Hatcher glams up Pageant of the Masters

The Festival of Arts pulled a real coup when TV star Teri Hatcher

hosted the 7th annual Pageant of the Masters gala fundraiser

Saturday.

Hatcher is having a celebrity’s dream year. She won a Golden Globe

Award and an Emmy nomination for her role in the ABC hit series

“Desperate Housewives,” and she has been on the covers of such

magazines as Vanity Fair and Time.

Saturday was not Hatcher’s debut at the pageant. Recently, she and

daughter Emerson Rose joined the cast for one performance.

Hatcher first attended the pageant last year with her daughter as

the guests of her parents. Hatcher said she couldn’t visualize what

the show would be like.

“I kept thinking, okay, people dress up as the painting, but I

couldn’t really picture it -- no pun intended,” Hatcher said.

Hatcher’s daughter was so taken with the show, she decided she

wanted to be a cast member, promising that she wouldn’t move a muscle

-- cast members must remain as stiff as statues for about 90 minutes.

The media was all over Hatcher’s guest shot. And they came back

again Saturday to record her animated role as host.

“She was a doll to work with,” said marketing and public relations

director Sharbie Higuchi. Younger looking than she appears as

housewife Susan Mayer, Hatcher was joined by 400 pageant supporters

at the pre-show dinner at Tivoli Terrace.

“The gala is the festival’s only fundraiser,” said festival

membership and events director Susan Davis. “It gets about the same

attendance as the artists’ opening night [the gateway to the season].

It takes more effort, but it’s a great party.”

The gala was sold out.

“We are hot -- and the weather is too,” Davis said.

Hatcher was not the only celebrity at the gala. The guest list

included Mark Moses (Paul Young) and Steven Culp (Rex Van De Camp)

from the “Housewives” cast and Kathy Joosten, who has also has

appeared on the show; Dennis Hopper, a cult star from his performance

in the 1969 classic, “Easy Rider,” who developed into an actor of

stature; Oscar and eight-time Emmy winner Cloris Leachman and Bryan

Cranston from “Malcolm in the Middle” and Brian Krause, who plays Leo

on “Charmed;” “Days of Our Lives” stars Peter Reckell and Lauren

Koslow, named by Soap Opera Weekly as “One of the 50 Most Beautiful

People on Television;” Ronn Moss, who plays Ridge Forrester on “The

Bold and the Beautiful;” Emmy-nominated Gail O’Grady; Charles

Shaughnessy, who starred on “The Nanny;” Richard Steinmetz, currently

seen in “Passions;” Victor Williams from the “The King of Queens;”

and Pam Dawber, who starred in the delightful “Mork and Mindy.”

“You haven’t changed,” gasped festival exhibitor Lu Campbell, who

was assigned to the same table with Dawber and her longtime friend

(their kids met in preschool) Kim Vamos and Campbell’s husband, John,

a member of the separate Festival of Arts Foundation Board of

Directors.

Besides being charming and talented, Dawber has significant ties

to Laguna. She is married to TV and motion picture star Mark Harmon.

His sister was married to Ricky Nelson and lived here with him in the

Lagunita neighborhood where Ozzie and Harriet Nelson had their home

and raised Ricky and his older brother, David.

“A Passion for Art” is the theme chosen for the 2006 show by

director Dee Dee Challis Davy.

“It’s going to be a very romantic show,” Challis Davy said. “I’ve

got 90 or so researchers looking at French and Italian art. There

will probably be some Van Gogh in the show -- he was certainly

passionate about art.”

Researchers are among the volunteers who make the pageant happen

and deserve the thanks voiced by festival President Anita Mangels in

pre-dinner remarks.

Mangels also thanked sponsors Montage Resort & Spa, Mercedes Benz

of Southern California, UBS, Kost 103 FM, Kendall-Jackson, The

Ritz-Carlton-Laguna Niguel, and Adelphia -- and the festival artists

who donated works to the silent auction.

Scriptwriter Dan Duling and Challis Davy were honored for their

work with the pageant and presented with crystal tabletop sculptures

designed especially for them by festival artist Jude Taylor Darlin.

Mangels also presented them with pens donated by Mont Blanc, a

sponsor of numerous off-site festival events.

The gala grossed an estimated $290,000 for the Festival of Arts

Building Fund.

John Campbell said the foundation, which distributes scholarships

and funds to arts organizations, artists and students, would like a

piece of the action.

“We’d like all of it, but certainly a portion,” Campbell said.

The mission of the festival is to promote local arts and artists,

he said, and that is what the foundation does.

Guests at the gala included Katrina and Councilman Steven

Dicterow, Jim and arts commissioner Pat Kollenda, city arts manager

Sian Poeschl, gallery owner Diane DeBilzan, Faye and planning

commissioner Bob Chapman, Kathy and festival music director and

conductor Richard Henn, Becky and Joie Jones, Mary Young and Ernie

and Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and Tom Davy, 17, who escorted his mother, Challis Davy.

Yesterday was the last day of the festival’s 2005 season.

Ballots for new board members will be mailed Sept. 27. Votes are

due back by 4:30 p.m. Nov. 4. The candidates are festival volunteer

John Hoover, festival artist Linda Potichke and Realtors Gayle Waite

and Wayne Baglin, a former city councilman. Three of them will join

Mangels, Bob Henry, Carolyn Reynolds, Fredric Sattler, Ann Webster

and David Young on the board.

Veteran board members Dianne Reardon, Kathleen Blackburn and Bob

Dietrich, whose terms are up, declined to run again.

The annual members-only meeting will be held Nov. 9, when the new

board members will be announced.