Museum’s Car Exhibit Plans Are the Mega-Buzz at Party

A never-before exhibit of custom car culture will be on display at the Laguna Art Museum next summer as part of its 75th anniversary celebration.

That was the mega-buzz at Saturday’s yacht cruise and dinner party staged by anniversary chairwoman Dolores Milhous at her home on exclusive Linda Isle in Newport Beach.

“Custom car culture has heavily influenced fine art, and we’re going to take a big look at that,” said museum director Charles Desmarais, who attended the afternoon affair--part of the museum’s annual fund-raising Perspectives dinner series--with his wife, Kitty.

“ ‘Custom Culture’ will feature the art of Ed (Big Daddy) Roth, Von Dutch and Robert Williams,” Desmarais said. “We’ll have a big street party, and there’ll be customized cars, pieces of cars, drawings and much more.” Milhous will co-underwrite the exhibit.

The yearlong celebration will feature one “high-end gala,” said Milhous--an arts activist who divides her time between digs in Dallas, her primary residence, and the ultra-modern manse next door to billionaire Donald Bren’s--and two other celebrations. “The parties will be open to the public. We don’t want to exclude anyone from our celebrations,” she said.

How do you coordinate an Orange County arts event from Dallas (oh, and a new 40,000-acre ranch in Oregon)? “Faxes and the phone,” Milhous answered with a laugh. “How did the world exist before faxes?”

Twenty guests cruised the wind-swept waters of Newport Bay aboard the 60-foot Bravissimo, the Milhous yacht, before dining on Caesar salad and a pasta buffet prepared poolside by the staff of Rent-a-Chef. (“I found out about Rent-a-Chef one Mother’s Day when my daughter planned a breakfast in bed for me,” Milhous said. “Chef Hugo was in my kitchen for two hours and I didn’t even know it--amazing!”)

Milhous, a supporter of the Laguna Art Museum since 1976, says that planning its 75th anniversary celebration is a thrill because the museum has gone from “quaint to being nationally recognized.”

“We’re an Orange County museum that happens to be located in Laguna Beach,” she said. “And with our focus on California art in the 20th Century, we fill a niche that other, broader themed museums don’t. We’re in demand.”

On Thursday, Don and Claudette Shaw (she founded the Perspectives fund-raising series five years ago) presided over its pricey kickoff event, a $500-per-person golf tourney staged at Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach.

“It’s Orange County’s answer to Pebble Beach,” Claudette Shaw said at a pre-tourney dinner--chicken piccata and lemon tarts--at Big Canyon Country Club. “I can hardly wait.”

Her husband would be her partner, she said. Do they ever argue on the links? “No comment.”

Also participating in the tournament were Randy and Cece Presley (Cecil B. DeMille’s granddaughter) and Laguna Art Museum president Jon Erickson and his wife, JoAnn.

Other Perspectives events include dinner on Aug. 23 at the Emerald Bay homes of Jany and George Gade, Joan and Ronald Lane, and Carol and Gregory Lindstrom. First, guests will gather at the home of Dorothy and Don Bendetti for cocktails and appetizers presented by David Wilhelm. Then guests have the choice of going to the Gade home for Southern French cuisine and a visit with artist David Sabaroff or the Lane home for Oriental fare created by Michael Kang of Five Feet restaurant. The Lindstroms will offer a Caribbean-style feast at their seaside manse.

On Aug. 30, Perspectives participants will attend a dinner at the new Laguna Beach home of Bill Magnuson and Ulf Strandberg, owners of Gustaf Anders restaurant at South Coast Plaza Village. Billed as a “Picnic With Panache,” guests will dine al fresco on restaurant specialties and sip fine wines.

Along with Works Gallery owner Mark Moore, artists Deeanne Belinoff, Charles Hill, Kris Cox and George Geyer will mix with art lovers at the Perspectives bash planned for Oct. 4 at the Monarch Beach home of Diane and Armand Lofchie. Sporting a suggested attire of “cutting edge cool” the group plans to sip, sup and rap about changes on the art scene amid the Lofschies’ extensive art collection.

Happenings: Watch for glitz king Bob Mackie to attend a luncheon at the Center Club in Costa Mesa on Sept. 29. On display at the affair will be some of the designer’s most famous gowns and a new video that chronicles his rise to fame. About 100 women will attend the for-members-only affair. . . .

On Aug. 30, 18 couples--all opera buffs--will gather in the Chanel boutique at South Coast Plaza for a sit-down dinner catered by Pascal and musical selections performed by the stars of “La Boheme,” which opens on Sept. 12 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The party-goers won the chance to attend the chic repast at Opera Pacific’s recent La Boheme gala. . . .

About 40 of Orange County’s most prominent clothes horses gathered at the Center Club last week for a meeting of Fashion Group International, an organization of professional women in fashion who gather regularly to promote the rag biz. Roger Martin of Chanel showcased the last word in fashions for fall. . . .

The Pacific Chorale will celebrate its 25th anniversary season on Sept. 27 with a tribute to arts activists Roger and Janice Johnson at an “Entrepreneurs in the Arts” gala. Developer Kathryn Thompson is honorary chairwoman. . . .

Popcorn shrimp and charred rare ahi were on the menu when South Coast Repertory supporters gathered at Diva restaurant in Costa Mesa last week to honor the patrons of the theater’s Sept. 19 gala, CosmoFusion. Since 1978, gala committees have raised $1.4 million at the gala which annually launches SCR’s theater season. With numbers like that, there can be no doubt that gala-going is serious business.