Sky May Be the Limit for This Starry Event

First it was a sellout at 500. Then it was an oversold at 650. Now the guest numbers for the American Cinema Awards Foundation’s dinner and auction Sunday are at 1,200 and it has been moved from the Newporter Resort to the Irvine Marriott.

Not since the 1984 Olympics has there been such a stir in Newport Beach.

David Gest, president of the foundation, credits the whole, wonderful predicament to dinner chairmen Donna and John Crean of Newport Beach. “They’ve worked so hard and the stars have created so much excitement that everybody decided to show up,” Gest said.

Among the more than 50 celebs who plan to attend: Shirley Temple Black, who will autograph copies of her book “Child Star” during the cocktail hour; Milton Berle, who will emcee, and Donald O’Connor, who will perform with a 14-piece orchestra.

Pssssst! Hamburger mogul Carl Karcher has committed to a $25,000 table at the Jan. 4 bash that will welcome the First Couple back to California. The event, a fund-raiser with a goal of $1 million for the Nancy Reagan Drug Abuse Center, will be held at the posh Beverly Hilton (with a host of none other than the Barron Hilton himself).

Because of his generous donation, Karcher, who will attend the dinner with his wife, Margaret, will be a member of the President’s Circle and rub elbows at a cozy, pre-party mixer with the Reagans. Wonder if Karcher will pass out Carl’s Jr. coupons at this one (we love it when he does). . . .

Last year, developer Don Koll held a party honoring members of the Young President’s Club, an organization of lofty business executives, in his French chateau (ooh) in Newport Beach. But this year, he will toss the glittery holiday bash at his development company on MacArthur Boulevard in Newport. Among locals on the guest list for the mid-December merrymaking: Donald Beall, Jack Linkletter, Pete Siracusa and Forest Olson. . . .

At the opening of the new Orangewood Boutique in Corona del Mar last Friday night, guests Judie Argyros, Willa Dean Lyon, Elizabeth Tierney and Kathryn Thompson--fashion plates all--decided they would soon purchase their ball gowns for next year’s “Orange Blossom Ball” at the boutique. As it turned out, Tierney found hers that very night, a flowing brown number splashed with beads. Proceeds from the shop raise funds for Orangewood, a haven for abused and abandoned children. . . .

If you plan to zip down to the desert Saturday, keep an eye out for boutique owner Amen Wardy’s beige Clothesmobile going lickety-split in the fast lane. Always on the fast track, Wardy--dresser of Joan Collins, Joan Rivers, et al.--is taking his dressing-room-on-wheels to Palm Desert for the first time so that members of the Muses 100--a support group of the Bob Hope Cultural Center--can hop on board after gushing over Wardy’s fashion extravaganza. . . .

Speaking of dates with the desert: Judie Argyros, wife of Forbes 400-developer George Argyros, knocked about 300 Newporters out of their chairs at the Vintage country club last Sunday with her imitation of Mae West at bachelor Frank Yoder’s surprise birthday smash.

Frank, who used to work for Coldwell Banker, flipped over brunette Judie--done up in a blond wig, black slinky dress and flying boa--singing “Happy Birthday” and “Little Darlin” (“Little Frankie, I neeeeeeeed you”). Frank’s brother, Don, staged the surprise because he had flipped over Judie when she did a similar stint at George’s 50th birthday bash in Sun Valley 2 years ago.

On the menu? A Sunday dinner the likes of which the Yoder boys used to whomp up back in Illinois--finger-lickin’ chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, biscuits with honey and apple cobbler loaded with vanilla ice cream.

Giving thanks: For Laguna’s Jeff Parker, author of the sizzler “Laguna Heat” and now “Little Saigon,” it’s time to give thanks for “the freedoms we have in this country and the love I have received from my family.” Especially the love Parker is receiving from new wife Cat, lead singer of the pop band Cat and Bytes (playing now in Las Vegas).

Parker is working on a new book, a thriller about a treasure-hunting deep-sea diver. “I’m doing research from Newport Beach to Mexico,” he says. The book will be out in a couple of years. . . .

Always the cutup, plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Elam--renovator of such faces as those of Jim Nabors, Phyllis Diller and Wayne Newton--says he is giving thanks for “living in America, where we have the right to choose what we want to do . . . and how we want to look!”