For 14 Years, Loreen Arbus and Nancy Hutson Perlman Have Hosted a Monthly Women’s ‘Eat and Schmooze’ Gathering for Fellow Show-Biz Personnel. It’s Their Answer to the Old Boys’ Network. : The Lunch Bunch

When independent producer and free-lance journalist Loreen Arbus and personal manager Nancy Hutson Perlman say “let’s do lunch” they mean business.

Show business, that is. Every single month since January, 1978, when they invited six female colleagues for a midday meal at the Century Plaza, Arbus and Perlman have hosted a luncheon for women in the entertainment industry as their answer to the infamous Old Boys’ Network.

In the 14 years since, several thousand executives, producers, writers, directors, attorneys, agents, managers, actresses, journalists, publicists, craftspeople and other show-biz personnel have enjoyed 170 repasts at many restaurants, currently Tuttobene on Fairfax Avenue. Each outing draws a score or so of guests from a list of 80 or 90 invitees--three-quarters of whom Arbus and Perlman do not even know personally--who pay $25 to attend. About 60% have returned for a second meal, and some as many as a half a dozen times.

The idea for the luncheons came about after Arbus and Perlman became friendly as members of Women in Film, a Los Angeles-based organization for women in the film industry.

“Nancy and I realized that so many people came through our lives, and probably the lives of others in the entertainment industry, who we would like to know better, and we also knew of people we’d like to meet and work with,” recalled Arbus, who specializes in reality-based programming, including “Case Closed,” a court series in development for the USA cable network. “But there’s no time in life to do that. We thought that by having a lunch every month, we could accomplish it,” said Arbus, who is also a correspondent for Life and Los Angeles magazines.

Arbus and Perlman say the lunches provide a place for informal networking.

“We provide an environment where people feel protected,” said Perlman, who represents screenwriters such as the Academy Award-winning team of Earl and Pamela Wallace, who wrote “Witness.” “And we deliberately juxtapose job classifications, people who wouldn’t normally interact.”

The mix of guests at this month’s gathering included independent producing partners Marcy Gross and Ann Weston, costume designer Jacqueline Saint Anne, celebrity manager Cheri Ingram, Daily Variety staff writer Kathy O’Steen, attorney Sheri Jeffrey and Universal Pictures senior production vice president Donna Smith. The hostesses and seven other guests gathered in Tuttobene’s cozy, book-lined private room.

Each woman introduced herself to the group. After hearing the brief verbal resumes, Bonnie Burns, the producer of a cable version of “Sweeney Todd,” drew the biggest laugh when she commented, “I’m in awe of the caliber of the women here--just when I think I’m doing really great!”

Arbus asked the guests to share their views about the status of women in the entertainment industry. Saint Anne expressed her gratitude at boxer Mike Tyson’s rape conviction, prompting a reporter to ask about sexual harassment in the entertainment business.

“It’s real. It exists,” several said.

“In my position, very often male producers will feel more comfortable handing over production money to men. They’re more comfortable dealing with men, even in what’s perceived to be a woman’s profession,” said Saint Anne, whose costume design credits include the “Columbo” TV series and 14 Peter Falk films.

Manager Ingram, whose clients include Mary Hart of “Entertainment Tonight” and Deidre Hall of “Days of Our Lives,” recounted the experience of a client who had dinner with a 26-year-old network executive who warned her that women in the industry tend to have short careers. “He said to her, ‘What do you want to do with your career? You’re 32 and over the hill.’ He took her home, and in the car grabbed her breast. She said, ‘I guess not all of me is over the hill.’ ”

Another guest said that her boss, a sensitive man, is now afraid to compliment her if she shows up at work with a new hairstyle. “He’s had guys in New York who were fired over (that sort of remark), so now he won’t comment on personal appearance.”

But, “in our business, if we weren’t sexually harassed a little bit, we wouldn’t know we were at work,” Saint Anne said.

When the topic of female role models arose, some guests had positive reports, such as agent Nancy Rainford of the Irv Schechter Co., who said that most of the organization’s agents were women.

Universal’s Smith, the first woman to head a physical production department at a movie studio, said she had no role models.

“At meetings there are 11 men and me,” she said. “I don’t want to act like a Teamster, because then I’d be flinging the F-word around.”

Not all of the conversation was complimentary to women. Smith said that one female director had set Universal back 15 years with her demands and inability to bring her project in on time and on budget.

After lunch, the women broke off into small groups for more in-depth discussions and networking. Several who were looking for possible projects spoke with producer Burns. Weston, who shares with Gross such television credits as “The Billionaire Boys Club,” said in an interview that she was back for her third luncheon because she found them so rewarding.

“You’re with your peers, people on the same level, rather than trying to educate people,” Weston said. “You’re expanding your knowledge of various people, and you get to meet the people you’ve talked with on the phone. One time, we met a casting director we’d talked to for years.”

“This is grass-roots interaction and empowerment of women,” said returnee Candace Block, who markets and promotes events to benefit social causes. “I became great friends with Nancy (Hutson Perlman) because of the luncheon, and I’ve met other people through her that I’ve done business with. It’s an ongoing process.”

Perlman and Arbus said they have been “godmothers” to various relationships forged and projects initiated at the luncheons, as well as deals sealed afterward.

“But actually, it’s entirely different than the Old Boys Network,” Perlman said. “They have very specific connections. Here, people come who don’t know one other person. There is not a structure. So it’s background support instead of the machinations or manipulations of someone’s career or someone’s project.”

Of course, in 14 years there have been a few mishaps, like the time the hostesses unknowingly seated a studio executive’s wife and mistress next to each other. Recently, two women who were bitter enemies found themselves seated next to each other. And a newspaper critic once faced off with a woman whose film project she had lambasted. “You could cut the air with a knife,” said Arbus of that episode, “but by the end there was a marvelous rapprochement.”

But the women see those episodes as just minor glitches. Said Arbus, “I have a rush going to the luncheon, and a high coming out of it, every time. We made a commitment to do this, come hell or high water, and it’s very gratifying.”

Added Perlman: “The people who come look at this table and see themselves reflected in so many aspects. There’s that feeling of, ‘We’re all in this together.’ Loreen and I had no idea it would be as great as it is.”