Mega-Millionaire Pair Refuse to Be Idle

Idle rich? Ha! When it comes to mega-millionaires John and Donna Crean and their new mansion in Santa Ana Heights, think “rich” all right, but never think “idle.”

Not for a minute. The Village Crean, as they call their 44,000-square-foot complex with its dance studio, movie theater, game room, library and rolling grounds has become a bustling playground for arts supporters, political notables and the Silver Screen Set.

On Tuesday, Vice President Dan Quayle will attend a $1000-per-couple lunch at Village Crean to benefit the local chapter of the GOP. On Nov. 2, Debbie Reynolds will help raise funds there for Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), a candidate for lieutenant governor of California. And on Nov. 17, the Creans will host a fund-raiser for the American Cinema Awards Foundation, already a sellout with a guest list that would brighten any Tinseltown billboard: Angie Dickinson, Carol Channing, Janet Leigh, Joseph Cotten, Anthony Perkins, Margaret O’Brien, Buddy Ebsen, MacDonald Carey and Jane Russell. And more.

Not to mention the bevy of bashes the Creans have already hosted in their Tara-esque digs, among them the stunning “Showboat” gala for Opera Pacific, complete with magnolia blossoms jetted in from the Deep South.

Why do they do it, throw open their Southern Colonial doors week after week after week?

“What else is a couple to do?” answers John--a Fortune 500 recreation vehicles manufacturer--during a recent visit with Debbie Reynolds at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “Sit home and look at each other?”

“It’s a big house,” Donna adds, gently laughing at her husband’s remark. “We like to share it.”

Not only is Debbie Reynolds excited about coming to Orange County, where she was “Walt Disney’s hostess on Disneyland’s opening day,” she says, but she’s excited to visit the Crean estate and do something for Bergeson.

Like the indefatigable Bergeson, Reynolds knows all about the fund-raising trail. After losing two husbands--Eddie Fisher to Elizabeth Taylor and shoe manufacturer Harry Karl to monumental business debt--she hit the road with a nightclub act and spent a decade getting out of hock.

“I paid off millions of dollars in debt,” says Reynolds, 58. Which brings the star of such MGM classics as “Singin’ in the Rain” to another subject: the reaction of her friends to the recently released movie “Postcards From the Edge,” a tale about a drug-addicted daughter’s strained relationship with her alcoholic, movie-star mother, written by Reynolds’ own daughter, Carrie Fisher.

“I’ve been getting a lot of flack this week,” Reynolds says. People have been saying the movie makes her look bad. “It’s been upsetting to have friends call and say: ‘Gee, Debbie, it’s such a shame.’

“I say, ‘What’s a shame? Carrie wrote a wonderful novel and a wonderful screenplay. Carrie did have a drug problem. But I’ve never had a drinking problem. I’m not an alcoholic. I’ve worked my whole life long, never missed a job. It’s not about me. If I’d been a drunk for 42 years (her show biz years), would I have been able to do the community work I’ve done? Raise children? Pay off millions of dollars in debt? It’s a movie about a mother and a daughter but that’s the end of that, and, if you don’t know that, then you don’t have half a brain anyway, so I can’t help you with it.’ ”

“It’s silly, that’s what it is,” Reynolds adds, her creamy cheeks now a hot shade of pink. “When my husband went busted 10 years ago and I lost everything, I started all over again. If I’d been a drunk, I would’ve gone right to the sewer, wouldn’t I? You just go right to the bottle, right?”

She stops for a second. “I’ve got to think of it as amusing because if people do believe that, then they just truly want to and they’re looking for gossip. It’s a novel, fiction! Carrie did a great job; in fact, she did too good a job. Now, everybody believes it’s real.”

The Creans admit they haven’t seen the movie. And John offers, hesitantly, that Reynolds must be proud that her daughter could write such a believable story.

“It really is a very good book,” Reynolds concedes. “And the film is excellent.”

Then, Reynolds throws out a final rhetorical question. “If I’d been a drunk all those years, would I have been 35 years helping make millions for the Thalians?”

Donna and John Crean’s eyes light up. The couple not only helps support Orange County causes, they support causes in Los Angeles too. The Creans are the underwriters for the benefit for the Thalians--a group of high-energy actresses who perform to raise funds for charity.

“The Thalians support a clinic at Cedars Sinai (hospital),” Reynolds explains. “We’re doing a tribute to Ann Miller and Van Johnson on Oct. 17. We’re calling it: ‘Ann and Van, a Kick of a Night.’

“We’ll all perform--the original stars from the great MGM movies--Ann and Van, and Russ Tamblyn, Vic Damone, Nanette Fabray, Tony Martin, Gloria DeHaven, Rita Moreno, Esther Williams, Robert Stack, Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson. It’s going to be a great night.”

Of course the Creans will be there, filling two tables with buddies from Los Angeles and Orange County. And while the gala is planned for the Century Plaza Hotel this year, who knows where it will be next year. Maybe at the Village Crean?