Joan Irvine Smith Thinks It’s Time for Don Bren to Pony Up

Joan Irvine Smith has a proposition for Donald L. Bren.

If the billionaire pays her the money the Irvine Co. owes her before her Oaks Classic begins on May 31, Smith will increase its $50,000 grand prix to $100,000. “Where’s my check?” Smith wondered last week at the Oaks, her tree-studded ranch in San Juan Capistrano. “The Irvine Co. has said the millions they owe me is nothing, that Donald can get it as easy as using a MasterCard charge.”

So, of course, the heiress with the sense of humor named one of her horses MasterCharge, after the $252.6 million she expects from the company. “And I have horses named American Express, Carte Blanche and Visa, too,” she deadpanned. “Just in case.”

Last week it was pleasure as usual at the Oaks--for five years the site of the horse-jumping classic that has become the last word for Orange County’s equestrian set. The forest of oak trees was leafy and sun-dappled. The scarlet bougainvillea had begun to bloom. Smith’s sleek thoroughbreds took their paces. And the contractors who will transform her grounds into a party scene from a Peter Bogdanovich movie were finalizing details.

“This is going to be the most fun of any Oaks we’ve done,” promised Smith, shooting a smile at her mother, Athalie Clarke--her co-hostess for the three-day affair.

The menu--hills of lobster, crab, shrimp, you name it--will be the same, Smith said. So will the format--an open-to-the-public bash capped by a private luncheon under a canopy for Smith and Clarke’s friends. (The guest list for this do is Orange County’s most exclusive. And you can’t schmooze your way in. “You have to be invited,” Smith says.)

Only the purse has been changed. Smith has added $25,000 in stakes for a hunter horse division. “I have a lot of young hunters,” explains Smith, who has been riding horses since she was 12. “This gives me an opportunity to show my horses but also gives a boost to the hunter division. I don’t want to see this division lost in the horse-show industry, and it seems to be getting less and less public recognition.”

During lunch on the Classic’s final day, Smith will have the hunters paraded on the field with their tails and manes braided, she said. “Their riders will be dressed in the traditional style. And a commentator will give the history of fox hunting--tell how it evolved from field hunters to show hunters. I mean, this is history . George Washington had his own pack of fox-hunting hounds, you know.” Clarke, Orange County’s empress of chic, calls her daughter’s event “the Tiffany of entertaining.”

“My daughter has done an incredible thing,” Clarke said, “putting this all together single-handedly. She has put Orange County on the map in the equestrian field. No doubt about it.”

Smith always invites Bren to the Sunday spread under the scalloped canopy. “But, he never comes,” she said.

Developer Henry Segerstrom and his wife, Renee, always attend. So does Dr. Howard House--whose House Hearing Institute in Los Angeles is up for a research center at UC Irvine, thanks to a proposed $1-million donation from Smith.

UC Irvine Chancellor Jack Peltason always enjoys the festivities with his wife, Suzanne. And a smattering of stars (Zsa Zsa Gabor and Loretta Swit, among them) have attended. The celebs are on hand because they patronize Hermes, the Rodeo Drive rag emporium that underwrites the Classic’s House of Hermes $10,000 Acorn Junior/Amateur Grand Prix.

“I’ve dealt with Hermes for years,” said Smith, who was dressed in caramel-colored cashmere for her day at the Oaks. “I love their clothes and handbags. Prior to the mid-’70s, I went abroad every year to be at horse events--Paris early in the year, Dublin in the summer, London for shows.”

Will she wear a Hermes to the Classic? Most likely. “Last year I wore a Hermes cotton suit that I bought on sale ,” Smith said.

The Buzz: Excuses, excuses. But this time, it’s a good one. According to Billur Wallerich--public relations director for Neiman Marcus at Fashion Island--Georgette Mosbacher, wife of Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher, had to cancel her scheduled appearance this month at the tony department store. Why? “She’s having lunch with the Queen of England,” Wallerich said. “Thank goodness we hadn’t yet sent out the invitations for the tea we had planned for her.” . . . Talk about interesting luncheon partners. Sitting next to John Loring (design director of Tiffany & Co. in New York) at the Center Club last week was as good as reading a copy of Vanity Fair. During a feast staged to showcase Tiffany’s new china patterns, Loring shared tidbits as tasty as those cooked up by the Center Club staff. The night before, he confided, he had dined at Betsy Bloomingdale’s Beverly Hills manse with--who else?--Betsy’s good chum, Nancy Reagan. The book (Kitty Kelley’s slash-for-cash tome about the former First Lady) was brought up, Loring said. But not in despair. “In jest,” he said. Mrs. Reagan looked as if she was handling things just fine, Loring said. She laughed about the book. Also on the tip of Loring’s tongue: the name of editor Jackie Onassis, who has worked with him on his books about Tiffany. Jackie’s secret to style? “Her utter unwillingness to be anything other than herself,” Loring said. “She refuses to put on airs.” As design director of Tiffany, Loring was in town to get a gander at the local gentry. During the luncheon for Visionaries--a support group for the Newport Harbor Art Museum--Loring spotted women wearing white clothing with gold jewelry. “White is a color you don’t always see in New York,” he said. Of Tiffany’s lovely Audubon sterling silver pattern, Loring piped: “We called it Japan before World II.” . . . Nancy Reagan will be in Orange County on behalf of the Just Say No program this week but has no plans to mingle with her friends here, say insiders. . . . Debby Boone is set to party with members of the board of directors of the Orange County Performing Arts Center at Birraporetti’s on May 14 after her opening in “Meet Me in St. Louis” at Segerstrom Hall. . . .