THE LAST WORD:Newport plans next big bash

Prepare yourselves for May, pilgrims.

Newport Beach officials, along with folks at the Balboa Bay Club and Newport Beach Film Festival, are considering holding a celebration for John Wayne’s 100th birthday. Also in on the early planning is John Wayne’s son, Ethan.

Talks right now include a black-tie event at the bay club to remember the former Newport resident, who lived on the harbor for 15 years. Wayne would have turned 100 on May 26.

The film festival also is planning a retrospective on Wayne and his roles in Western movies.

Wayne, synonymous in so many ways with Newport, seems the perfect person to fete with a 100th birthday party. And Newport officials certainly are experts at such celebrations.

If nothing else, it shows impressive fortitude, which Wayne surely would have appreciated, to get back in the party-planning saddle just days after finishing off the city’s centennial.

We’ll start dusting up our impersonations.