Tut-Tut: British Museum Deal Near; OCers on Broadway
OC INSIDER by Rick Reiff
A deal to bring the British Museum to Santa Ana appears imminent. All that’s needed, the Insider is told, is for lawyers to agree on final wording of a five-year, renewable contract. Plans have been drawn, and some $10 million in funding is being arranged, for a new wing on Bowers Museum to serve as the famed London institution’s first permanent satellite. Don Kennedy, First American Corp. chairman, Bowers chairman and a driving force in the project, declined to discuss specifics. But he acknowledged that he’s been overseas to check out the British Museum’s inventory of mummies and other artifacts. “It’s a five-par and as wide as a fairway, and that’s just the Egyptian stuff,” said avid golfer Kennedy, describing the museum’s vast basement …
Actor Matthew Morrison, a graduate of Orange County High School of the Arts, isn’t the only OCer with a key role in the new Broadway musical sensation “Hairspray.” Irvine designer Glen Eytchison, former director of the Pageant of the Masters, did the special effects for a 20-second, show-stopping sequence in which a poster of three singer-dancers comes to life. The play’s set designer, David Rockwell, told the New York Times that Eytchison is “the world’s leading expert” on the morphing technique …
President George W. Bush is scheduled to be at the St. Regis Monarch Beach this Friday for a $1,000-a-per-person cocktail hour benefiting Gerald Parsky’s Team California and the Bill Simon for Governor campaign …
“D & O; (corporate directors’ and officers’ insurance) is being replaced with bail bonds,” quips Tim Cooley …
Jockeys may not have the most familiar faces, but their rears get a lot of exposure. That’s the idea behind the JMG logo being worn on the pants, collars and boots of about 70 riders at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park and San Mateo’s Bay Meadows race tracks. Jockeys Management Group, run by Newport Coast sports marketer and former Long Beach State and NFL defensive back RJ Kors, wants to sell the spaces to beverage companies, carmakers or other corporate advertisers …
The Terry Gibbs Dream Band, Bob Florence Limited Edition and Bill Watrous Quartet head a star-studded field at the West Coast Jazz Party Aug. 30-Sept. 1 at the Irvine Marriott. For ticket and other info call (949) 759-5003 …
Halfway there: Allison Badger, KOCE-TV producer and host of “Sound Affects,” has turned 25.
