Margaret Thatcher to Grace L.A. on Oct. 3

The Baroness Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of Great Britain, is coming to town. She will be honored at an exclusive champagne reception and dinner Oct. 3 for 160 guests and will address the group on issues of health, education and welfare in a speech, “Challenges of the 21st Century.”

Dr. Richard MacKenzie, division head of adolescent medicine at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and Neville Butler, director of the International Centre for Child & Family Studies, have joined to arrange the benefit at the Hotel Bel-Air.

Big 40th: Few events are as delightfully traditional as the annual A-rated Portuguese Bend National Horse Show in Rolling Hills Estates, which turns 40 this month. It’s not just that the Peninsula Committee for Childrens Hospital has contributed more than $3 million to the hospital over four decades and gives 15,000 volunteer hours each year.

In addition, generations of families have become involved in the colorful show. They plan, prepare, staff booths and create decorations and boutiques. They stage puppet shows, face-painting and sand art. And they entice the crowd with barbecues and Mexican fare. In early days, moms, dads and kids painted the corral fences every year.

Victoria Brant, wife of banker Robert Brant, heads the show Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Ernie Howlett Park, 25851 Hawthorne Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates. More than 3,000 are expected to attend. Special events will include the R.W. Durham $10,000 Junior-Amateur Jumper Class, the Jack Russell Terrier dog races and an appearance by the Long Beach Mounted Police. Hunter and jumper classes will be held all three days.

Donna Moody is president of the committee. Funds will be directed to the Associates’ Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery. Last year’s show raised $162,973.

Spirit of Life: Philanthropist Caroline Ahmanson and pianist David Helfgott took the spotlight at the Concerto Ball at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Aug. 22. They were honored with Spirit of Life awards at a kickoff fund-raiser for scholarships for the International Foundation for Educational & Performing Arts’ “International Summer School of Music,” to be inaugurated next summer at Pepperdine University by David Henson.

Henson chairs the foundation, which is planning for 75 students from secondary schools.

Marquesa Francesca de Aguilar chaired the ball. She pointed out that Ahmanson was honored not for her countless awards, honors and charities, but for her “boundless true spirit of life” and her “joy of life.”

“Your award,” she said at the dinner, “is an inspiration for all young people to strive to attain a true high quality of life, inner peace and inner beauty.”

Ahmanson presented Dana Broccoli, Nina Hartwell and Myra Nourmand with “Angels of Music Education Awards” for their endowment gifts.

Sweet September: It may still be August, but fall is in the air. The calendar is filling up. Women in Film’s Lucy Awards will be presented to Carol Burnett, Roseanne and Jean MacCurdy, president of Warner Bros. Television Animation, on Sept. 13 at a luncheon in the Crystal Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Irma Kalish will be given the Women in Film Founders Award. As part of Emmy weekend, the luncheon also honors the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ female Emmy nominees.

The Lucy Awards were established in 1994 by Joanna Kerns with support from the Lucille Ball estate. Loreen Arbus, Bonny Dore and Deborah Miller chair the award committee.

Champion: Peter Chernin, chairman and CEO of the Fox Group, has been singled out to be honored by trustees of the Southern California chapter, National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The “Dinner of Champions” occurs Sept. 15 in the Century Plaza’s Los Angeles Ballroom.

Tom Sherak is dinner chairman. Co-chairs are Arthur and Britta Schramm. Among committee members are Richard Corgel, Rhona Bader, Charles Hirschhorn, Sim Leonard and Bill Todman Jr.

Byron Allen will be master of ceremonies. A special award will salute Zoe Koplowitz.

Tiffany Lunch: Wallace Steiner, vice president-Southwest Region, Tiffany & Co., took over a room at Pinot at the Cronicle in Pasadena for a luncheon Aug. 20. Is Tiffany opening in Pasadena?

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

Russel Griggs of the Scottish Enterprise Operations will join the University of Glasgow on Wednesday in a private reception for the Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles British Consul General Merrick Baker-Bates will represent British Ambassador John Kerr at the reception in the Times Mirror Central Court.

* Ruth Boggs Shannon of Whittier has been elected to the five-member board of trustees of the Huntington Library. She succeeds Lawrence R. Tollenaere, elected trustee emeritus. She has served the past three years as chairwoman of the Board of Overseers, and she also chaired the $9.9-million Whittier College performing arts center campaign. Merle H. Banta of San Marino will chair the Overseers. New Overseers include Peggy Galbraith, Patrick Whaley and Eugene Yeager.

* St. John’s Health Center Foundation has named four Westside business and philanthropic leaders as trustees: John Light, Bruce Meyer, William Mortensen and Claire Shea.

* The Pasadena Symphony Assn., which ended the season in the black, has named new board members: Louise Cook, Marsha Easterbrook, Mitsuko Felton, J.C. Massar, Debra Paterson and Dr. Hugo Riffel.