Actor Basks in Summer Spotlight as Will Rogers

“The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.�

--Will Rogers

After 25 years of playing American humorist Will Rogers on stage, has actor James Whitmore become more Will than James?

“I’m still a very pathetic James,� Whitmore said Saturday night as he took a brisk walk from South Coast Repertory to a nearby restaurant to celebrate the Orange County premiere of his one-man show, “Will Rogers’ U.S.A.�

“But you hope, don’t you,� he said, “that everything you come in contact with that is enriching makes you a richer person? That’s all I can hope.�

Whitmore received a standing ovation from an SRO crowd at South Coast Repertory, where more than 500 guests paid at least $100 to attend the theater’s first Summer Spotlight event.

The benefit will replace the theater’s annual End of Season Auction, a live-auction fund-raiser that raked in big bucks for 15 years.

Why the change? “Benefit-goers are being auctioned to death,� an SCR spokeswoman said.

Used to be, SCR had the only auction game in town. “Now there are so many auctions with so many items you’ve got everybody bidding on the same things,� she said.

Spotlight chairwoman Olivia Johnson featured a mere 10 silent-auction items at Saturday’s benefit, a Western-themed affair that included a pre-performance supper in the theater’s fountain courtyard. “We were killing our stores, beating them up with requests,� she said.

So Johnson and her committee came up with some “unique, quality items,� she explained, such as a walk-on part in SCR’s annual production of “A Christmas Carol,� a theater trip to London, the chance to become an honorary director of an SCR production.

The crowd welcomed the change. “We’ve cleared about $40,000 tonight,� Johnson said happily.

Guests who paid $150 for benefit tickets got priority theater seating and the chance to rub elbows with Whitmore at Venus restaurant, located in The Spa at South Coast Plaza.

Whitmore, who lives in Malibu, was grateful for the standing ovation, he told fans as they dined on pastries. “Amazing,� he said. “I don’t get them all the time.�

Then, he added: “Well, of course, in Washington, they stand up for almost anything.�

Was that Will talking? The 74-year-old actor bowed his head for a moment. Then he looked up and laughed.

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Cartier luncheon: “Models, this is your last dessert,� Shari Esayian told the comely crowd gathered at the Center Club last week.

On hand for The Overture luncheon underwritten by Cartier were most of the 100 volunteer models who will take part in the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s “Center of Fashion� extravaganza Sept. 29.

Esayian is chairwoman of the event organized by the center’s Guilds support groups, which have raised more than $7 million.

During the festivities, which were chaired by Kathy Merriman, Center of Fashion’s artistic director Jim Bates said the models’ images would be projected on “video walls� while they paraded onstage.

“We will have four cameras on them while they are walking--close-ups, long shots, with graphics,� said Bates, who has staged shows for Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond and has produced and directed national companies in “Gypsy� and “Hello, Dolly!�

Privately, Bates said: “If they goof, everybody is going to see it.�

Not to worry. This is Candice Schnapp’s fifth trot down the Center of Fashion runway and she has yet to have a problem. “It’s just lots of fun,� said Schnapp, who appeared in one show just seven weeks after her daughter, Monica, 3, was born. “There’s nothing to fear.�

Except tripping down the steps, which one model did last year. Or falling offstage.

“That’s what everybody worries about,� Barbara Penrose said. “Especially when they put you in sunglasses. When that happens, you count the number of steps you take to the end of the stage and you don’t go over that number,� she said with a giggle.

Center President Tom Tomlinson told the crowd that the Center of Fashion would be the official kickoff of the center’s 10th anniversary celebration. “We will have 20 anniversary events during the year and a September gala in 1996,� he said.

South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island are co-sponsoring the show, which will have two performances Sept. 29 at 1:30 and 8 p.m.

Stores participating in the event are Armoire, At-Ease, Bullock’s Women’s Store, Chez Lui, Ermenegildo Zegna, Escada, Fendi, Garys Per Donna, Mi Place and Nike Town.

Also featured will be fashions from Nordstrom, Out of Santa Fe, Priorities, Rebel, St. John Boutique, The Bride and Versace. For tickets, call TicketMaster or (714) 556-2121, Ext. 555.

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Quality assurance: When you are charging $125 for lunch, it had better be good. So last week, on a sunny day at the estate of arts philanthropist Mark Johnson of Tustin, a few committee members came together to do a tasting for Friday’s Opera Pacific luncheon and fashion show featuring Chanel’s Fall/Winter Ready-to-Wear Collection.

On the menu, besides delicate appetizers such as asparagus with Hollandaise wrapped in tiny crepes, was a combination of chilled Chilean sea bass with assorted salad greens, veggies, olives--all from a recipe by Glorious Food, New York’s premiere party caterer.

Dessert was a sliced poached pear swimming in Sabayon cream and sprinkled with fresh shaved chocolate.

When the diners, who included Chanel boutique director Roger Martin and luncheon chairwoman Barbara Harris, were finished, they were content. But concerned. The fish was lovely, but would guests feel they were getting their money’s worth? The dessert was tasty, but would it be refreshing on a hot day?

Gloria Gellman, chairwoman of Opera Pacific’s guild alliance, had a suggestion: “Perhaps sliced beef tenderloin would be a better choice than fish.�

Harris also spoke up: “Sorbets would be lovely for summer.�

So tenderloin and a trio of sorbets it will be. And you thought tossing a luncheon was a piece of cake.

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King live and in person: Larry King cracked them up at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda last week.

Making a guest appearance before a sellout crowd, one of television’s master interviewers told guests he still wasn’t over last year’s interview with Marlon Brando.

“A strange thing happened at the end of that shoot,� he said. “Brando kissed me. On the lips! No man in my life has ever kissed me on the lips. I’m a hugger--hug my brother, my friends.

“People ask me, ‘What was it like?’ And I have to answer honestly, I can’t stop thinking about him,� he joked. “I wake up in the middle of the night yelling, ‘Stella!’ �

Scoop: King is planning to do a television special at the library, he said, “a library tour� with President Nixon’s daughters, Tricia Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower.