Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle joined Cameron Diaz and her husband, Benji Madden, and Avatar actress Zoe Saldana on a private plane from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas to watch one of local singer Katy Perry’s last concerts of her two-year residency at the Resorts World Theatre. They were joined in the venue’s VIP […]
Social gadabout Rick Oshay and his galpal Teresa Kuskey put the “fun” into Funk Zone when they threw a spooktacular Halloween bash with the gloriously camp and colorful La Boheme Dancers at the home of the Topa Topa Brewing Company and the Fox Wine Company. More than 170 guests, most of them creatively garbed, turned […]
The venerable Granada was chock-a-block when UCSB Arts & Lectures staged the new season’s second dance event Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends, a delightful and innovative two-hour show. Award-winning New York City Ballet principal dancer Peck embraced the role of director for the colorful, energized performance running up the heat with an […]
It was definitely paws for thought at Hudson Grace, the charming vintage design shop in the Montecito Country Mart, when British author Georgina Montagu promoted her colorful 300-page coffee table tome Top Dogs: A British Love Affair, featuring boldface named owners and their beloved canines. One of the more notable is Camilla, wife of King […]
It was all two grand for words when the Music Academy launched the first of its Mariposa Series concerts at Hahn Hall with the extraordinary keyboard duo of Anderson and Roe with academy alum Elizabeth Joy Roe and Greg Anderson playing back-to-back Steinway pianos. Since forming their dynamic musical partnership in 2002 as students at […]
Uber party planner Merryl Brown hosted a garden party at her East Valley Road antebellum-style home for former international event producer John Daly’s 12-year-old Key Class, which mentors at-risk and other students in learning important life skills, including social etiquette. With a $120,000 annual budget, it has taught more than 10,000 students, mostly from the […]
To the Rockwood Woman’s Club for a Celebration of Life of the late Santa Barbara News-Press writer Marilyn McMahon, a former colleague and friend, who died in August aged 93, just two weeks before the historic daily, for which she’d written for half a century, declared bankruptcy. Jerry Roberts, former editor of the newspaper, noted […]
Montecito actress Gwyneth Paltrow is looking for a quiet life on the British coast, according to reports. If so, the Oscar winner will be following a whole host of celebrities, including Cate Blanchett, Jason Statham, Jamie Dornan, Stanley Tucci, and Jason Momoa who have snapped up properties in the picturesque southwestern county of Cornwall. While […]
Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry celebrated turning 39 in grand style – showing off her pickleball skills against British actor fiancé Orlando Bloom at the inaugural Light Up the Court event for her Firework Foundation, which she founded in 2019 with her sister, Angela Lerche. Racketeers galore turned out at the Montecito Club for the […]
As it prepares to celebrate it 30th anniversary, State Street Ballet staged one of its biggest productions ever at the Granada with its premiere of the hauntingly beautiful two act production, Giselle. New artistic director Megan Philipp, who has taken over from retiring founder Rodney Gustafson, excelled – helming the two-hour show with Ryan Lenkey […]
Millinery madness took root at Montecito’s 37-acre botanical Eden Lotusland when it launched a new exhibition Madame’s Millinery Masterpieces: Hats Through History focusing on the wardrobe of the late owner, Polish opera singer Ganna Walska, who died in 1984 aged 96. The six-times-married diva was acquisitive with an impressive jewelry collection, a large selection of […]
Artist and gallery owner Ralph Waterhouse, who just celebrated this 80th birthday with a boffo bash at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, hosted his first solo exhibition in 25 years at his new gallery on Coast Village Road, just a tiara’s toss from Ca’Dario. “My wife Diane thought it would be a good […]
To the charming Danish community of Solvang, just 45 minutes north on the 101, for Santa Barbara artist Mara Abboud’s latest exhibition at the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature. Mara, sister of menswear designer Joseph Abboud, in 2014 designed the Granada Theatre’s 90th anniversary celebration poster and in 1980 was named Artist of the […]
Our Eden by the Beach is about to have a whale of a time! The World Cetacean Alliance and World Animal Protection have just announced the designation of the ninth Whale Heritage Area in the world and only the second such area in the U.S. with the Santa Barbara Channel Whale Heritage Area. The rare […]
Old and New Worlds were in the spotlight when Camerata Pacifica continued its 34th season with From Bach to Bolivia, the first of the programs in its Baroque series at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall. Featuring period instruments and curated by acclaimed flutist Emi Ferguson, the repertoire included five seminal Bach chamber works. They were […]
The launch of CAMA’s Masterseries at the Lobero with two virtuoso musicians, Avi Avital on mandolin and Hanzhi Wang on accordion, was a heady combination. Israeli Avital, who has performed with the Community Arts Music Association twice – with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 2018 and Les Violins du Roy 2021 – was in […]
LynnRae Dunn, whose career in education philanthropy has spanned more than two decades, has been appointed director of development for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. A native of Napa and a first-generation college graduate, she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, graduating summa cum laude. Dunn […]
On a personal note, I mark the passing of veteran actress Piper Laurie, who died at her Los Angeles home aged 91. Laurie, who received three Oscar nominations and a won a Golden Globe for the TV series Twin Peaks, co-starred in the opening performance of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music of the Ensemble […]
Former TV talk show titan Oprah Winfrey, 69, suggested teaming up with Senator Mitt Romney on a 2020 White House run to beat out Donald Trump, according to a new book. There has always been frequent speculation that Oprah, a longtime resident of our rarefied enclave, had political aspirations, and analysts said her popularity and […]
The pier opposite the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum was heaving with guests when the recreation of the 19th century gaff-rigged 110-foot 98-ton steel-hulled schooner Mystic Whaler was recommissioned in its new role – an educational vessel for youngsters, 10 to 18, run by Central Coast Ocean Adventures. Originally launched in Florida in 1967, it spent […]
Domestic Violence Solutions, founded in 1977, hosted its 15th annual lunch at the Montecito Club with 150 guests raising over $90,000 for the cause, which offers safety, shelter, and support for victims. Last year the organization’s advocates answered more than 4,000 calls to its crisis line, provided 110 children with immediate safety at its emergency […]
More than 250 musicians and singers packed the sprawling stage of the venerable Granada when the Santa Barbara Symphony, under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, kicked off its 71st season with An Ode to Joy, Hope and Community. It was the symphony’s first performance of Beethoven’s 9th – marking the 200th anniversary of the German composer’s […]
It’s two for the price of one at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art with a duo of new exhibitions. Shape, Ground, Shadow: The Photographs of Ellsworth Kelly, as well as Flowers on a River: The Art of Chinese Flower-and-Bird Painting 1368-1911, Masterworks from the Tianjin Museum and the Changzhou Museum, have just opened. Shape […]
Iconic artist and art gallery owner Ralph Waterhouse celebrated his 80th birthday in style with a party for 90 guests at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History with his bubbly wife, Diane. The dynamic duo have owned an eponymous gallery in La Arcada for 39 years and last April opened a new outlet on […]
Carats were definitely on the menu when United Way of Santa Barbara County held a double celebration at the Montecito Club for 230 guests – the 100-year-old charity’s diamond anniversary and the 26th Red Feather Ball, which raised around $400,000 for the organization that serves more than 10,000 local children and their families annually. The […]
A tony triumvirate of award-winning classical musicians wowed at the Granada. French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, 62, joined countryman Gautier Capuçon, 42, playing a 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello, and Georgia, Russian-born Lisa Batiashvili, 44, playing a 1739 Guarneri del Gesu violin, kicked off UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Great Performances series for a hugely entertaining evening of […]
Jemma Montecito is opening in our rarefied enclave. The new eatery, which has number of branches including Brentwood and Hollywood, is at The Post, the reinvented Las Aves complex near the Andree Clark Bird Refuge. The restaurant, owned by Jackson and Melissa Kalb of Memento Mori Hospitality, boasts 2,761 square feet of interior space and […]
It wasn’t quite Dr. Who and there was not a Tardis to be seen, but the Storyteller Children’s Center celebrated its 35th anniversary with a Totally Awesome ‘80s Gala in the Hilton Rotunda, with the 270 suitably garbed guests raising $327,000 for the therapeutic preschool that provides high-quality early childhood education for youngsters facing adverse […]
Retired lawyer Robert (Bob) Montgomery, probably the longest serving president in the Community Arts Music Association’s 106-year history, received the organization’s top Bravo! Award for his extraordinary service at a packed dinner of 70 guests at the Birnam Wood clubhouse. Fittingly enough, it was presented by former award winner Deborah Bertling, immediate past president of […]
Oenophiles and gourmands were out in force when the Fund for Santa Barbara hosted its 30th annual Bread & Roses event for 520 guests at Elings Park after many years at the QAD headquarters in Summerland. The bountiful bash, co-hosted by Eric Cardenas and Julia Hamilton, raised more than $200,000 for the 43-year-old charity that […]
Peripatetic accountant Frank McGinity opened the gates of his charming historic Riven Rock estate for An Artful Affair for 135 guests and organized by the Art Foundation of Santa Barbara. Nine local artists – Ralph Waterhouse, Chris Chapman, John Iwerks, Danuta Bennett, Chris Potter, Ann Sanders, Patricia Post, Ray Hunter, and Andrea Anderson – and […]
Fittingly enough, a variety of spaghetti was on the menu when local historian and Noozhawk scribe Erin Graffy spoke to members of the Montecito Bank & Trust’s MClub about our Eden by the Beach’s rich Italian heritage, which started from the Piedmont region in the late 19th century. The influx continued from the Veneto region […]
Just in time for the holiday, Ensemble Theatre Company presents its first play of the new season, the Broadway hit The Thanksgiving Play, written by Native American playwright Larissa FastHorse and directed by Brian McDonald. Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in the wickedly funny satire as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scramble […]
Social gridlock reigned at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum when it opened its latest exhibition California Missions by English artist Edwin Deakin. From 1769 to 1833, the Franciscan Order established 21 missions in Alta California stretching from San Diego to Sonoma, with the primary purpose to convert the indigenous peoples to Roman Catholicism while at […]
New York’s century-old Martha Graham Dance Company gave a sensational kickoff to the UCSB Arts & Lectures dance series at the sold-out Granada. It was a fitting launch given Graham, who died in 1991, aged 96, attended Santa Barbara High School, graduating in 1913, after being editor of the school newspaper and captaining the girls’ […]
Having opened a branch of Lucky’s, the Coast Village Road carnivore mecca, on Cross Creek Road in Malibu two years ago, entrepreneurial owner Gene Montesano has now set his sights on Manhattan, I can exclusively reveal. My mole with the martini tells me the planned locale is Lafayette Street in pulsating Greenwich Village, just a […]
Party guests at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network gala got an early taste of Halloween with its theme Wild Night Out: Nocturnal. Many of the 225 party animals dressed as Dracula or sported bat wings at the beastly bash at the historic Santa Barbara Club that raised around $150,000 for the popular 35-year-old nonprofit, […]
Former award-winning opera performer Joan Rutkowski certainly had a lot to sing about when she won the Jacaranda Award for Community Service at the 59th annual Santa Barbara Beautiful bash, chaired by Marcella Simmons, at the Music Academy. Fittingly enough, Joan, who moved to our rarefied enclave in 1968 with her late cellist husband, Geoffrey, […]
Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council hosted its annual Green Gala for more than 200 guests at its new 10,000-square-foot Environmental Hub on State Street, just a tiara’s toss from the Granada Theatre. The handsome property, formerly the home of the Unity Shoppe, underwent a major $3.5 million renovation, with the boffo bash, which brings together […]
Opera Santa Barbara kicked off its 30th season on a particularly high note at the Granada when it staged Bizet’s 1875 masterpiece Carmen, the first time in seven years. The hugely entertaining three-hour, four-act show with Kostis Protopapas, general director, conducting, featured mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, in […]