residents of John Wayne’s old digs), has just taken its place on Newport Bay.

Bob Cohen, owner of half-interest in the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, has said that Malcolm Forbes occasionally holes up at his hotel. One day, Cohen had the chance to tell the magazine publisher that he thought his yacht (the one on which Elizabeth Taylor is a frequent guest) was one of the most glorious vessels in the world. And could he see it sometime? Forbes told Cohen: “Just come by and knock on the door!” (Yacht lovers are hoping that Cohen will tell them the same thing about the P’zazz.)