A CHRONICLE OF THE PASSING SCENE

Wedding’s ‘M’ Word? ‘Multiculturalism’

The wedding of Kathy Freud to Robert Haber was your basic traditional wedding, except for the two-religion ceremony and the unorthodox reception fare.

The couple sought an Episcopal minister and a Jewish rabbi to officiate at the ceremony, and they engaged the haute Chinese Chin Chin restaurant in Encino to feed their guests.

According to Judy Caspe, the catering director for all five Chin Chin restaurants, going Chinese at a wedding reception may be unusual, “but it is certainly in good taste.”

As for the dual Episcopal-Jewish ceremony, the bride said: “We wanted to honor both of our religions and spent a lot of time figuring out how to do that. We were about to give up, because it seemed to be getting more and more complicated, then we found Father Rand Reasoner at the Prince of Peace Episcopal Church in Woodland Hills.”

The Episcopal priest had previously married a Jewish-Christian couple with the help of Rabbi Jerry Fisher of the Valley Outreach Temple in Chatsworth.

“The rabbi and I had already worked out the ceremony and knew what to do,” Reasoner said.

He added that although this kind of rite is unusual, it is beginning to become recognized as an option for many dual-faith couples.

“It was the most beautiful ceremony imaginable,” said the bridegroom’s mother, Carolyn Haber, “with the old Jewish prayers and customs intermingled with the Christian prayers and ceremony.”

After the wedding at Prince of Peace, a reception for about 175 people followed at the Woodland Hills home of the bridegroom’s parents.

“When I told people I was having Chinese takeout for the reception, that raised a few eyebrows. Then I would tell them the ‘takeout’ was being prepared by Chin Chin and they would say, ‘Oh, what a great idea,’ ” the bride said.

The bride, 31, met her groom, 36, at the accounting firm of Weber, Lipshie & Co. in Los Angeles, where she is a bookkeeper and he is a tax supervisor.

“Almost from our first date last February it seemed like we were meant for each other,” the bride said. “We like all the same things, even small things like television, like ‘L.A. Law,’ and food.”

Chinese, of course.

Would-Be Teen-Age Mutant Actors

A Universal Studios talent scout is making the rounds of local high schools to scare up some bodies to perform in the studio’s Halloween Horror Nights extravaganza Oct. 22 to 24 and 29 to 31.

Universal is undergoing a multimillion-dollar transformation, according to a studio spokesman, to get ready for this “most frightening and terrifying of shows.” It features monsters, torture traps, catacombs, secret passageways, the Bates Motel, dead bodies, oozing blood and frightful dancers, and don’t forget the chain saw maniacs and frenzied zombies.

A new Terror Tram will take visitors on a tour of the carnage on the 420-acre studio. The show runs from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. each night. Visitors pay $27 for this privilege. Studio talent scout Sarah Whitten has visited the drama classes of a number of Valley schools--including Taft, Birmingham, Agoura and Cleveland--looking for 15 actors and actresses to perform in the “Dungeon of Terror and Mutation Pit” show.

Whitten promises a memorable acting experience for all students cast in these “wonderful feature roles.”

The chosen thespians will star as “ringers” who, through the use of special effects and movie magic, will be transformed into mutants.

“Definitely a part to die for,” Whitten adds, laughing ghoulishly.

Hurricane Andrea

When 11-year-old Andrea Eckert saw televised pictures of the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in Florida, she got busy and organized.

The sixth-grader at Emblem Elementary School in Santa Clarita put together a carwash and raised $193 for the disaster fund for the American Red Cross.

“After seeing what the hurricane had done to people, she asked me if we could send some food and clothing,” said her mother, Angela Eckert. “I said that a better idea might be to raise money and give it to the Red Cross so they could use it where it is most needed.”

Andrea lined up 14 volunteer washers among her school friends. Then she and her mother got the Lily of the Valley Mobile Home Park to donate the site, the water and the cleaning supplies. The Eckerts made and distributed flyers about the carwash the following Saturday. And the community came.

After the event, Andrea visited the local Red Cross office.

“She came in with about $191 in coins and bills,” said Jim Fisher, manager of the Santa Clarita Valley office of the Red Cross.

She also contributed a jar filled with about 200 pennies that a 4-year-old boy had brought to the carwash accompanied by his mother.

The child said it was his life’s savings.

Stop, Thief

The September PTA meeting at Joshua School in Lancaster featured an unscheduled activity in the middle of its more traditional agenda.

During the meeting, a child rushed into the library and said a burglar had just broken into one of the rooms and stolen the school videocassette recorder.

Parents and staff quickly fanned out around the school and, with the help of two former Joshua School students on bicycles, cornered the hapless would-be thief.

Within minutes, the thief was in the custody of the Sheriff’s Department, and the VCR was back in its rightful place, an object lesson to children and the rest of the community that crime does not pay--”at least not at Joshua School,” said Principal Ann Hurd.

Overheard

“He said he was moving back to the Valley from Beverly Hills adjacent. He said he couldn’t stand the idea that he was living an Aaron Spelling fantasy.”

--Woman in Studio City to friend about her non-trendy brother