Our Lady of the Angels welcomes a new guest

The big star at this premiere party didn’t arrive by limo. She came in a cardboard box.

Surrounded by guards, she stood in the middle of the room, dressed in a mysterious blue cloak and tiny crown. Her skin was porcelain -- literally.

That’s because she’s an 18-inch-tall statuette. Monday night, she made her Southern California debut at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

About 150 people paid $50 apiece to watch Cardinal Roger Mahony bless the sculpture, a three-dimensional rendition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the revered cloth image of the Virgin Mary enshrined in Mexico City. The event also raised money for a program to help troubled youth.

The statue, a limited edition collectible produced by Lladro, the Spanish porcelain art company, reportedly took four years to develop. The Guadalupe figurines will sell for $1,250 each at the cathedral gift shop.

The festivities began with the sculpture under wraps in the middle of a ballroom. Guests sipped cocktails, munched taquitos and caramelized bananas, and wandered past 11 other Lladro collectibles, which ranged in price from $495 for a crucifix to $6,950 for a piece titled “The Burial of Christ.”

A quartet of musicians entertained with Spanish-flavored guitar and percussion.

Finally, Mahony unveiled the statue, which stood on a revolving platform inside a locked glass case. Draping himself with a Mexican stole, he raised his hands toward the sculpture and offered a prayer of blessing that those who buy the Guadalupe statues would use them to draw closer to God.

Next, he sprinkled the glass case with holy water, but he wasn’t quite sure where to aim. “She keeps turning,” he said.

After the ceremony, Lladro groupies snapped photos of the glittering statue while Mahony hobnobbed with the crowd.

“It’s very beautiful,” he said of the sculpture, which he hadn’t seen before the unveiling.

Randi Stanislawski was one of about 20 people who bought the Guadalupe statues (she also nabbed a $1,000 Virgin of Montserrat sculpture). “I’ve been to a seminar on Our Lady of Guadalupe and because of that, it meant something to me,” she said.

Other guests were more interested in supporting Work Is Noble, the charity cause benefiting from the event. Profits from the sale of Guadalupe sculptures at the cathedral -- $400 per statue -- will go to the program, which gives jobs to “at-risk” high school students. Sponsored by the cathedral and Homeboy Industries, the program places students with various employers and pays their $7-per-hour salaries and insurance costs for the first 200 hours of work. At the end of that period, “we hope the employer will keep them,” said Father Greg Boyle, who founded the program.

Monday’s event netted $33,000 for the charity, much of it from private and corporate donations (including a check from The Times), according to event co-chairwoman Holly Joseph Roca.