Benefit for Aged Asks $18,000 Per

The smelling salts, please.

A bash with an asking price of $18,000 per person? At this time of year?

You betcha. A bevy of heavy-hitting donors has already mailed in the megabucks to attend the fund-raiser being staged Sunday by Newport Beach newcomers Bob and Beverly Cohen (deep background: The couple owns what was once John Wayne’s beloved bayside digs and the Four Seasons Hotel in the Hills of Beverly, a favorite pit stop of magazine giant Malcolm Forbes).

The cocktail cruise aboard the Cohens’ 127-foot yacht P’zazz and the dinner in their enclosed patio will benefit the new, nonprofit Heritage Pointe Jewish Home for the Aging in Mission Viejo.

Now, this exclusive splash is significant for three reasons. First, it makes it crystal clear that an organization can get away with an outrageous admission price, providing it provides an exclusive locale (and along Newport Bay these days, nothing is as all-out exclusive as the $10-million sea mansion that belongs to the charismatic Cohens. For starters, it features Oriental carpets, silk-smothered walls, gold-leaf ceilings, a cordon bleu chef and a cadre of servants).

Second, it marks the first local benefit staged by the Cohens, who are highly regarded in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills charity circles for the mega-benefits they have chaired, including a recent one that hailed the philanthropic endeavors of Wallis Annenberg, daughter of TV Guide founder Walter Annenberg (guests included Jimmy and Gloria Stewart, Ali McGraw, Judith Krantz, Steve Allen and a slew of other Cohen-loving superstars).

Third, it marks a celebration on behalf of a nonprofit retirement home that will be the first of its kind in Orange County. According to Meryl Schrimmer, its president, there are only two facilities in Southern California that offer members of the retired Jewish community an environment where they can live in a climate of Jewish tradition. One is in San Diego, and another, the Jewish Home for the Aged of Greater Los Angeles, is a favorite charity of the Cohens.

When Beverly Cohen was given a tour of the modern Mission Viejo facility three weeks ago, she flipped. Flipped enough to want to get the ball rolling immediately on the “A Chai Sea Adventure” that has attracted guests such as Rita and Bob Teller, owner of the Orange County Market Place at the county fairgrounds (the swap meet that thrills the bargain-hunting masses); developer Arnold Feuerstein, chairman of the home’s board of trustees, and his wife, Ruth; Sandy and Allan Fainbarg, a developer who also founded the Wild West Stores; Meryl’s husband, Hank, owner of the Schrimmer Insurance Agency in La Habra, and Dr. Herb Modelevsky and his wife, Loretta, organizer of the home’s nine Orange County support chapters.

Why $18,000 and not $15,000 or $25,000? “The number 18 is considered good luck in Jewish lore,” said Meryl Schrimmer, who confided she had found some jazzy, rubber-sole shoes--a must for the teak decks. “And that is known as chai, a lucky thing, something that is a positive salute to life!”

“To tell you the truth,” Schrimmer added with a laugh, “I told Beverly: Maybe we should call the party ‘Adventure on the Chai Seas!’ ”

‘Tis a puzzlement: One minute Rudolf Nureyev was on stage at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Tuesday night, playing the scowling lead in “The King and I.” The next, he was howling at a post-performance party at Scott’s Seafood Bar and Grill in Costa Mesa, mugging it up for the paparazzi by popping a white linen napkin in his mouth and making face after slapstick face.

How does he get from mean to madcap in a matter of minutes? No problem, said the Tartar who became the most famous ballet dancer in the world in the early ‘60s. “Actually, the King of Siam seems mean, but he really is not. He’s just trying to protect his kingdom from cultural rape, preserve something that is good!”

Nureyev and his co-star, Liz Robertson, widow of lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (“My Fair Lady,” “Camelot”) sat at a cozy table sipping 1987 Rutherford Hill Chardonnay while they dined on plump filets and piles of lacy onion rings. Beside them were buddies of Nureyev, including Wallace Potts, who had escorted actress Leslie Caron to the production (at the Center through Sunday). Caron (remember her in “Gigi” with Maurice Chevalier?) was visiting from Paris, Potts explained, “because she was looping a remake of the movie ‘Heidi’ that is being produced by Michael Douglas.” (Looping has to do with dubbing in new sound, Potts said. “You know, you do a scene and later the director realizes an airplane is zooming in the background so you have to dub in your voice again.”)

Nureyev said he was was ecstatic over the production’s Orange County premiere. “The theater is great. The story is great. And Liz was just wonderful.”

Robertson loves playing the role of Anna Leonowens--an English schoolteacher who goes to Siam in the 1860s to tutor the King’s children--she said, “because it runs the gamut of emotion. And it’s a very feminine role about a very strong woman.” As for her late husband, whom she met 10 years ago when she played the role of Eliza Dolittle in London’s West End, she said: “He was a genius. He will always live through his words. And those words have helped me get through the hard times.”

Also in the glittering opening-night audience: the eternally beautiful Loretta Young--stunning in a black velvet evening hat rimmed with blinding rhinestones--accompanied by Henry Segerstrom, his wife, Renee, Renee’s daughter, Nikette, and the legendary dress designer, Jean Louis.

High times: Washington political humorist Art Buchwald was the laugh-a-minute highlight of the Times Mirror Community Leaders Dinner held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach on Tuesday night.

After a cocktail reception, guests such as Donald Koll, Arnold Beckman, Harry Bubb, William Lusk, Reed Royalty, Carl and Don Karcher, and Otis Chandler dined on grilled crab cakes and veal medallions, then settled back to hear Buchwald regale the 280-strong crowd with gags that touched on topics such as the U.S. Postal Service. If the post office has its way, he said, the day will come when mail will be delivered only once a year. “They’ll call it Mail Day! It’ll be a holiday, like Christmas!”