There goes the neighborhood: Harbor Island’s new resident, Donald Bren, wants a guardhouse near the gate of the exclusive Newport Beach enclave. Bren wants to spruce up the entrance, too, the Insider is told. He may have to open his wallet and summon his entitlement skills,some of the 30 homeowners have nixed similar, previous plans because of cost concerns. And if Bren is thinking about putting the guardhouse on the parcel he’s purchased on the other side of the bridge, he’ll presumably need an OK from the 70-home Beacon Bay association, too …
Actress and Little Saigon TV personality Kathy Nguyen is in the midst of some emotional travel. She’s just back from Gulfport, Miss., and the funeral of her 80-year-old grandmother, Loan Thi Pam Nguyen, who died after being evacuated from a nursing home during Hurricane Katrina. Gulfport, Biloxi, Miss., and New Orleans are Vietnamese-American centers. Nguyen described a surreal scene of destruction, empty buildings, National Guard patrols and people lined up for water and rations: “We got lost going to the funeral home because one of the street signs was blown away. We had to drive an hour to find a flower shop because most stores are still closed.” Now she’s off to see relatives she’s never met,it’s her first trip to Vietnam …
“A symbol of New Orleans.” That’s what Editor & Publisher called Bruce Chambers’ dramatic photo of a National Guardsman rescuing a naked and emaciated 74-year-old man. The picture made the front page of Chambers’ OC Register and 20 other newspapers, but it wasn’t in the LA Times, probably because OC’s competing dailies prohibit the use of each other’s photos …
Vita Reed notes that West L.A.’s trendy Sprinkles Cupcakes is planning a store in Newport Beach, part of a national expansion …
Anniversaries keep coming. You already know it’s the 50th year for Disneyland and Crystal Cathedral and the 100th for the Register. Newport Beach kicks off its 2006 centennial early with a Beach Boys concert Oct. 2. Anaheim, OC’s oldest city, doesn’t turn 150 until 2007, but it’s planning to put up sesquicentennial banners next year, as soon as Disney’s jubilee banners come down. Anaheim is preparing a Rose Bowl float for New Year’s Day 2007. UCI is celebrating 40 years of classes this semester; Irvine Company legend Ray Watson addresses a “Forty Years of Innovation” symposium at Barclay Theatre Nov. 3 …
Notify the Insider about your 50th, 75th or 100th anniversary …
Chuck Martin’s new hedge-fund company, Mont Pelerin Capital LLC, is named for the Swiss mountain resort where in 1947 Friedrich Hayek convened a meeting of free-market intellectuals that changed the course of economics, if not history (more on Martin, this page) …
EE RR to Pete Fundy of OCLegend.com: I don’t smoke, I’m light on cologne and I’m from Chicago, not Jersey, but thanks for your patronage.
