TV’s Newsy Lovers to Be Wed Off the Record
They fell in love in front of millions, but when KCBS-TV co-anchors Bree Walker and Jim Lampley tie the knot at the Ritz-Carlton next month, they’ll stand in the privacy of a seaside gazebo, with only friends and family in attendance.
Walker, a doe-eyed blonde who has been twice married, and the GQ-handsome Lampley, who has been married as many times, plan to vow forever on April 7 during an 11:30 a.m. ceremony. Afterward, the newlyweds will dine with guests on Norwegian salmon in the hotel’s Pavilion room.
The Walker-Lampley affair, which became publicly known when the duo arrived arm in arm at last year’s Emmy Awards, is Los Angeles’ most visible office romance. During a recent newscast, the cameras caught the couple holding hands and gazing at each other starry-eyed.
“What happened between us was so powerful, and has such a life of its own, that we recognized there would be no turning back,” Lampley, 40, told The Times last week.
Walker, 36, the first physically disabled anchorwoman to reach the top of her profession, says she “never suspected that we could be a news item.” But stories about her disorder, syndactylism, which causes deformed hands and feet, have been been played out in People magazine and on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Those accounts made big news of a newswoman’s life.
The couple has been shy about revealing details of their impending marriage, and those involved in planning the wedding have been equally reluctant.
The Ritz-Carlton, a haven for celebs hungering for a splendiferous kind of privacy, has been instructed to say nothing about the nuptials. “And I must respect the request of my guests,” insists hotel vice president Henry Schielein.
The hotel’s hush-hush policy is one of the reasons guests such as Barbra Streisand, former President Ronald Reagan and the late Malcolm Forbes have visited there.
Hotel security measures for the cliff-side gazebo area include blocking off its beach-walk entrance and stationing two security guards on the grounds to keep crashers at bay. “But security has never been a problem during my five years here,” says one of 20 guards employed by the Ritz.
Floral creations for the wedding ceremony will be created by Chris Lindsay Designs of Costa Mesa, a florist popular with local A-hostesses. When Walker takes her place beside Lampley, she’ll carry an all-white bouquet of lilacs, freesias and tulips.
Luncheon centerpieces will consist of European hand-tied pastel bouquets placed in glass bubble bowls. Flowers will also be part of the couple’s wedding cake, from the petals that will seem to float upon its frosted layers, to the tiny bouquet that will be placed on top.
Love letters: They flooded the mail last week, letters inviting friends of arts philanthropist Henry Segerstrom to help create an event “that will bring great joy to the gentleman who brought the dream of a performing arts center to reality here in Orange County.” The black-tie gala that will salute Segerstrom, who will step down on April 19 as chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, will be held on June 22. After a sit-down dinner for 125 couples on stage at the Center, pianist-singer Michael Feinstein will entertain. Center President Thomas Kendrick chose Feinstein, he says, “because he represents American song in the classic sense. He is a classic exponent of American song.”
Feinstein, who has six albums on the market (with “Pure Gershwin,” “Live at the Algonquin” and “Michael Feinstein Sings Irving Berlin” among them) is the perfect entertainer for such a gala, Kendrick says, “because we want a very classy evening.”
Kendrick promises that the stage will be decorated to the hilt for the event, with the Center taking advantage of “all of the technology we have available.” (A set from “Don Quixote,” perhaps?) The price tag for the historical gala is set at $500 per person. “But this is not a fund-raiser,” emphasizes Western Digital Chairman Roger Johnson, organizer of the event with incoming board chairman William Lyon and Kathryn Thompson. “This is a tribute.”
Tidbits: TV personalities Ed McMahon, Gary Collins and Mary Ann Mobley, and actor George Peppard will be on hand at the Century Plaza Hotel on Saturday when Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley receives the Semper Fidelis Award from the directors of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation Inc. The foundation is staging the “1990 Marine Scholarship Ball” that has half of Orange County society buzzing north. Up for entertainment: a performance by the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps and Tex Beneke and his orchestra . . . Dr. Walter Henry, Dean of UCI Medical School, and painter Maria Del Carmen Calvo will be married on April 7. “We’re keeping the location a secret,” says Calvo, whose impressionistic works have been purchased by prominent locals, including Joan Irvine Smith. The couple hopes to honeymoon in Spain, Calvo’s birthplace. . . .
