The Crowd

B.W. Cook

Newport’s most famous valentine, Kevin Costner, enjoyed the romantic

Monday night heart fest with an attractive blond in a booth at Roy’s

restaurant in Fashion Island.

The Oscar-winning actor and his date stopped in at Flemming’s restaurant,

Fashion Island, before dinner, attracting a crowd. The chef at Roy’s said

Costner ordered right off the menu, nothing special or out of the

ordinary, and he and his date were in and out of the restaurant in about

an hour.

*

The generous John and Donna Crean opened their estate on the Back Bay

once again for Super Bowl 2000, with several hundred guests dropping by

to benefit the Juvenile Connection Program.

The Village Crean, as it is known in local circles, has hosted the Super

Bowl event for the past decade, raising significant dollars for

children’s charities while serving the best burgers in town, not to

mention the best Italian food in recent years, thanks to the Creans’ son

and daughter-in-law, Andy and Charlene, who own the local Villa Nova

Italian restaurant in Newport Beach.

Donna’s dining room table, which is the size of a football field,

featured the Villa Nova faire, while a crew of able burger meisters were

outside in the Crean back 40 flipping burgers and dogs in the off-again

on-again rain. No matter, nothing could get in the way of another great

Super Bowl at the Creans’ place.

The best part of it was that Donna stood at the front door of the mansion

greeting guests with hugs and smiles. Just a month ago she was undergoing

cancer surgery, and of course she and husband John and all of Orange

County are grateful for a full recovery.

“I’m just happy to be here for the kids,” Donna said, as a large group of

donors entered her antebellum-inspired foyer. The program supported by

the Creans is a counseling effort that assists families in Orange County.

Formerly the organization was under the supervision of an organization

called Coalition for Children, Adolescents and Parents. The new

organization is under the banner of FACES or Family Assessment,

Counseling and Education Services.

Mary O’Conner Harris serves as director of FACES. O’Conner Harris was

helped in the organization of the Crean affair by the dedicated Cynthia

Scheinberg, who has been a mainstay of the Crean event -- designed to

raise money to help kids in need of guidance -- for many years.

*

One of the big -- really big -- spring fashion events of the Newport

social calendar was announced this week at a Pelican Hill luncheon thrown

by the Sophisticates of the Assessment and Treatment Services Center.

The organization of gorgeous gals met for a midweek bite of Oriental

chicken salad prepared by the gracious Four Seasons staff that handles

the duties at The Pelican Hill Clubhouse.

Their 2000 fashion show, a major source of annual revenue for the group,

will be presented March 30 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Irvine. The theme,

as reported by Sophisticates president Penny Fox Shah, will be

“L’Orangerie.” Fittingly, the color of the season is orange and many of

the designers are using the favorite color of the late Frank Sinatra as

the spring fashion-forward color in their lines.

An orangerie, for those not in the know, is the European glass house of

centuries past that grew and nurtured the citrus trees in cold months.

Insiders report that there will be plenty of good picking at this year’s

fashion event with such hard-working ladies as Debbie Newmeyer, Eve

Kornyei, Kay Cabot, Dawn Brewster, Nancy Lynn Olson, Debbie Schweickert,

Grace Thelen, Deborah Oshann and Denice Mock, who are working together to

create the biggest and best fashion show luncheon ever for the

Sophisticates.

For tickets and reservations, call (714) 730-6529.

*

If you think that wine is only grown in Napa or the valleys of France,

get ready for the Newport Beach vineyards of Richard Moriarty and Loren

Blackwood to enter the world of wine.

The Newport couple are turning the acreage of their Back Bay estate into

the first local winery, and they are calling the property the Newport

Vineyards. Moriarty planted his first half-acre of Bordeaux grapes last

spring and the vines grew like mad, reports Blackwood.

A similar small winery in Bel Air, known as the Moraga Vineyards (yes,

it’s located on Moraga Drive in Bel Air) has inspired Moriarty. He

estimates that it will take about four years to produce the first vintage

on his property.

“We are so excited about this,” said Blackwood, who donated the wine for

the Sophisticates luncheon at Pelican Hill. “I must tell you that Richard

and I are having such a marvelous time creating this vineyard. We can’t

wait for the results.

“Someday it will be our pleasure to provide wines from the Newport

Vineyards,” she said with a big grin.*

More than 550 guests representing the Newport-Mesa community as well as

Orange County at large raised more than $300,000 at a dinner gala this

past week to support student scholarships at the Tarbut V’Torah Community

Day School in Irvine.

The evening honored Newport Beach activist Jodi Greenbaum, former local

society journalist and patroness of many important local charities as

well as civic, cultural, scientific and educational endeavors.

Greenbaum and her husband, Martin, a local attorney, are prominent

members of the community serving and supporting such organizations as The

Sound of Music Chapter of the Guilds of The Center, The Orange County

Museum of Art, Opera Pacific and The Newport Beach Public Library and

more.

Jodi is also a member of the founders committee of Hoag Hospital’s Circle

1000. Greenbaum was honored at the scholarship dinner for her dedication

to children and for her keen fund-raising ability, assisting the school

and other parent volunteers in raising more than $650,000 over the past

two years to help cover tuition costs for students and parents in need.

* B.W. COOK’S column appears Thursdays and Saturdays.

Stand alone photo caption: Olive Crest’s Abused Children’s Foundation

members Tim and Penny Bauer, left, of Costa Mesa will join Jim and Pam

Young of Newport Beach at the third annual underwriting party for the

Olive Crest and Mighty Ducks Care Black and White Ball, slated for March

25 at the Disneyland Hotel.