SANDY AND SUE'S 50'S DINNER

If you were born in LA, you remember Chasen's Banana Shortcake, the Brown Derby's Grapefruit Cake, Hillcrest's Coconut Cake, Blum's Crunch Cake, and the Bullock's Wilshire Mile High Coconut Pie. You also remember your parents' parties with their appetizers of spinach-artichoke dip, crab and creamcheese dip, baked brie with fruit and nuts! Well......Sandy Pressman and I recreated it. Our guests were Nancy Sanders, Kris Postil, Terre Thomas, Cathy Siegel, sundry friends, Seanna Biggs, Marisa Levin Frankel and Nathalie Kunin. We cooked all the apps, but the cakes came from:

VALERIE'S CONFECTIONS

213-739-8149 3360 W. First St. Los Angeles 90004

Go on their website to see the cakes of our childhood, that we never thought we'd ever taste again.

KIM NOVAK TO MAKE SPECIAL LA APPEARANCE--SOLD OUT

My favorite movie star of all time, Kim Novak, will be at the American Cinematheque's celebration honoring her and Sony's release of "The Kim Novak Collection" boxed set on July 30th at Egyptian Theatre. They will be screening her movies for four days, but opening night is "Bell, Book & Candle," followed by a Q&A with Kim. She loves that movie. After the Q&A they will show "Pal Joey." (She didn't enjoy playing dumb blonde Linda English and will readily tell you.) Her Vanity Fair story will be in the October magazine. It's VERY rare for her to leave her ranch, but she's proud of her work and the recognition it continues to get, and is pleased with the "Collection."

JOAN RIVERS IN LA

Joan is here for five weeks shooting her new reality series for WE. Over this weekend she has been doing stand-up shows at Catalina Bar & Grill, which were also shot for WE. All I can tell you is that her new material featuring Anne Frank, Mother Teresa, and Mel Gibson---is unbelievably hilarious. Look for her to continue to do her act around LA. When she's in NY she does a show in a club every Wednesday to try out new material and "keep fresh."

PROJECT SAVE OUT SURF BENEFIT

Actress Tanna Frederick, founder of Save Our Surf, along with co-chairs PT Townend and Shaun Thomson hosted a wonderful benefit honoring the first anniversary of the charity. Project Save Our Surf benefits our oceans and preserving the marine eco-systems, and many well-known surfers and celebrities are members. The benefit was held on the Santa Monica Pier, and everyone has a blast.

Photos by John Heller