Oaks Classic Will Become Public Affair

She’s back.

Floss Schumacher--doyenne of Orange County’s arts social-scene until her move to La Quinta last October--has agreed to chair the hunt breakfast that will crown heiress Joan Irvine Smith’s first “Fall Oaks Classic” on Sept. 15.

What made the retired arts activist say yes to overseeing a brunch for--gasp--1,000 guests?

The chance to attract big money to one of her favorite causes--the UCI College of Medicine.

“I wasn’t going to take on anything ,” says Schumacher, who has also been active with Opera Pacific, the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Orange County Philharmonic Society. “But when I learned that Joan Irvine Smith and her mother (Athalie Clarke) had given the college this opportunity, I had to say yes.”

While the chance to raise funds for the proposed UC Irvine Center for Health Sciences is big news for the society set, the bigger news is that the gala breakfast is open to the public.

That’s right, anyone willing to pony up $100 can hobnob with Smith--famous for her intrepid battles with billionaire Donald Bren--on her oak-studded ranch in San Juan Capistrano.

Smith promises breakfast-goers the kind of repast she has tossed after fox hunts on her lush Middleburg, Va., estate: made-to-order omelets; an assortment of exotic sausages (curried lamb, for starters); crisp bacon, potatoes au gratin, and baskets brimming with Danish roles, croissants and muffins. Not to mention the chance to watch one of the country’s most glamorous horse shows. (Until now, Smith’s annual Oaks Classic has been staged only in the spring.) The total purse? A breathtaking $180,000.

According to Donna Howard, UC Irvine’s assistant vice chancellor of health sciences advancement, the benefit will offer the college the chance to “bring people together to educate them about our aspirations.”

Right now, those aspirations are focused on fund raising for the proposed Center for Health Sciences, a $350-million facility to be developed over the next 10 years.

The center will initially consist of five institutes--neuroscience, molecular genetics, cancer, cardiovascular, and organ replacement.

“Next to development, Orange County’s biggest industry is the biotech, biomedical industry,” Howard says. “There are more than 1,200 companies here related to what we do. We hope to be a boon to them and work with them in a symbiotic relationship.” (Income generated by the proposed Center for Health Sciences will be used to endow the academic enterprise of the College of Medicine.)

For years, cardiologist Walter Henry--vice chancellor of health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine--has been on Joan Irvine Smith’s personal guest list for her spring Oaks Classic luncheon. “It’s something I certainly enjoy, “ he says. “And I’m looking forward to this hunt breakfast benefiting the college.”

Will the affair become an annual benefit for the College of Medicine? Henry hasn’t dared dream that far ahead. “But, if that were to happen, well, of course, I’d be very pleased,” he says.

On Tuesday, members of the gala’s executive committee will lunch with Smith at the Oaks in San Juan Capistrano.

Assisting Schumacher on the committee will be Howard and volunteer powerhouses Zee Allred, Peggy Goldwater Clay, Janice Johnson and Marilyn Nielsen.

Hey there, Georgy Girl: Ballet buffs watching the Royal Ballet perform “Winter Dreams” in Segerstrom Hall on Aug. 9 will be in the company of actress Lynn Redgrave and her two daughters.

Seems Redgrave, a California resident, missed “Winter Dreams” when it played in London in 1987 because she was busy performing there in Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” (which, coincidentally, is the play on which “Winter Dreams” is based).

Now, the fellow Brits--ballet members and Redgrave--will be reunited 5,902 miles from their homeland at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“Winter Dreams” was created by the Royal Ballet’s principal choreographer, Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

“Mozart Under the Stars--An Evening to Remember”: We’d heard a few mocking remarks made about the title of this benefit gala for the Alzheimer’s Assn. of Orange County held on Saturday night at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. “How can a person with Alzheimer’s disease remember anything ?” was one comment.

Well, listen up. Hope is the premise of any benefit tossed on behalf of a nonprofit group that concerns itself with raising funds to help wipe out a disease. And supporters of the Alzheimer’s Assn. hope that the 200 people--and the rest of the world, for that matter--who attended the gala will never have to worry that they won’t remember a night of music under the stars. Get it?

Before the Pacific Symphony played one of the most touching concerts to ever fill a starry night, guests picnicked and watched chairwoman Joyce Weiss and husband Mark play hosts in perfectly gracious style.

Thanks to the Pacific Symphony --which gave the association 200 concert tickets--all proceeds from the $50-per-person event will go toward helping erase this disease which robs people of life’s most precious gift--memory.

Having words: A complaint for damages for slander has been filed by a member of the local social scene, Tajah Slemons--wife of Mercedes dealer Jim Slemons--against socialite Karen Hardin, wife of automobile dealer Victor Hardin.

In the complaint, Tajah Slemons, who is of Indian descent, alleges that Karen Hardin directed racist remarks toward her during a party on April 24.

Hardin doesn’t deny making the remarks, but said they were in response to what she calls a threat by Slemons. Hardin says Slemons shoved her fist in Hardin’s face and threatened to slap her if she did not shake her hand.

“I said what I did to stun her . . . I was defending myself,” Hardin says. Slemons could not be reached to elaborate on the lawsuit. No damage amount was mentioned in the suit.