B.W. COOK -- The crowd

* B.W. COOK’S column appears every Thursday and Saturday.

The 38th annual all-guilds benefit for Children’s Hospital of Orange

County attracted a major crowd from Newport-Mesa, raising six figures for

the hospital with a spectacular luncheon and dinner fashion show.

Fashion maven Carlton Burnett produced the event for the guilds, with

many in attendance commenting that it was better than ever.

CHOC, founded in 1964, has served the medical needs of kids in Orange

County, with a policy of keeping the doors open regardless of a family’s

ability to pay.

In other CHOC news, Newport’s Gloria Zigner, producer and talent scout,

is in the middle of rehearsal for the upcoming CHOC Follies. Gals and

guys are busy practicing their high kicks and high notes for the talent

fest set to take over the theater at El Toro later this spring.

Show director John Vaughn is working out the cast and crew both

weeknights and weekends at a rehearsal space in Costa Mesa. Whoever said

it was easy to be a star was definitely not rehearsing for the follies.

The workout pays off. The follies have become a mainstay of local charity

productions, delighting audiences and raising big bucks for the hospital.

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Lucie Moore was honored as the Children’s Champion of 2000 at last

weekend’s gathering of the social set at Sutton Place Hotel, Newport

Beach, on behalf of Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA.

Dancing to the Wayne Foster Orchestra, several hundred guests in black

tie turned out Saturday evening to applaud Moore’s generosity and example

of assisting abused children in the dependency system.

Debbie Albrecht, CASA’s executive director, commented: “Lucie Moore has

been an important part of CASA’s ongoing success for many years. Hundreds

of children have benefited from her actions.”

Fred Port, chairman of the CASA Advisory board, led the colorful auction

duties. The crowd applauded his effort as Port sold travel prizes, taking

the fortunate high bidders to such exotic destinations as St. Barts and

the Big Island of Hawaii.

Support for the evening and for CASA came from generous donors, such as

William Gillespie, Integrated ProfitMax Corp., Deloitte and Touche,

Pacific Life, Golden State Foods, American Airlines and Linda and Fred

Port, who also shared chairman duties for the entire project.

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On the Peninsula, the Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation sprang

into action to stage its first “Swing Fling” this last weekend. Dinner

and dancing were the treats provided by and for the divas of the

foundation, for their dates, husbands, significant others and friends.

Some 137 local women make up the Divas support group, with the goal of

raising major funds to restore the Balboa Theater as a community resource

for stage performances. Their mission is to maintain the historic

architecture while recreating a state-of-the-art theater for contemporary

needs.

The big news from the Divas was the recent donation of $1 million from

local arts benefactor Donna Crean. Crean handed over a check to local

fund-raising pro Sue Cannon, while the two were having a quick breakfast

at Denny’s in Costa Mesa.

The waitress serving the duo is still recovering from shock.

Anyway, it wasn’t Crean who was the star of Saturday’s dinner-dance, but

rather Pelican Point’s blond bombshell Harriet Sandhu. With a dance

partner Sandhu had never met before, the pair stole the hearts of the

judges and patrons hands down.

“We threw away our rules of judging the dance contest and gave them the

award based on sheer excitement,” offered one of the dance-contest

judges.

Apparently, Sandhu’s husband, Sandy, didn’t want to rhumba, so another

gent, reported to be a stouthearted senior, took her by the arm and the

two set fire to the dance floor.

The Ballroom is Back, a dance studio in Huntington Beach, helped

organized the fun.

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Richard Chamberlain is coming to town late in March to perform in the

revival touring production of “The Sound of Music” at the Orange County

Performing Arts Center.

In honor of the show, members of The Center guilds presented their

fashion show of the season this week -- built around the theme of the

world renown musical.

They called the event “Raindrops On Roses” and the midweek luncheon

attracted hundreds of local women and a sprinkling of lucky men in

support of The Center’s projects.

Nordstrom took charge of the fashion show duties as guests paid tribute

to honorary chairpersons of the event, Ginny and Ledge Hale. Spring

fashion from Nordstrom drew applause from the crowd in the ballroom of

the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Irvine.

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