A Close-Up on the Real Monroe

It was in a dressing room at Bloomingdale’s department store in New York that the teen-age Susan Strasberg learned something from Marilyn Monroe about living au naturel . “When we undressed,” Strasberg, now 53, told an SRO crowd at the Balboa Bay Club on Thursday at a meeting of Round Table West, “Marilyn wore no underwear, and I stood there in a bra, girdle and white bucks.”

So, of course the daughter of the late Actors Studio guru Lee Strasberg--Marilyn’s drama coach--beat it to Bloomies the next day to try on clothing in the buff.

She was always emulating Marilyn during the ‘50s, Strasberg says in her new book, “Marilyn and Me,” a biography she calls “a love story where everybody loves everybody but themselves.”

And she frequently sought Marilyn’s advice during the years when the bombshell-who-wanted-to-be-Bernhardt holed up with the Strasbergs in Manhattan.

“I asked Marilyn for advice when I was having an affair with Richard Burton,” Strasberg said (Burton was married at the time). “Marilyn accepted it as human, but told me to be careful--not to get hurt, not to hurt anyone.

“She even advised herself: ‘No more married men for M.M.!’ And then, next thing you know, she’d be off with President Kennedy or Yves Montand. But she was trying .”

The subtitle of her 15-day-old book is “Sisters, Rivals, Friends,” Strasberg noted.

“Marilyn became my ‘older sister’ when we shared a room on and off. But we could be rivals. She envied me my parts in ‘Picnic’ and ‘The Diary of Anne Frank.’ She said I got all the great parts, that people respected me. She got all the ‘crap,’ she said, because people were making money off her being the dumb blonde.”

But mostly, the two actresses were friends. “She was 12 years older than I was, but she had that childlike quality that made her seem my age.”

How would Marilyn have handled growing old? “Well, given that half of Hollywood has had a face lift, I think she would have done fine. I think she would have done that, and her addictions would have been cleaned up the way Elizabeth Taylor’s were at the Betty Ford Clinic.

“The only thing that worried Marilyn about getting old was the insanity that ran in her family. She was terrified that a hormonal change might kick in some genetic predisposition.”

Come Aug. 4--the 30th anniversary of Marilyn’s death--Strasberg will gather with a fan club called Marilyn Remembered to hold a service where Marilyn is interred. “I’ll read my father’s eulogy,” Strasberg said, adding wistfully: “The sad thing about being a celebrity is it buys you a place in everybody’s dreams but your own.”

Mehta makes merry: Zubin Mehta proved he could wield one-liners as well as a baton on Saturday during the gala that followed his appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (review, F2).

After receiving the Orange County Philharmonic Society’s prestigious Golden Baton Award--a silver sculpture depicting a conductor’s hand holding a golden baton--the Indian-born maestro told party-goers at the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach he couldn’t “help but wonder why it took the Philharmonic eight years to finally give one (award) to a conductor.” (Former recipients include arts activists Elaine Redfield, Floss Schumacher and Henry Segerstrom.)

Then, gazing at the sculpture, he deadpanned: “If you had done so, you would have known, this is not the way to hold a baton!”

Mehta attended the gala supper--which celebrated the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 30 years of performances in Orange County--with his parents, Mehli and Yehmina Mehta. Also attending the gala chaired by Susan Beechner were composer Jacob Druckman, with his wife, Muriel, director of the dance division at Juilliard; baritone Thomas Hampson; Philharmonic board chairman Robert Searles; and the Philharmonic’s executive director, Erich Vollmer.

Party paranoia: “Sometime in mid-May” is all the cognoscenti at Tiffany & Co. will say about when the store will stage a garden party at Casa Pacifica, the former Western White House of President Nixon in San Clemente.

Security is always tight at the cliff-side hacienda that has been visited by the likes of Nikita Khrushchev (remember the famous ‘60s news photo of him ogling voluptuous actress Jill St. John in a reception line? It happened at Casa Pacifica). Casa Pacifica owners Gavin and Ninetta Herbert are Very Private People.

Orange County’s top charity hostesses will be the guests at the luncheon there to launch Tiffany’s new American Garden collection of sterling flatware and porcelain and to celebrate the plants and flowers of the United States.

Kevin Costner does Fullerton: Academy Award winner Kevin Costner and his wife, Cindy--both graduates of Cal State Fullerton--will be on campus May 4 when the actor/director receives the college’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. It wasn’t easy getting the star of “JFK” to Orange County, say insiders. “He was honored when we notified him of the award,” says a college spokeswoman, “but his schedule has been so tight, it’s taken over a year to get him here.” (His next film is “Bodyguard” with Whitney Houston.)

After Costner receives the award in the college’s new Titan Pavilion, he will join CSUF President Milton A. Gordon and fellow alumni at a reception at the historic El Dorado Ranch, donated to the school by the Chapman family in 1989.

Jessye Norman at Center Club: After her performance in Segerstrom Hall Friday night (review, F1), soprano Jessye Norman schmoozed with supporters of the Orange County Philharmonic Society at the Center Club. Among those joining the renowned singer for poached chicken breast and berries in a praline shell were major donors Ed and Joann Halvajian, philharmonic executive director Erich Vollmer and Irvine Co. veep Jeff Deis (the Irvine Co. anted up $5,000 to help underwrite the concert). “Miss Norman rarely does this,” Vollmer said. “We feel so fortunate to have her with us.”