Thomas Hoving, the controversial former director of...

Thomas Hoving, the controversial former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, former editor-in-chief of Connoisseur magazine and author of a new book, “Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” is on the lecture circuit and will stop at Le Meridien hotel in Newport Beach on Jan. 24 at 4 p.m. to talk about the book. The event, sponsored by and benefiting the Newport Harbor Art Museum, will be followed by a reception (included in the $25-per-person charge for the lecture) and a dinner at 6:30 p.m. (for which tickets cost $150). For tickets or more information, call (714) 759-1122.