The Light of Their Love--and Work--Shines for the Holiday

As a studio prop man, Joe Valentino has built creations such as a 110-foot-long, three-masted schooner for the movie, “Goonies,” and the intricate consoles for the Starship Enterprise.

Now he has a new gig going in his state-of-the-art home workshop.

He has created thousands of lighted, six-point Hanukkah stars in time for the Jewish Festival of Lights that begins Sunday evening.

Strange avocation for a nice Catholic boy.

To understand, flash back about 20 years to when Valentino and Ronni Van Gorp, nee Hoerner, met while cruising Van Nuys Boulevard.

They dated for a while, but then Van Gorp, who was attending El Camino High School, and her Polytechnic sweetheart parted company. Each married other people. Each divorced.

Four years ago they ran into each at the Calabasas Sagebrush Cantina.

Love is better the second time around, they say.

Joe and his 13-year-old son, Michael, have been invited to the house of Van Gorp’s family in West Hills on festive occasions, including the lighting of candles and gift exchanges during Hanukkah.

During one of the dinners several years ago Joe noticed an old, two-foot, blue and silver Hanukkah star that Van Gorp’s father, Jerry Hoerner, had made for his family more than 30 years before.

Van Gorp told Valentino that when she and her two brothers moved out of the house, her dad had made one for each of them, “to go.”

An idea was born.

“The stars are decorations that brighten the home during the holiday season,” explains Van Gorp. “Joe was so interested in them that he and I decided to make some two years ago and sell them at Jewish temple holiday boutiques.”

They did, and their success prompted to them to broaden their market. This year, they made more than 2,000 of the stars, which each cost about $50, for sale through mail order and at stores such as Abi’s Judaica & Gifts in Tarzana and Cherish in the Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills.

Asked if she thought it was odd that half of the Hanukkah Star Productions team is not Jewish, but Catholic, Van Gorp laughs and says their personal relationship is a bit of familial deja vu.

“My mom and dad met in Hollywood during the war at a dance for servicemen. He was Catholic and my mother is Jewish,” Van Gorp says. “He converted when they married and he became as active at Congregation Beth Kodesh as she is.”

Although the couple has not set a wedding date, Valentino says it’s in the future.

As for the business, Van Gorp has only one problem: How to repay her father for being the creative impetus.

“He told me to give him a kiss for every star we sold,” says Van Gorp. “I’m kissing him a lot these days.”

Amid Cramped Quarters, A Lively Scene Unfolds

There’s plenty of drama onstage at the Interact Theatre in North Hollywood, where John Rubinstein is starring in the production of Elmer Rice’s 1931 oeuvre, “Counselor-at-Law.”

In front of the footlights, everything is choreographed to the split second.

Backstage, chaos reigns.

It’s not about the cast being contentious, unruly and lacking discipline. It’s not about two leads doing the star-trip boogie routine. It is about 26 cast members getting ready in two tiny dressing rooms.

Annie Abbott of Van Nuys is one of the cast members. You may have seen her on television playing a judge on “L.A. Law.”

She likens what goes on backstage each Friday and Saturday night, with matinees on Sunday, to the area under the basket in a Knicks-Lakers game.

“The women’s dressing room is small, but the men’s dressing room is tiny. I’m always amazed to see people emerge with their costumes and makeup on,” she says.

In spite of the travails, the cast is grateful to perform for a live audience, she says.

“Most of us have done Broadway, and we need a continuing theater fix,” she adds.

In addition to productions, Abbott says, the Interact Theatre group hosts open, impromptu readings every Monday and a writing on Tuesdays. Both are open to the public.

The group also sponsors a youth theater on Saturdays. Two members of that workshop--teen-agers Victor Duran and Freddy Otero--have parts in “Counselor-at-Law,” which runs through Dec. 18.

We’re Getting Up There On The Food Chain

A space alien questioning a Westsider about where to dine out on this end of the planet would probably be told about interesting places in almost any area of Los Angeles, except the Valley, of course.

Well, Westsiders, here’s some restaurant news to chew over. Check out the 1995 Zagat Survey.

The prestigious wining and dining directory gives high marks to a wealth of Valley restaurants, including Bistro Garden at Coldwater and Sushi Nozawa, both in Studio City, Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas and even the ubiquitous California Pizza Kitchen.

But what will fry our gourmandizing over-the-hill cousins is that the Calabasas-based chain of The Cheesecake Factory restaurants scored higher than Wolfgang Puck’s Spago.

Overheard

“If I’m the most important person in her life, why am I the fifth guy on her speed dial?”

Man to his personal growth group in Sherman Oaks.