From Fergie to Pfeiffer, and Belafonte to Bacall

Packed with celebrity appearances, 1997 will go down in Orange County social history as the Year of the Big Name.

We saw the Duchess of York, Lauren Bacall, Harry Belafonte, Michelle Pfeiffer, David Rockefeller, Michael Eisner, Elizabeth Dole and more.

Is there a better way for the fund-raising set to attract a crowd than presenting someone they never dreamed they’d meet?

It’s beginning to look like 1998 will bring more of the same: Walter Cronkite will appear Jan. 29 at a benefit for Cal State Fullerton, and Mia Farrow will speak March 12 in behalf of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

This year, the celebs provided inspiration and a few surprises.

Some highlights:

* There was no holding back the Duchess of York during her May speech at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel.

She chided a pack of music lovers for “chattering” during a piano recital by an 11-year-old musician, praised them for being “unstuffy,” then plugged her charities, a weight-loss program and a fruit drink.

No one seemed surprised at her outspokenness. After all, this was Fergie, the fiery redhead who married--and divorced--Prince Andrew, then bucked Buckingham Palace, “that cozy, sweet, home with 600 rooms,” as she calls it.

Some of the guests at the benefit for the Philharmonic Society were miffed. “She was a guest; she shouldn’t have been telling us how to behave,” whispered one mainstay of the performing arts circuit.

Invited to tattle on the monarchy, the duchess demurred: “I simply wouldn’t dream of being so arrogant as to stand up here and discuss that subject,” she said.

* When legendary film star Bacall swept into the Hyatt Regency Irvine in March, she got the standing ovation many thought she should have gotten at the Academy Awards. Her speaking engagement for the Pacific Symphony came two days after she lost her bid for best supporting actress.

Beginning a speech that was more about family and work than Tinseltown, Bacall spoke of Newport Beach: “Newport played a big part in my courting days with Bogart,” she began. “He was a member of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.”

She hesitated, studying her speech. She seemed to have lost her place. “You’ll have to forgive me--my brain is a little scrambled,” she said. “I have been slightly preoccupied. It has been award-time in my profession. Los Angeles has been consumed by it and I, too, have been consumed. Now I can breathe again, move onto other things.”

An industry survivor, Bacall chalked up her staying power to goal-setting. “My great luck in life was being surrounded by people who had goals. . . . I wanted to work, dreamed of being a star.”

* Belafonte proved it: Real men talk about prostate cancer. Yes, he had the disease, the singer told 500 guests at an April benefit for the Hoag Cancer Center in Newport Beach. Yes, he had surgery to remove it. Yes, he had problems with incontinence. And yes, he and his wife still enjoyed a level of physical affection that “unifies our lives.”

That said, Belafonte, 70, got the topics of prostate cancer and its conversational taboos--incontinence and impotence--out in the open.

Early diagnosis is the key to surviving the disease. And when the necessary procedures are over, it’s time to get on with your life, Belafonte said. “Make it work. Live life as fully as possible.”

* Pfeiffer, a former Miss Orange County, flew by helicopter from Los Angeles for her September appearance at Disneyland’s Community Services Award ceremony in Anaheim.

The golden-haired film star handed out Anniversary Awards of $40,000 each to local volunteers. “It is truly an honor to be here tonight and have a small part in recognizing all of you,” she told them.

* Standing before 500 people at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, Dole called for the country’s return to the wisdom of its founding fathers at a June benefit for Angelitos de Oro, a support group for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Orange County.

Criticizing a government that she said had come to employ “regulation over responsibility,” Dole urged the nation’s leaders to have faith in the “wisdom and goodness of the people.”

“Individuals and national character are what we need,” she said. “Why aren’t we able to give our children what our parents gave us? Because the government has become too bureaucratic. We know, for many years, all the power has gone one direction--right to Washington, D.C.”

* Bidding was feverish during a September auction at a benefit for the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana. It seemed everybody wanted to attend the showing of the 1998 Chanel Ready-to-Wear Collection in Paris.

But U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez went all out, stopping others cold when she yelled “Six thousand!”

“Dear, I need to tell you something,” she told her husband, Stephen Brixey III, the next day.

“Oh my God, what did you buy?” he asked. “What did you spend, a $1,000?”

“Nooooooo,” she said.

“$500?”

“No,” she answered, ‘You’re going the wrong way!”

It all worked out. They’re heading for Paris together.

* After decades of upholding the philanthropic traditions of one of the world’s wealthiest families, David Rockefeller--son of Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller--could have easily turned down another social outing.

But when he was invited to make an appearance at a benefit for the Orange County Museum of Art in May, he couldn’t resist. Art museums are his favorite form of philanthropy.

“I think it is very healthy and encouraging that Orange County is not only prosperous but also recognizing the importance of giving its citizens an opportunity to see beautiful works of art,” Rockefeller said.

* Speaking before a spirited, 3,000-strong crowd at the Pond in Anaheim in February, Disney chief Eisner confided that, for all of his company’s successes, there were still failures. “In my job, you deal with failure every day,” he said. “Movies bomb, videos flop, children are bored with new theme-park concepts.

“But failure is unavoidable and indispensable. It’s not how you fail; but how you deal with it. It is only failure if you do not learn from it.”

Here’s to your success in 1998. Happy New Year.