Reaching Out to Touch Someone

First wives club? Not the flick, the spa treatment.

Say what?

The Spa at South Coast Plaza has cooked up a way for wives, angry or not, and other women to bubble away bad memories or just plain relax in a Jacuzzi.

The Costa Mesa spa and fitness center has been coaxing women inside its aromatic rooms with an indulgent treatment package: There’s a facial, a full-body massage and a fresh-start make-over and hairstyle.

Taking advantage of the package--but not soaking in the peeved sentiment of the movie--were Pam Banks and Emily Hunter, both happily unmarried Laguna Beach residents.

“ ‘First Wives Club’? You mean ‘Small Wives Club,’ ” Hunter said.

Hunter took a break between bites of her lunch, taken outside near the pool, to say she didn’t relate to the film’s story or the characters.

“But it was funny,” Banks countered with a smile.

Spa manager Barbara Schultz created the $260 package partially as a joke but mainly to throw out a lure to women who need to escape life’s demands. In the past few months, first, second and third wives have signed up to be spoiled, as have brides-to-be and mistresses.