Red-Letter Date With Margaret Thatcher

The Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce headed by president Brion S. Talley boasts a red-letter date--”An Evening With Lady Margaret Thatcher” Nov. 11 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Ballroom.

*

PAWS (& CLAWS): It seemed everyone was wrapped up in a favorite pet, modeling at the Pasadena Humane Society’s & SPCA’s South Lake Avenue fashion show “Paws for Fun and Fashion” last weekend. Prominent Pasadenean Ginie Braun tied Mr. Nixon, a boa constrictor, around her neck. Tim Shumaker appeared natty with his personal guide dog, Inky. Steve McNall, the Humane Society’s executive director, let hawk Harry flutter fancily. Susan Parker had Rainbow, her parrot, on her shoulder and beagle Salisbury prancing at her heels. Joan Traitel and her black Lab, Sadie, looked regal. Shannon Gleanson carried her hamster, Fluffy, and Katie Kraft her long-haired mice, Laurel and Hardy. Susan Aceves’ rescued greyhounds, Peaches and Tasha, loped along. Beverly Standing and her golden retriever, Carlo, took a patrician stride. Sally White’s terrier, Lamb Chop, bounced with a ruff of golden taffeta on his neck. Valerie Murphy of Harold Grant and Gary Lund did fashion critiques. And a committee chaired by Alice Frost Kennedy and including Peggy Russell home-made all the box lunches that supporters such as Gwen and Bob Cheesewright ate sitting on Polytechnic School bleachers.

*

MR. COLOR: David Hockney was as bright as his paintings as he sat on the Mark Taper stage this week before 200 members of the Blue Ribbon. Red socks inside white socks tucked into olive suede bucks. Red tie. White cords. Navy blazer over turquoise shirt and faded turquoise vest--all of this on Hockney, sitting atop a blue Chinese rug beside a pine box topped with purple iris. “The other side of the curtain” was a billing of a Hockney conversation with Peter Hemmings, general director of the Los Angeles Opera, and John Cox, director of “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” the Richard Strauss opera that debuts Sunday. Hockney designed the production.

Hockney confessed he takes friends on two Mulholland Hills drives that are choreographed to opera, with certain stops, turns, speeds. He also noted he never listens to music while he paints. “I like complicated music, so I have to listen. And painting is complicated too, and I find I am not listening to the music.” It seemed logical to co-chairs Lenore Greenberg and Nancy Livingstone and president Sandra Ausman.

*

FAUX BEJEWELED: A glittery crowd turned out to meet Danna Swarovski and see the “Jewels of Fantasy” show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It befitted the glamour of the first major exhibition on 20th Century costume jewelry including works by Balenciaga, Butler & Wilson, Lalique, Chanel, Rudi Gernreich, Schiaparelli, Boucher. Danna happens to be an American (from Washington, D.C.) who married the great-grandson of the founder of the Austrian-based Swarovski family, which has supplied cut crystal stones to the fashion industry since 1895. Her beautiful daughter, 24-year-old Vanessa, a USC graduate, was a standout. So were honorary co-chair Cyd Charisse and the museum’s costume curator Edward Maeder in a Faith Porter jeweled bow tie. Mary Milner and Ann Johnson, both wearing elegant pantsuits, rushed in/rushed out to the swank Neiman Marcus dinner at L’Orangerie feting Italian fur designer Giuliana Teso.

The next day John Martens hosted tea for Danna Swarovski at Neiman Marcus. Back at the museum, the Costume Council hosted a lecture and tea chaired by Mary Martin to honor jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane.

Then on Monday international party-goer John Loring, design director of Tiffany & Co., lectured for the Art Museum Council at its second “unforgetTABLES” showcase of table settings chaired by Susan Kaufman and Barbara Jacobson. In the crowd: Tiffany vice president John Petterson and museum trustee Dona Kendall, who notes that the museum has 10 volunteer groups, more than any other museum in the country.

*

PERSONAL TOUCH: Fred Weisman gestured and accidentally knocked wine down his vivacious wife Billie’s bosom Saturday while giving personal pointers on art in their Carolwood Place house in Holmby Hills for members of Pepperdine University’s new Center for the Arts Guild. “Call us Laurel and Hardy,” she giggled. Weisman said he wanted the house to become “the California Frick.” Guild founders John and Rosemary Raitt warmly greeted guests touring what is considered one of the nation’s finest contemporary art collections--Warhols, Picassos, Hockneys, Lichtensteins enough to make you gasp. Prominent: guild member Vicky Booth and her parents, Ginny and Peter Ueberroth, Suzanne and Warren Dillard, curator Nora Halpern, Charles and Amy Jo Runnells and Pat Boone.

*

ESCALATION: Dee Maechling and Julie Pizzinat presented their winter Deanna Julia one-of-a-kind fashion exquisites to 50 friends at Bistro 45 . . . After the opening of Judd Hirsch in “Conversations With My Father” at the Doolittle Theatre, first-nighter skipped to the Cat & Fiddle Pub for post-show fun . . . “Sunset Blvd.” U.S. premiere chair Brooke Young invited patrons for the Childrens Hospital Nov. 23 benefit for cocktails at the Beverly Hills Ferragamo boutique. Highlight was the photograph of her grandmother Gloria Swanson, being fitted by Salvatore Ferragamo for the shoes Swanson wore in the 1950 film of “Sunset” . . . Nancy Daly (Mayor Richard Riordan’s good friend) spoke at the Hillsides Home for Children open house Saturday celebrating its 80 years of caring. . . . CalArts president Steven D. Lavine and wife Janet Sternburg hosted a garden party Sunday, presenting the trustees’ award to Fred Nicholas and the late Sharon Disney Lund. . . . The Bernard Babcocks in San Marino entertained at a garden gourmet festival for Crown Guild of the Crippled Children’s Society. . . . Juniors of Social Service Auxiliary staged a Victorian tea at the home of Evelyn Vodhanel to announce Candlelight Ball chairs Barbara Barnoski and Sally Kroener.