A Pageant Tour? Some Say Models Shouldn’t Move

The executive director of the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters said Wednesday that he is in preliminary discussions with an international talent agency to produce versions of the city’s signature summer pageant of “living pictures” in other cities.

Steve Brezzo said Wednesday that when pageant officials learned other cities were planning to mimic its famed tableaux vivants -- recreations of art masterpieces with live models -- “one of the options [the pageant had] would be to beat those productions to the punch.”

Brezzo, who also heads the associated nonprofit group Festival of Arts, said that if a deal is struck, the pageant will have artistic control and a financial interest in the merchandising rights, ticket sales and licensing fees.

He emphasized, however, that there are no plans to move the original pageant, which began in 1935, from Laguna Beach.

The idea of road shows was not well received by Mayor Toni Iseman, however. Just last year the city signed a 40-year deal to keep the pageant and the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, ending six years of negotiations and threats to move the festival to San Clemente.

“We gave them an amazing deal on the land, and a long lease,” Iseman said, “and in exchange they give us exclusive rights.” The deal also reduced the festival’s annual rent from $600,000 to $200,000.

The agreement also includes a clause that requires the pageant to get City Council approval to perform anywhere else, Iseman said.

But Brezzo said that pageant attorneys and the city attorney have talked and “I’ve been told we’ve answered many of their questions, and there’s no big issue at this point.”

He added that the pageant has not signed or committed to anything with International Creative Management, a talent agency that represents Hollywood stars such as Denzel Washington, Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Richard Gere. An ICM spokesman confirmed its discussions with the pageant.

It is unclear how or where the productions would be mounted, and whether performers would volunteer, as they do in Laguna Beach. Nearly 500 volunteers serve as figures in the art pieces and work behind the scenes to re-create sculptures and artworks from Norman Rockwell to Leonardo’s “The Last Supper,” a work first reproduced in 1936 and still the pageant’s finale.