Trends in Photography

The trendiest art opening we’ve seen lately was held for photographer Joel-Peter Witkin at the Sahey/Klein Gallery on tres- trendy La Brea Avenue. Standing in line outside was Gigi (Getty) Gaston, wondering whether this was a special screening of “Batman,” because the line went halfway around the block. That didn’t stop Richard Gere, a Witkin collector who looked nearly as gray as the artist’s photos--gray sweater, gray pants and nearly a full head of gray hair, which friends report is the natural color. Unnaturally indistinguishable from the rest of the crowd was Jodie Foster, with her hair pulled back to accentuate a pair of particularly, shall we say, unfashionable glasses. Hard to spot in the throng were model Cindy Crawford, actress Rebecca de Mornay, actor Dennis Hopper and director Paul Bartel. For those less familiar with his style, Witkin’s photo subjects are hermaphrodites, dwarfs, pre-op transsexuals, amputees and hunchbacks. And he’s always looking for new models.

Geena Davis on Parade

Actress Geena Davis came home to Wareham, Mass., population 18,000, over the weekend and served as grand marshal of the town’s 250th anniversary parade. The Oscar winner and erstwhile organist at Wareham’s First Congregational Church wore a peach satin Colonial-style gown and sat on the back of a 1955 Cadillac El Dorado convertible. “Where she got the idea she was going to be a movie star, I can’t say,” her mother offered. The family permitted her to watch only Walt Disney movies, Davis remembered. “She wasn’t one to go out every Friday night,” her mother added. “She was very much into crafts. She’d buy leather and make pocketbooks.”

Adventures in Leather

Nino Cerruti had a visitor from Hollywood recently. Bruce Willis stopped in at the designer’s Paris shop looking for a leather bomber jacket. He’ll wear more suede and leather looks in “Hudson Hawk,” an adventure movie he’s filming now. The movie’s likely to be a real fashion show. The designer is Marilyn Vance, who dressed Kevin Costner and Sean Connery so stylishly in “The Untouchables” a couple of summers ago. She’s been shopping for the new film at Cerruti’s Paris showroom.

Exposure Sale

For sale: one hipper-than-thou Los Angeles-based magazine, distributed in more than 150 cities around the country. Rumor has it that a major East Coast publishing corporation is in negotiations with Exposure magazine publisher Henry Shea and editor-in-chief Cavin Shorter. And the price? Let’s see. If Details magazine went to Conde Nast for more than $2 million, and L.A. Style went to American Express for more than $4 million, and Interview went to a conglomerate for more than $10 million, what can we expect for the L.A. born and bred Exposure? When Listen requested the figures, those in the know buttoned their lips. “We’re in the talking stages only,” advised Shorter.