Tag archives: gossip
Dietary concerns went out the window when the Santa Barbara Historical Museum was the venue for a 14-course dinner for 40 guests as part of a gastronomic evening of Spanish cuisine hosted by the Consul of Tourism Affairs in Los Angeles, local California missions honcho David Bolton, and Gonzalo Sarmiento. Two of Madrid’s top chefs, […]
Teresa Kuskey Nowak’s birthday bash at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum may have had an Under the Sea theme, but there was not a flipper or snorkel to be seen when 112 guests descended on the harborside institution for the fun fête hosted by social gadabout Rick Oshay. After margaritas and comestibles on the museum’s […]
Longtime team member Juli Askew has been promoted to development manager of the Santa Barbara Symphony. Askew, who has been in charge of special events, will oversee critical donor appeals and seven distinct events celebrating the symphony’s 70th anniversary. A native of our Eden by the Beach, Askew is a seasoned development professional with expertise […]
Fiesta fever was palpable when the Santa Barbara Historical Museum hosted its La Fiesta del Museo, chaired by Sharon Bradford, for the first time in two years with 300 traditionally garbed guests helping raise 10% of the popular institution’s annual budget. A colorful variety of musical acts kept the fiesta fans entertained including Juan Zaragoza […]
This was the 9th annual “Fiscal New Year” fête hosted by Ernesto Paredes to get executive directors together for a sip and greet. He had help from a committee of Heidi Holly, Kim Olson, and Sophia Davis. It was held at the former Chuck’s Waterfront Grill near the Maritime Museum. There was even a sponsor […]
Oenophiles and gourmands were out in force at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History when, after a two-year pandemic hiatus, it hosted the region’s premier wine and food event, attracting 1,000 supporters to the beautiful 17-acre Mission Creek campus and raising more than $200,000 for the museum’s programs and exhibits. Around 200 VIP tickets, […]
The Lobero Theatre was almost gridlocked when the Music Academy staged a concert by the popular Takács Quartet, with four Academy fellows adding to the wonderful mix as the 75th annual summer festival kicked off. The program featured works by Mozart, Beethoven, and wrapped with Mendelssohn’s “Octet in E-flat Major,” which he wrote when he […]
It was an evening of high note, with many in between, when Montecito’s venerable, newly renamed Music Academy celebrated its 75th anniversary with a signature gala on its 10-acre Miraflores oceanside campus for 320 guests raising around $600,000. The boffo bash, co-chaired by the tony triumvirate of Valerie Montgomery, Kandy Luria-Budgor, and Michele Brustin, was […]
Santa Barbara rock legend Alan Parsons, who received an OBE – Order of the British Empire – in last year’s annual Queen Elizabeth Birthday Honors List, has been presented with his gong at long last after 12 months of pandemic delays. Alan, 73, tells me he received the honor from Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, […]
As Montecito’s Music Academy of the West celebrates its 75th anniversary, it’s a whole new image for the storied 10-acre Miraflores oceanside campus, I can exclusively reveal. For the past eight months, a team of academy board members, administration, and professional consultants – 21C Media Group from New York and My Brilliant Friend from Los […]
Former actress Meghan Markle “came from nothing” and “trampled on others to get to the top” like a politician or a tycoon, her acid-penned biographer has revealed. “Victims” of the Duchess of Sussex, 40, are telling all in a new book by British investigative journalist Tom Bower, 75, he claims. Bower, speaking to GB News, […]
Call it the Prince Harry effect! Since it was announced that Queen Elizabeth’s 37-year-old grandson would be playing regularly in the 12-goal matches at the Santa Barbara Polo Club with his old friend Argentinian Ralph Lauren Polo model Nacho Figueras, the club’s telephone has been ringing off the hook and the website deluged with viewers. […]
It was a night on the tiles when Dan and Meg Burnham hosted a Crescendo bash for Santa Barbara Symphony supporters at their penthouse aerie above the Granada Theatre to celebrate the orchestra’s Fandango Picante concert under maestro Nir Kabaretti. Violin superstar Anne Akiko Meyers performed music by legendary composer Arturo Marquez during the Mexican […]
It was all tu-tu much when social gridlock reigned at the venerable Lobero when the State Street Ballet closed its season with a gala performance featuring highlights from the company’s repertoire from the past 27 years. The glittering event also paid tribute to philanthropic patrons Sara Miller McCune, Carrie Towbes, Margo Cohen-Feinberg, and Tim Mikel, […]
To UCSB’s Campbell Hall to see the talented Danish String Quartet perform part two of its four-year-old Doppelgänger Project, supported by the college’s Arts & Lectures program, as well as New York’s Carnegie Hall. The project pairs world premieres from four renowned composers with chamber music masterpieces by Schubert, including “Death and the Maiden” and […]
It was certainly a hands-on performance when Berlin-based piano twosome Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg sharing the keyboard performed the world premiere of 62-year-old Austrian Richard Dunser’s composition derived from the work of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms with the Santa Barbara Symphony for Romance in a New Key at the Granada. Dunser dedicated his […]
As British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason had performed at their royal wedding at historic St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2018 and watched by two billion people globally, it was hoped that Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle might attend his entertaining concert with his pianist sister, Isata, at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, part of the popular Arts […]
Montecito sports fan were out in force when retired technology executive Howard Cannon, who splits his time between our Eden by the Beach and his home in Memphis, Tennessee, threw his fifth annual Super Bowl bash at his George Washington Smith estate. “It is nice to be back to near normal,” enthused Howard. “It was […]
A few persistent rumors have spread through the Montecito community, thus proving the old adage that a lie can get halfway round the world before the truth can even get its boots on. Here are a couple that we’ve thoroughly debunked: – Rick Caruso is buying the Upper Village and plans to turn it into […]
On a personal note, I remember fellow gossip Liz Smith, who left us in New York at the age of 94. I first met the irrepressible Texan in 1978 when I became gossip columnist on Rupert Murdoch’s newly launched Star magazine, when she scribed at the Daily News, eventually becoming an on screen regular on […]



