Museum Offers 8 Delectable ‘Perspectives’

You say you’re tired of ballrooms, black-tie and social-babble? That if you have to sweep into another 400-strong crush you’ll scream? That you just can’t take one more swan dive into the wilted endive?

Take heart. The Laguna Art Museum has a plan for you. They know you love a special party, something particular for the particular. So, they’ve cooked up a series of eight intimate bashes that will take you from Deeann and Al Baldwin’s sprawling Emerald Bay digs--this manse made the cover of Architectural Digest--to the celebrity-studded Friars Club in Beverly Hills.

Or, maybe you’d like to sink a fork into gravad lax at the storybook Laguna Beach cottage of Bill Magnuson and Ulf Strandberg, owners of Gustaf Anders restaurant at South Coast Plaza Village? Or perhaps you’d prefer the exclusive, for-70-couples-only, opening of the Rex restaurant at Newport Center Fashion Island?

Invitations are about to go in the mail for “Perspectives,” an innovative fund-raising experience co-chaired by Marla Bird and Dolores Milhous. The series is expected to pour $45,000 into museum coffers.

“We try to offer the public a look at the different art perspectives of our museum members,” Bird said. “Some of them are interested in the art of eating. Some in the art of collecting. Some in the art of hands-on experience. Some in the art of just knowing how to have a wonderful time.”

The get-togethers, which cost $150 per person ($1,000 gets you a spot at all eight parties, and yes, the events are open to the public), begin on Sept. 9 with cocktails and appetizers at the Baldwins.

This evening has a delicious, six-way twist. Guests will mingle with artists on the Baldwin cabana and then split up for dinner at the homes of five other museum members.

Artist Gifford Myers will join guests for a clambake for 12 at the New England-style home of Karen and Tony French. Artist Laddie John Dill will dine with 14 guests on Tuscan fare at Dorothy and Don Bendett’s Italian villa, inspired by the glorious Amalfi coast. Ten guests will dine with artist Lita Albuquerque on nouvelle Chinese fare prepared by Five Feet restaurant owner/chef Michael Kang at the home of Pat and Gene Hancock. Artist Frank Dixon will enjoy dinner with 14 guests at the home of Janet and Henry Eggers.

And while the artist himself is unable to attend the repast at Suzanne and Ted Paulson’s, Jonathan Borofsky’s “Flying Man” sculpture will watch over guests as they dine on gourmet fare.

On Sept. 16, Teri and John Kennady will welcome guests to their Laguna Beach pied-a-terre to sip mimosas and peruse their contemporary art collection. Then, by chartered “coach”--”we don’t use the ‘b’ word,” laughed Milhous--guests will zip up to the Friars Club for lunch. Afterward, they’ll visit the art studio of sculptress Claire Falkenstein.

What could be worse for a collector than to come home and find his Matisse snatched from its gilt-drenched frame? Absolutely nothing, of course. Enter detective Bill Martin, an art-theft specialist with the Los Angeles Police Department. On Sept. 21, Martin will speak at a dinner cooked up by Marla Bird and Mary Newman in Newman’s cove-situated Corona del Mar home.

Sixteen gourmands can toss down akvavit and Norse beer along with salmon and caviar on the terrace of Magnuson and Strandberg’s cottage on Sept. 23. The gathering is billed as a “summer supper al fresco ,” and guests will also get to picnic in the cottage’s enchanting garden.

Diana and Woody Dike have planned an art class, complete with live model, for their contribution to “Perspectives.” Twenty art lovers will assemble at their bluff-top Laguna Beach home to learn how to sketch in charcoal and sculpt in clay. Art professor Paul Darrow and sculptress Miriam Shelton will assist.

Museum pacesetters Elizabeth and Tom Tierney of Santa Ana Heights will welcome 50 guests to the private Center Club in Costa Mesa on Oct. 3 to enjoy lunch and a film about the art of eating meals that are nutritionally sound. Afterward, guests will participate in a round-table discussion.

Rex and Susan Chandler will preside over the gala opening on Oct. 12 of the new Rex restaurant at Newport Center Fashion Island. Guests will enjoy a champagne reception and five-course meal in the restaurant’s Art Deco-inspired surroundings. An eye-catcher at this affair: the polished-to-perfection black granite dance floor. (Be there or be very left out of the fall social swirl.)

Finally, on Oct. 21, Helmut Reiss, owner of Corona del Mar’s chic Rothschild’s restaurant, will welcome guests to his Laguna Beach chalet. Up for savoring: his classique collection of Mercedeses as well as European wines and champagnes and a groaning board of fare a la Rothschild’s.

VIP bash at Hotel Laguna: Television game show host Wink Martindale goes every year because, he says, “it’s tradition!” Television star Rose Marie said she attends every year because it’s “one of life’s greatest treats.” And local television personality Jim Cooper (KOCE-TV Channel 50) wouldn’t miss it, he said, because it’s a fascinating blend of “color, art and people.” All three TV stars were among the crowd living it up at Hotel Laguna on Friday night before attending the premiere of the Pageant of the Masters at Irvine Bowl.

Also digging into a buffet of chilled crab claws, shrimp, vegetable and fruit salads and feather-light lobster mousse were Festival of the Arts board President Jacquie Moffett, her husband, Bob, and Thurl Ravenscroft, pageant narrator. Lagunatics Cherry and Vern Spitaleri (off in a few days for a tour of Tibet) broke bread on the hotel terrace with house guests from Carrara, Italy. Wes and Mary Jones, director of the Orange County Office of Protocol, dined inside the hotel restaurant, away from the ocean breezes.

Surveying the scene was the affable Claes Andersen, who was raving over his new Swiss chef, Willie Haueter. “Look at these statues and baskets,” Andersen said, pointing out what looked like glass sculptures on the buffet table. “Willie made them by hand of spun sugar. They’re totally edible!”

Andersen says he’s crazy about the Pageant of the Masters, which presents people dressed up and painted to resemble works of art. “It’s different. I love the whole concept,” he said.

But never look for Andersen on stage, posing in one of the masterpieces. “Impossible,” he said, laughing. “You have to stand perfectly still. I can’t even stay still for one tenth of a second. In the hotel business, you’re moving all of the time.”