A-List Attends Getty’s Opening Gala

About 500 people braved blustery cold winds and rush-hour San Diego Freeway traffic Tuesday night to savor the opening-night celebration of the new $1-billion Getty Center, 15 years in the making.

Architects, movie moguls, artists, politicians and socialites (including an impressive New York guest list compiled by the center’s architect, Richard Meier) were among the first-nighters. Following a gala primarily for staff members Monday night, Tuesday night’s celebratory dinner was the first of three to be held this week. The center opens to the public Tuesday.

Valets took luxury cars in the spanking-new parking garage, and the well-turned-out crowd boarded trams up to the arrival plaza, where they were met by a string quartet.

“It’s so cold the flowers don’t smell,” observed documentary filmmaker Ann Haffett.

Guests flocked to the massive rotunda-like entrance hall of the J. Paul Getty Museum to marvel at what actor Michael York called “a real pleasure palace.”

“Well, we’re all on adrenaline,” said museum director John Walsh. “For the longest time, a building like this looked barren. Then come the trees, then come the furniture, then come the potted plants, the fountains start running, and then the people arrive. That’s the payoff.”

The invitations were so coveted that one guest, Evelyn Lauder, whose husband Leonard is chairman and chief executive officer of Estee Lauder, said they passed on a last-minute invitation to dine with President and Mrs. Clinton in New York.

There was no end to the praise bestowed on the new arts complex.

“It’s . . . there are no words to describe what Richard Meier has built,” said DreamWorks SKG partner Jeffrey Katzenberg. “It’s a breathtaking work of art. It’s a crowning jewel for the city.”

Artist John Baldessari commented on the merits of a museum poised in a vast landscape. “You can go inside and outside. It’s not the Metropolitan in New York, where you’re in there all day. That’s the best thing, I think. You can compare it to reality, then you can decide what’s more real.”

Among the luminaries seated for a dinner of smoked salmon and filet of beef were artist Frank Stella, producer George Lucas, architect Charles Gwathmey, actress Diane Keaton, former U.S. Sen. John V. Tunney, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, opera director Peter Sellars, painter Edward Ruscha, sculptor Robert Graham and his wife, actress Anjelica Huston, playwright Neil Simon, plus Getty superstar Harold M. Williams, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, and his wife, Nancy Englander.

Dinner was prepared by Patina’s Joachim Splichal, including bite-sized hors d’oeuvres--fig and duck prosciutto and grilled shrimp gazpacho--served from spoons passed on trays.