Returning in Prime Condition

The social event of summer ‘94? In our wanna-be-buffed-up world, it was easily the reopening of the Sports Club/LA, which had suffered severe earthquake damage. We don’t know if folks bought new sweats and sneaks for the occasion, but there were about 50 eager beavers lined up before doors opened at 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 1.

More joy was experienced when management passed out free designer water and fruit to one and all, since neither the cafe nor restaurant had yet reopened. (The restaurant finally opened Thursday).

As one StairMaster fiend told us: “Everyone felt like a major part of their lives had been reclaimed.”

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A Bob Cut: Our newest Robert Shapiro sighting: Last Saturday at the Jose Eber Salon on Rodeo Drive. What was O.J. Simpson’s tanned defense attorney doing there? He was getting his hair cut, as he always does, by Monsieur Eber. That was in the afternoon. Shapiro was actually making his second visit of the day--he had already been in that morning for his pedicure.

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Love for Sale: Flipping through the catalogue for Sotheby’s Sept. 26 jewelry auction, we came across a touching item tucked away as lot No. 344. There, included among several bibelots from the estate of Barbara Hutton, the much-married Woolworth heiress who died in 1979, was a small 14-karat gold ashtray engraved, “Merry Christmas to my darling Mummy from Lance.” Lance Reventlow, Hutton’s son, died in 1972. Hutton, we are told, gave the ashtray as well as several other treasures to a friend who decided to put them up for sale. The auction items go on view Friday through next Sunday at Sotheby’s, Beverly Hills.