Horse Show Fans Kick Up Their Heels at Benefit

Irvine heiress Joan Irvine Smith hosted a bang-up party for the American Horse Shows Assn. at The Oaks in San Juan Capistrano. She was kicking up her boots and swinging a suede fringe jacket and Hermes scarf, saying, “Yes, this is a good party” and standing by fashion look-alikes Anita Ziebe, her cousin, and Deborah Swinden, former daughter-in-law.

All around were the prominent of the national horse scene--Bill Steinkraus (Olympic gold medalist for jumping in 1968); horse owners Jo and Montgomery Fisher (it took them 2 hours and 45 minutes to drive down from Trousdale Estates); Joan’s former husband, trainer Cappy Smith (in from Middleburg, Va.), and pretty horsewomen Fran Steinwedell (“I have the horse disease,” she said of her “addiction.”) and Robin Parsky (wearing slinky suede and Indian turquoise).

It was a toss-up as to who commanded the most attention--Joan Irvine Smith’s mother, Athalie Clarke, escorted by Walter Coombs and surrounded constantly by admirers, or Daniel P. Lenehan of Warrenton, Va., named AHSA’s Horseman of the Year, but whom Steinkraus was hailing as “the horseman of the century.”

After cocktails and Rococo’s Mexican feast, the party planned by vivacious Judy Fluor Runels leaped into some wild Western rock with the young and old stomping to Danny Leroux’s beat.

Among the crowd: Henry and Renee Segerstrom, Constance Morthland, Leslie and Alain Vaillencourt, trainer Carlton Brooks, Liz Hoskinson and Kathy Fallon (explaining how the $50,000 net will aid education, training and licensing of judges for AHSA competition), Terry and Larry Bucher of Tarzana, Debi DeTurk (wearing rattlesnake earrings), Brian and Leslie Lenehan, Linda Starkman, Horses magazine editor Tish Quirk and Joan Irvine Smith’s personable sons, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Russell Penniman (F-14 instructor) and Mort Smith (NBC sports cameraman).

Though in a party mood, the Irvine heiress had the resolution of a multimillion dollar lawsuit paramount on her mind. (She contends that real-estate magnate/financier Donald Bren paid too little for the 11% stake in the Irvine company that he bought from her and her mother in 1983).

SRO: Several hundred were turned away when New York couturiere Mary McFadden spoke last week to the Costume Council of Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Coping with strict fire regulations, chairman Ann Johnson held up the show to get the maximum seated.

The event provided insight into the mind of the raven-haired Coty Award-winning designer, who is en route to India to design costumes for a movie. On slides, she juxtaposed her fashions against the world’s art and told the audience, “Wet muslin, clinging to the body--in my mind’s eye, nothing can be more beautiful.”

Bumping elbows with her at tea for some 700, including co-chairs, Carolyn Wagner and Bobbe Aubert, were Penny Bianchi, Bonnie Black, Laurie La Shelle, Joni Smith and Suzanne Rheinstein.

10TH: Bowls filled with wet marbles sparkled on the 10th anniversary Los Angeles Children’s Museum dinner honoring its founders, Jackie Dubey Weintraub and Ellen Levitt. Hosting were chairman of the board Richard and Lois Reinis and Mickey and David Houk. Among those eating ice cream sundaes was new museum president Estela Lopez.

HAIL: The Fellows of Contemporary Art hosted the opening of their Fellows-sponsored exhibition, “Lita Albuquerque: Reflections,” at Santa Monica Museum of Art. It’s curated by Henry Hopkins. In keeping with their goals, the Fellows have published a catalogue and a videotape.

Celebrating it all were Russel Kully, Fellows chairman; Cathie Partridge, Fellows liaison on the exhibition, and a crowd including Albuquerque and Carey Peck (just back from their wedding New Year’s Eve at the Berlin Wall), Santa Monica Museum director Tom Rhoads, Hopkins, Jan Butterfield, Suzanne and Ted Paulson, and Gretel and George Stephens.

PARTY CIRCUIT: To thrill their $10,000-and-over donors to the Shakespeare’s Globe Project, Western Region director Kay Tornborg trumped up quite a dinner supervised by Chef Paul Bocuse aboard the Royal Viking Sun in the Royal Grill. The night called for a nebuchadnezzar of Mumm’s Cordon Rouge champagne and Capt. Ola S. Harsheim, who had just taken the ship through the Panama Canal. Beginning with truffle soup and moving on to mallard duck and creme brulee was a coterie that included donors Stanton and Ernie Avery, Beverly and Joseph Mitchell and Helen Bing, as well as Jimmy and Gloria Stewart, the ship’s godparents (they christened it) . . .

Natural History Museum head Craig and Elizabeth Black hosted cocktails for the president of the International Council of Museums, Dr. Alpha Oumar Konare of Bamako, Mali . . .

The Turkish Consul General Mehmet and Sema Emre put on a Turkish buffet to fete producer Tunc Basaran and director Jale Basaran. Their “Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite” marks the first entry from Turkey in the history of the Academy Awards . . .

Ludovic Corpechot, general manager of the Westminster Paris hotel, hosted luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire . . .

Parties follow Nancy Holmes and her new book, “Nobody’s Fault.” Virginia Milner hosts a dinner, Jean Smith a luncheon and Elin Vanderlip a brunch . . .

Dick and Virginia Stever honored Jean Sharley Taylor and Stan Levinson at a dinner. They’re the nominees of the Los Angeles branch of the English-Speaking Union for Excellence in English recognition.