Reba Says Thanks But No Thanks; Center Party Still Can’t Find a Star

Country music star Reba McEntire has declined an invitation to sing at the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s fifth anniversary celebration in September. McEntire is at least the sixth performer that Center officials have been unable to sign for the event.

“We were talking with them about those dates,” a spokeswoman for McEntire’s Starstruck Entertainment in Nashville said Tuesday, “but that’s not going to happen.” The spokeswoman said McEntire will make her customary fall appearance in Orange County, but at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, probably in October.

McEntire was being eyed to perform at a Western-themed party to be held Sept. 26 in 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall. The linchpin event in the Center’s fifth anniversary plans is a Sept. 25 dinner and concert benefit (to be called “Starlight Expressions”). No performers have been secured for either night, a Center spokesman acknowledged Wednesday.

Anniversary planners failed in earlier bids to get Kenny Rogers for the “Starlight Expressions” concert. “Phantom of the Opera” star Michael Crawford also turned down the invitation, explaining that even though Center officials wanted him, he does not actually have a concert act.

Others on the Center’s wish list reportedly have included Diana Ross, Whitney Houston and Liza Minnelli. Ross and Houston have been ruled out because they are considered too expensive, and Minnelli’s New York agent said Wednesday that the Sept. 25 date “would be out of the question” because she is booked Sept. 26 in Atlantic City, N.J.