Good Grief! Show Will Salute Schulz

What’s up? A to Z--a potpourri. Colleagues could have Snoopy dancing for joy at their Neiman Marcus Valentino Spring Collection fashion show luncheon Feb. 14 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. With Charles Schulz collared as honoree, Betsy Bloomingdale and Anne Johnson are concocting fun and surprises. On hand will be new Colleagues members--Marcia Hobbs, Travis Kranz, Joan Mackey, Kathleen McCarthy and Lisa Hornburg McGee.

Also on Valentine’s Day, the governors, trustees and Alliance Board of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County celebrate their official announcement, postponed because of the earthquake, of the coming “Genghis Khan Treasures from Inner Mongolia,” a collaboration of priceless artifacts never exhibited outside China. The collection premieres March 5 at the annual black-tie Dinosaur Ball at the museum.

More pizazz: Ray Charles highlights the American Heart Assn. Heart Ball Feb. 25 at the Beverly Wilshire. Henry Mancini and Dudley Moore host the Composers & Arrangers Foundation scholarship fund-raiser Feb. 8 at the Wilshire Theatre. U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary keynotes the Black Business Assn.’s 20th annual Excellence in Business Awards Dinner on Feb. 17 at the Westin Bonaventure.

Superhosting: Most of the cracks in Jane and Marc Nathanson’s Lloyd Wright-designed home in Holmby Hills were gone soon after the earthquake. Expecting about 160 for their Museum of Contemporary Art Directors Forum dinner honoring artist Roy Lichtenstein on Jan. 28, they quickly hired painters and plasterers to caulk up in a matter of several days.

Thus, guests had absolutely no distractions while viewing the Nathansons’ contemporary art collection and chatting with the honoree, who’s been the center of attraction in Los Angeles because of his major retrospective on view at MOCA through April 3.

Dispensing hugs and kisses with the Nathansons in the foyer--where Lichtenstein’s “Interior With Three Lamps” hangs--were the museum’s director, Richard Koshalek, and his wife, Betty.

There were few regrets. The invitations sent to MOCA’s most exclusive individual donor group were compelling--Lucite renditions of Lichtenstein’s famous, “Oh, Jeff . . . I Love You, Too . . . But,” the 1964 oil from the Stefan T. Edlis Collection. Collector Joan Nicholas said she and Fred had theirs standing on a table.

Milling through the Nathanson home during cocktails were collectors Julian and Joann Ganz, Mary Lou and George Boone, Bob Tuttle with Maria Hummer, Lenore and Bernard Greenberg, and Audrey and Sydney Irmas. MOCA Chairman and Times Mirror Editor-at-Large David Laventhol and his wife, Esther, and MOCA President John Cushman and his wife, Jeanie, were prominent in the front hallway, along with show curator Diane Waldman and dealers Doug Christmas, Irving Blum, Leo Castelli and antiques dealer Rose Tarlow.

Wallis Annenberg arrived with John Gerace. Eventually, guests meandered through the Nathansons’ kitchen to a white tent where they dined on chicken curry placed in pineapple rings.

Clustered to collect cars from valets: “Cheers” producer-director Jim Burrows, Eli and Edythe Broad, Aviva and Carl Covitz, Beatrice and Philip Gersh, artist Ellsworth Kelly, Melba and Stanley Sanders, Sheila and Wally Weisman, Andrea Van de Kamp, and Bob and Laura-Lee Woods.

On Buchwald: That same evening, Dove Audio owners Deborah Raffin and Michael Viner honored humorist Art Buchwald to celebrate the audio-book release of his autobiography, “Leaving Home: A Memoir,” at the Bistro Garden. Dropping by for a book and a laugh: Angie Dickinson, Roddy McDowall, Warren Cowan, Maria Shriver, Nina Foch, Gene and Patricia Kelly, and Henry and Roz Rogers.

Circuit: The next evening, Eli and Edythe Broad hosted an eclectic 600 to see the installation of the Broad Family Foundation collection in Santa Monica.

Curator Shelley DeAngelus greeted Joel Wachs; Stefan Edlis; Roger Harman; John and Kathinka Tunney; Stephanie Barron, Robert Gore Rifkind and their son, Max (Eli Broad’s godson); Kirstin and Jesse Ganz with their grandparents, Julian and Joann Ganz (headed to Michael’s later for dinner); Burt Pines. . . .

Meanwhile, some detoured down Venice Boulevard to the Santa Monica Freeway, headed for the Scripter Awards at USC.

USC supporters--including Dr. Edward Zapanto, Lorna Reed, Virginia Ramo and Adrienne Pingree--and USC Librarian Peter Lyman and Jim Childs (head of the Friends of the Libraries) were among several hundred who clustered in candlelight in the Doheny Library with its vaulted ceilings and book-lined walls.

This year, Australian author Thomas Keneally (he’s founder of the Australian Republican Movement) and screenwriter/adapter Steven Zaillian took honors for “Schindler’s List” over 47 other books and corresponding films considered by the Scripter selection committee, headed by Marjorie Lord Volk.

She was in the audience with husband Harry and her look-alike daughter, actress Anne Archer. Poldek Page introduced the author. He is the survivor of a World War II labor camp who inspired Keneally to write the book after the author bought a briefcase in his Los Angeles leather shop. Steven Spielberg (of whom emcee Hal Kanter said, “Nobody speaks movie more articulately”) arrived to introduce Zaillian, who sat next to his wife, Elizabeth.

“Yes, he’s modest,” Elizabeth Zaillian said. “He’s also a wonderful father.”

Can They?: The question at the Club 100 of the Music Center luncheon and panel discussion was “Can the Arts Help to Heal Los Angeles?”

Shelton Stanfill, new president of the Music Center, commented that the arts alone cannot heal the city, but they have “a language” all their own and are “central to our lives as a way of knowing ourselves.” Others on the panel, held in conjuction with Town Hall of California, were Stephanie Barron, Eunice David, Councilman Joel Wachs, Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke, Roelle Hsieh Louie and moderator Stanley Sanders.

Novel: The Auxiliary of the Kenneth Norris Jr. Comprehensive Cancer Hospital (USC) is suggesting a “stay-at-home evening party for you and your Valentine.” The location--home, sweet home. Just send a donation.