Lowe Scraps Spectrum Hotel; Check Out This Power Trip

Brentwood-based Lowe Enterprises has scrapped a plan to build a hotel and conference center next to the AirTouch Cellular headquarters it is building in the Irvine Spectrum, Sandi Cain hears. It’s getting increasingly tough to finance hotels, industry players say Ship of estates: Fifty-one couples took a Valentine’s week Caribbean cruise aboard the Sea Goddess II yacht. The travelers included some of OC’s biggest names. Among them: Henry Nicholas, Henry Samueli, Dick Marconi, Bill Popejoy, Mark Johnson, Brad Gates, Bill McFarland, Harold Street and Marvin Winkler Feb. 23 was a banner day for David Fife of Irvine investment firm Fife Waterfield & Co. In the morning, he made a killing on the sale of STV Communications in Santa Monica to Wisconsin-based Sonic Foundry (see David Orloff’s story, page 26). In the afternoon, wife Marian gave birth to their first child, John Edward “Jack” Fife Lucky Gray: When Pete Wilson became governor he inherited a $12 billion deficit, while Gray Davis was greeted with an $8 billion surplus that’s grown since. If Wilson had had that sort of cash flow, says Scott Baugh, “He’d be president by now.” Hear that, Gray? Peter Jennings will headline the OC Biz Council’s annual dinner April 10 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. OCBC’s Mike Noonan credits his own hard work and Disney’s connections with landing the ABC anchorman. Disney exec and former Disneyland chief Paul Pressler will introduce Jennings The Insider thinks it may have found the cheapest haircut in OC: $7, at Central Hair Design Barber & Beauty in San Juan Capistrano Colon cancer has found out what NFL linebackers learned long ago: Rich Saul is one tough cookie. The Fidelity National exec and former Rams’ All-Pro center was looking great (and cracking jokes, of course) last week at the Toshiba Senior Classic. Hard to believe he’d been through eight months of chemotherapy, especially watching him take his 4-handicap into the celebrity pro-am event Replay: Contrary to the name printed in last week’s column, the Palisades Tennis Club ace with the new hip (but same old wicked game) is Irv Goldberg You probably haven’t heard of one of OC’s finest athletes: windsurfer Lanee Butler of Dana Point Yacht Club, named Female Athlete of the Year in sailing four times by the U.S. Olympic Committee and winner of a gold medal at the Pan Am Games last summer. Now she’s in Sydney, Australia, training for her third Olympics Allergan got lucky with Botox. Now David Pyott is trying to replace luck with scientific management, writes former OCBJer Kelly Barron in the March 6 Forbes Derrick Thomas’ Third and Long Foundation has been added as a beneficiary of Steinberg Moorad & Dunn’s star-studded charity golf tournament March 31 at Pelican Hill. Proceeds will also go to United Cerebral Palsy Association of Orange County. Leigh Steinberg client Thomas, a star linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, died last month following a car accident. For tourney info call Dr. Joanne Minor at (714) 557-1291.