‘Butterfly’ Benefit Spreads Its Wings

Guests at Saturday’s Le Bal des Papillons--or Butterfly Ball--celebrated the metamorphosis of graduates of Interval House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

“There’s something really special going on here. This is not like a normal ball,” said Carol Anne Williams, Interval House’s tireless executive director. Williams looked like a proud parent as she surveyed the half-dozen graduates who had entered her program as battered wives and emerged as independent women.

About 350 guests attended the $200-a-plate 12th annual Interval House Celebrity Auction Ball at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point. The dinner and auction raised $140,000 for the Orange County-based shelter.

Winter wonderland

Guests reveled in the enchanting setting of the Ritz-Carlton, which looked like something out of a fairy tale with 350,000 white lights strung on the trees and shrubs. Inside, halls were decked with opulent garlands and Christmas trees.

Christian Rassinoux, the hotel’s executive chef, prepared an equally aesthetic dinner. Each course arrived artfully arranged on the plates looking like sculptures. A seafood mousse with marinated lobster, scallops and mussels was followed by a main course of veal tournedos and smoked lamb loin. For dessert, a sinfully delicious chocolate confection was served.

After dinner, emcee Mark Thompson kicked off the celebrity auction. Among the offerings on the auction block: a pace car ride for two at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and a meeting with former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. at the home of actress Talia Shire.

Stars come out

The benefit for the award-winning Interval House brought out some famous faces.

Former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown and his wife, Bernice, lent their support.

“I think the people at Interval House are doing a great job,” Brown said. “If you hit bottom, they’re there to give you a bounce back.”

Beverly Garland, who played the wife of Fred MacMurray in “My Three Sons” and who will soon appear in the TV movie “P.S. I Love You,” assisted in the celebrity auction.

“If you’ve ever been a battered woman or talked to anyone who has (been abused), you know this shelter is desperately needed,” Garland said. “There’s not a lot of places where battered women feel protected.”

House of refuge

Interval House provides a temporary refuge and long-term counseling for women escaping abusive homes.

Program graduate Nancy Adornetto lived at Interval House with her four sons in June and July of 1990.

“Like most battered women, I didn’t have anyone to talk to until I came to Interval House,” she said. “The program teaches you to be strong, to have goals. You learn you don’t have to be battered.”

Giving them wings

Williams is known for devoting her life to abuse victims. Stories of her 16-hour days at Interval House circulated at the ball.

“It’s a passionate part of my life,” she said. “It’s not like you go home and leave it, ever. I can’t imagine not working with these caring people and having that sense of fulfillment.”

Proceeds from the fund-raiser will be used to complete Interval House’s expanded housing shelter and support the organization’s overall operation.

Co-chairing the ball along with Williams was Interval House co-founder Isa Smashey Rogers, Candy Masterjohn and Cynthia Courtney, whose husband, Skip, is president of the shelter’s board of directors.

Among the celebrity guests were actress Lee Meriwether, every inch the star in blue velvet, actor John Schuck, who attended with his wife, Harrison Houle, and David Ruprecht, host of the “Shopping Spree” game show.

Political figures included Atty. Gen. Dan Lundgren, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), French Consul General Gerard Coste, Seal Beach Mayor Frank Laszlo and Supervisor Harriett Wieder.

Others on hand to support Interval House: Bob Armstrong, board vice president, and his wife, Cindy, Jack and Nancy McNaughton, Larry Webb, Adele Faulkner Quinn, Michael and Harlene Goodrich, and George Wills.