MISCELLANY (Continued from page 31)
for his Auckland, New Zealand-based daughter, Jacqueline Kerridge Reeve and her husband, Christopher, who have just completed a 14-week honeymoon around the world. The tony twosome, who lived together for 18 years before tying the knot, left for the Antipodes earlier this week, but Peter, who used to reside in Birnam Wood, was determined to give them a suitable farewell party. As the 120 lei-laden guests noshed on pineapple pizza from Rusty’s and nibbles from China Palace, Kaleo – Hawaiian for voice – played a few favorites accompanied by two hula dancers and a drone soared overhead taking aerial shots of the occasion. Among those getting in the mood of the islands were Kate Packer, Nina Terzian, Gil Rosas, Dan Wright, Brenda Blalock, Tim and Laura Swigert, Billi Saucier, Monte Schulz, Alan Porter, Art and Monica Kline, and Madison Richardson and Toni Simon.
Hamburger Helped Her She’s a beautiful international supermodel, but former Montecito Union student Gigi Hadid recoils from healthy fruit inside her beef burgers. The runway star is a self-confessed burger lover who lives by the motto: “Eat clean to stay fit, eat a burger to stay sane.” Talking on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Gigi, the daughter of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid, described her love of the calorie-laden meal, claiming she ate a different burger every week for a year when she first moved to New York. “The best is JG Melon’s, uptown,” the lithe 21-year-old advised, wearing a monochrome corset and skintight suit trousers. “It’s so simple, they don’t try too hard... I had it for dinner last night,” she recalled as Fallon, 41, brought out two beef patties for them to devour on the NBC stage in which they both heartily partook, but not before Gigi ensured there was no tomato in the mix. Macon it Big Montecito author and former UCSB instructor Mary Dorra has been elected to the board of directors of Opera Santa Barbara. Born in Macon, Georgia, Mary grew up in Texas and earned a degree in philosophy at Vassar College. Following teaching stints in Costa Rica and Uruguay, she spent three years in Italy, first studying at the University of Florence and then working as a research reporter in TimeLife’s Rome bureau writing about art, fashion, and film. Mary went on to serve as an assis14 – 21 July 2016
Gregory Charlton, Richard Mineards, Alicia St. John, and Charles Ward
Mary Dorra joins Opera SB board
tant accessories editor at Harper’s Bazaar and assistant director of fashion publicity and promotion at cosmetics giant Revlon, both in New York, and as director of special events at the May Company in Los Angeles. She has also written for a heavenly host of publications, including The New York Times, Gourmet, Elle Decor, Los Angeles Times, and Travel + Leisure, as well as authoring three books, including Beautiful American Gardens and the historical novel Demeter’s Choice: A Portrait of My Grandmother as a Young Artist. A career of high note. Not His Style The New York Times society photographer, Bill Cunningham, whose death I wrote about last week, has been memorialized at his favorite spot on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, just a few fashionable Christian Louboutin footsteps from Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany. The oh-so-tony location has been renamed Cunningham Corner by city authorities. In Paris, where Bill frequently shot the top fashion shows for the Times, city officials bathed the Eiffel Tower
in Cunningham blue, the shade of the city garbage worker’s jacket he always used to wear while cycling around Manhattan to assignments. Bill, who was 87, would have hated all the fuss. He never even went to see Cunningham New York, a charming film documentary on the Harvard University dropout, released six years ago. Royal Richard For the second consecutive year, I was called on to play King George III in the Montecito Village July 4 parade with my Texan gadabout friend, Charles Ward, in the role of George Washington, sitting on the back of his Mercedes convertible. It was decidedly touch-and-go because my outfit from last year’s event had got mislaid and was found deep in the back of a closet at the last minute at the home of this illustrious organ’s publisher, James Buckley. But as the “regalia” didn’t contain an ounce of natural fiber, I am now recovering slowly from the effects of terminal static cling! Fish out of Water My mole with the martini tells me deep sea diver, Jean Michel Cousteau, is staying well above ground as the grand marshal for the 2016 Fiesta Parade. This year’s El Presidente J.C. Gordon made the choice. Fond Farewell On a personal note, I mark the passing of Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel at the age of 87.
Wiesel, who survived the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, to become an influential writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was a frequent diner at Mortimer’s, a society watering hole on Manhattan’s Upper Eastside, when I was first introduced. A charming man, he started life in Romania. His mother and younger sister perished at Auschwitz, while his father died in Buchenwald. His horrific experiences there were the basis for his book Night, which won him the Nobel Prize in 1986 and has been translated into 30 languages, selling millions of copies internationally. In his lifetime, he won the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and the Grand-Croix of the French Medal of Honor. He went on to condemn genocide worldwide. Wiesel said his greatest role was as a witness. And what a witness he was. Sightings: Oscar-nominated author Fannie Flagg at Pierre Lafond...Oscar winner Michael Keaton at the El Encanto...Richard Caleel and Morrie Jurkowitz lunching at Via Vai Pip! Pip! Readers with tips, sightings and other amusing items for Richard’s column should email him at richardmin eards@verizon.net or send invitations or other correspondence to the Journal. To reach Priscilla, email her at pris cilla@santabarbaraseen.com or call •MJ 969-3301.
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It’s a matter of record the late Cesar Romero owned upward of 500 suits and dozens of tuxedos
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