Some Items We’ll Savor; Others Were Just Plain Unsavory

What a roller-coaster year for the social set.

For starters: They watched, slack-jawed, as social wanna-bes Susie and Danny Hernandez of Mission Viejo were arrested on charges of siphoning nearly $8 million from a Santa Fe Springs precious metals company. Their bespangled images blipped off the social page and ended up on the front page.

Was it pressure from the social scene that drove the couple to buy a stable of luxury automobiles, pretentious baubles, European frocks, exotic vacations and plastic surgery? They’re not saying.

Then there was Joke Night--the evening developer William Lyon stood before guests at an Orange County Performing Arts Center gala and insinuated that First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was a lesbian, saying “she and Bill met because they were dating the same woman,” according to accounts. Guests at the farewell gala for Thomas Kendrick and Judy Morr were offended. Snapped developer Kathryn Thompson: “That just tells me money can’t buy class.”

Losing grande dame Athalie Clarke was a major setback. Impossible shoes to fill.

But there were good times. Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory staged a 30th anniversary gala that was so successful it could well be a matrix for all future galas. The Laguna Art Museum celebrated its 75th with a yearlong parade of activities. The Candlelight Concert that benefits the center celebrated its 20th.

Magic Johnson presided over an auction at Planet Hollywood that raised big bucks for AIDS patients. Pacific Symphony conductor Carl St.Clair was surrounded by local fans when he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in Manhattan. And New York fashion maven Donna Karan climbed aboard a Newport Beach yacht for the year’s most fashionable “floating” dinner party. And more. Herewith, a backward glance:

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Talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphael and “Man of La Mancha” composer Mitch Leigh were among the party-goers who attended the New York bash that celebrated maestro St.Clair’s debut with the New York Philharmonic. More than 100 guests rubbed elbows at the Upper East Side brownstone of NBC executive John Rohrbeck and his wife, Sonnai--friends of party co-hostess Sharon Jaquith and her husband, Peter.

Guests guzzled Cristal champagne and sampled Osetra caviar while they buzzed about St.Clair. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Carl--he’s such an extraordinarily talented man,” gushed Sharon Jaquith, a trustee of the Leo Freedman Foundation.

Orchestra president Ron Hanson, who lost his home in the Laguna Beach fire, was grateful for the trip. “It’s been good for us to get away,” he said. “We spent the afternoon at Ellis Island--saw pictures of all those hopeful immigrants who came to our country with one suitcase. . . . It was very inspiring.”

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Roseanne and Tom Arnold participated in a December “Battle of the Bulge Charity Eating Contest” at Planet Hollywood in Santa Ana on behalf of their foundation for young victims of sexual abuse. Explaining how the fund-raiser came about, Planet Hollywood President Robert Earl said: “The Arnolds were sitting with me in one of our restaurants, and we started eating. . . . Pretty soon we notice we’re dining at the same fierce speed. When the desserts showed up, we began to fight over them.” Boom! The stuff-your-face charity benefit was born.

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Not only did Vice President Al Gore shake hands with every guest who came to honor Roger Johnson--head of the General Services Administration--and his wife, Janice, at the private George Town Club in Washington, he provided the after-dinner entertainment.

Standing before a bipartisan crowd, Gore told the one about the difference between Republicans and Democrats: “If a man was drowning (50 feet away), a Republican would throw him a 25-foot rope and yell, ‘Swim! It will improve your character!’ A Democrat would throw him a 100-foot rope, walk away and look for more good deeds to do.”

Developer Kathryn Thompson tossed the bash on behalf of the Johnsons. A Republican who supported Bill Clinton early in his presidential bid, she told the crowd: “Roger, when we announced our support for Clinton in 1991, little did we know we’d be sitting here one day at the George Town Club. And, little did I know I’d still be married to my husband, Gus Owen, chairman of the Lincoln Club of Orange County. When I first indicated my support for Clinton, Gus left town for three days and I didn’t know where he was.”

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Orange County society got a new place to party when the pricey suites at Anaheim Arena--offered at between $64,000 and $99,000 per year--became available. Millionaires such as cartoonist Rob Liefeld, 26, of Fullerton lapped them up. “I couldn’t resist getting in on the ground floor of something like this,” he said. It’s the only way to attend a hockey game--the menu offers oysters on the half shell, the wine list Dom Perignon. On occasion, Michelle Pfeiffer joins the ranks. Just Ducky .

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Opera Pacific supporters partied in Bill and Laila Conlin’s Santa Fe home in August during a visit to the Santa Fe opera. As guests sipped wine and peach-nectar punch, they stood on the veranda with its view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and watched an electrical storm dance in a turquoise sky. Vrrrrrroooom! went a thunderclap. “That must be Wagner,” deadpanned one guest.

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Orange County society crisped the telephone wires in July when they read the Vogue magazine article that “mauled” South Coast Plaza. In an eight-page spread titled, “Life Among the Mall Rats,” writer Charles Gandee ridiculed the shopping center’s young and hip regulars, calling one “a mall rat . . . conspicuous not only by his perpetual presence but by his appearance.”

And how was your year?