Wedding Guests Look Their Best

The Beverly Hills Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom was the place to be Saturday night.

Particularly if you were under the weather.

“Everybody here is either a doctor or a patient,” mused Joan Rivers, resplendent in “old” Vera Wang. “For me, it’s a reunion. My internist is here, my dermatologist is here, my orthopedist. Every great doctor in L.A. is here. If you’re going to be sick, be sick at this wedding.”

No one seemed to be suffering from so much as a frown at the black-tie nuptials of Steven Hoefflin, one of L.A.’s most successful plastic surgeons, and Pamela Wilson, formerly in the medical billing business. Hoefflin has tinkered with such famous faces as Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Ivana Trump. And while those supernovas of popular culture were not in evidence, the party brimmed with happy faces.

“It’s the best-looking crowd I’ve ever seen,” Rivers said.

Indeed, Tony Curtis, who’d met Hoefflin at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy pad more than 20 years ago, commended the doctor for his good deeds. “He helps people a lot. How? By readjusting our faces. Isn’t that a mitzvah?”

Not that all of Hoefflin’s admirers were ready to sign on the dotted line. Ann Miller defined herself as the sole holdout.

“Steven Hoefflin has probably done everyone in Hollywood except me,” she said. “I’ve never had any plastic surgery. I’ve gone for three consultations at $500 apiece. I ran and haven’t been back since. I’ve heard all these horror stories.”

“He’s the best,” piped in her escort, producer David Guest, who was wearing dark glasses.

“He’s also the most expensive,” Miller said.

Which had the fortunate byproduct of bankrolling a sumptuous feast for 280 people. “I’d say that would be about four face lifts,” said socialite Suzanne Marx. “Maybe 3 1/2.”

The celebrants included astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Montel Williams, Iris Cantor and James Galanos, Robert Shapiro, Phyllis Diller, Tony Robbins, Jose Eber, John Paul De Joria, radio host Michael Jackson, Lorenzo Lamas, Steve Wynn, Dr. Arnold Klein, Bijan, Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed, Vanna White and George St. Pietro.

They dined on seared Maryland crab cakes with roasted corn relish and citrus coriander sauce, grilled Pacific salmon with soy and apple cider and a light beurre blanc sauce and wood-grilled veal chops drizzled with balsamic port wine syrup. Sprays of pink and white roses dotted the tables and the wedding arbor.

For the ceremony, the bride wore a diamond bow necklace and a custom-designed Valentino gown of ivory silk with a 10-foot train, draped over a lace skirt. After the crab cakes were served, the bride reappeared in spaghetti straps, sans lace jacket and train.

The Hoefflins were attended by sports agent Dennis Gilbert and Carolyn Naber, the bride’s sister and wife of four-time Olympic gold medal winner John Naber.

The couple met two years ago through Gilbert--despite Wilson’s reservations. “I had just sold my medical billing company, and a friend told me about Steve,” she said. “I said the last thing I wanted to know was another doctor.”

Voila.

Hoefflin, who says he fell in love with Wilson as soon as he met her, proposed to her at the Cheops pyramid at Giza, Egypt. They are off on a six-week honeymoon to Europe. This is the second marriage for Hoefflin, 52, and the first for Wilson, 40.

When Hoefflin comes back and Tony Curtis grows up, they just might get together professionally, the actor said.

Said Curtis: “He’s on my list. When I get to be 35, I’ll go to him.”