The Price of Feeding a Prince

We’ve been wondering for some time how much it costs to feed a prince. His Majesty Prince Charles to be exact, and we’ve been waiting almost a year to find out.

The UK/LA Foundation was nine months late in filing a city-required Report of Results on its $5,000-a-couple black-tie dinner last November. This was the occasion when the Prince of Wales and about 250 rich-but-not-royals dined on the back lawn of Aaron and Candy Spelling’s Holmby Hills estate.

Though tardy with the report, the foundation had nothing to hide. In fact it had an excellent take: a $266,075 net to charity from $427,100 taken in, which is pretty good for a one-time event like this.

So, what does it cost to feed a prince? Less than it costs to rent or purchase equipment for the dinner ($40,568), less than insurance ($37,600), and less than advertising and publicity ($26,705). However, it did cost more than flowers and plants ($10,280), printing, postage and stationery ($7,492), music ($6,275) and various other expenses.

The actual catering cost was $25,858. So a meal fit for a prince comes to about $100 a head.

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Glitz and Glamour: If there’s such a thing as celebrity “Mortal Kombat,” it’s probably the real-life cat-and-mouse game the paparazzi play with the famous.

Now that world of stealth photographers and their reluctant quarry has become a CD-ROM game.

Entitled “Paparazzi! Tales of Tinseltown,” the Museworthy game involves collecting clues on where celebrities might be, getting the “money” shot, selling photos to the highest bidder and occasionally being punched by angry celebs.

“We try to make it as real as possible,” said co-producer John Kelly.

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Parking Problems: One party that almost got crushed by President Clinton’s appearance last week at the House of Blues, was L.A. Models’ 10th anniversary affair. It was held at the Mondrian Hotel directly across a narrow street from the club.

Long before the Clinton visit was announced, L.A. Models had invited 1,800 guests to the spot. They would be converging on the street when police and Secret Service agents started closing it off for the presidential motorcade. To make matters worse, models without valet parking do not qualify for federal disaster relief. However, last-minute negotiations allowed hotel attendants to drive cars down the street.

Jeremy Goldberg, who handled the party for L.A. Models, said, “at first the Secret Service seemed a little shellshocked,” but were very friendly about resolving the parking hassles.