DIAMOND TIME: The Coach House in San...

DIAMOND TIME: The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano marks its 10th anniversary Wednesday. For four of those years, Ken Phebus, the club’s concert director, has been nominated for the Nightclub Talent Buyer of the Year award conferred by Pollstar, the concert industry’s trade journal. So far, no cigar, but Phebus will have another shot Saturday night at the annual Pollstar awards dinner in Santa Monica. . . . Other contenders include Kevin Morrow, who books, among others, Anaheim’s just-opened Freedman Forum Concert Theatre.

STAYING WITH IT: If dreams can come true, look for Shauna Searles of Cal State Fullerton to be in the running in tonight’s nationally televised Miss USA Pageant (Channel 2, 9 p.m.). . . . “I’ve already dreamed she won,” says Tanya Ware, director of the Orange County regional pageant. . . . Searles, 26, of Tustin, won that one last year, then went on to win the state title. “This is her sixth try; I think that says something about never giving up,” says Ware. “She’s bright, vibrant, a doll in every sense of the word.”

EDDIE & BETTY: Eddie Murphy of Buena Park had already impressed her co-workers with her commitment to retirees as part of her job at Hughes Aircraft--she also does volunteer work for the elderly. But a bonus was the baked goods she constantly brought to the office. . . . So co-worker Jeannie Harvey entered Murphy in a national “Spirit of Betty Crocker” contest, and Murphy this month came out a winner. Part of Harvey’s essay on Murphy: “Having Eddie touch your life is a gift.”

ZOO PARTY: You don’t hear social comic Jay Leno of NBC’s “Tonight Show” talking much about Santa Ana. But he couldn’t resist this week after learning that the Santa Ana Zoo would have a special day on Valentine’s, where you could watch the animals mating. . . . The retort from Leno, after a roll of the eyes: “And for the single guys, they have the petting zoo.”