Party Puts Charity Ahead of the Game

In what had to be Orange County’s most elegant Super Bowl blast, Donna and John Crean welcomed about 200 guests--many of them celebs--to their Tara-style mansion in Santa Ana Heights on Sunday.

Among those cheering their teams onto victory were Vince Edwards, Barbara Eden, Buddy Ebsen, Ken Norton, Jane Withers, Stan Freberg and Ray Conniff

“This is delightful,” cooed Eden of television’s “I Dream of Jeannie” fame as she picked daintily at buffalo wings and pesto pizza.

Said a still-handsome Edwards (Remember him in “Ben Casey”?): “This house is lovely. Amazing. I never dreamed I’d get to visit Tara.”

The second annual bash, a benefit for the Juvenile Connection Program, featured no less than 20 television sets for game watching. “Televisions everywhere,” Ebsen noted. “That’s good. I came here to watch a good game.”

Well, the game could have been better. But not the party. Everywhere guests looked they saw food--on the mile-long formal dining room table (spread with Astroturf and goal posts), in the mini-movie theater and on the tables set up in the patio.

Table-hopping was the name of the party game. Guests schmoozed with Ebsen at one table, sought autographs from Eden at another, and chatted at another with Conniff about his new compact disc release--a compilation of Broadway melodies.

If guests didn’t want to leave their seats, ice cream and candy vendors waited nearby.

“I’ll start my New Year’s resolution to cut down on my eating next month,” joked one guest.

Eileen Bruchman, a volunteer for the Juvenile Connection Program, said she wasn’t worried about who would win the Super Bowl. “Today, I’m just wanting children to win,” she said.

The Juvenile Connection program--affiliated with the Coalition for Children, Adolescents and Parents--provides a family consultation and treatment referral service for disadvantaged and troubled Orange County youths.

“We’re very proud of the educational component of our program,” said Rowene Medina, president of the organization’s board. “We educate parents in several languages--English, of course, and Spanish and Vietnamese.”

Medina said the primary problem with today’s youth is low self-esteem. They need to learn how to love themselves, she said. “That’s their biggest need.”

Other guests included Katie and Marshall Klein, Taja and Jim Slemons, Scott and Mary Lou Hornsby (Mary Lou whispered about a mega-event the Irvine Co. is planning to do on behalf of the Juvenile Connection Program at Newport Center Fashion Island in August); Sandra Gould (who had a regular part on “Bewitched”); Orange County Supervisor Don Roth; Lon and Mary Ann Wells; Mary Roosevelt; Wolf and Ann Stern, and Andy Crean.