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Oscar Night in the ATL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How was your Oscars night? Did you fire up the flat-screen for your very own Academy Awards party, or hit the town for a ritzier bash? Tell me about it and send your pix!
As for me, my esteemed colleague Mr. Smithee was in Hollywood for the Academy Awards Sunday so the Butterfly did the next best thing and hit the local Oscar Night social scene.
About 700 glamsters turned out for the Center for Family Resources’ Oscar Night America party at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Guests entered after running a gauntlet of Chattahoochee Tech students posing as paparazzi, snapping cameras and shouting questions. So cute.
The evening’s goal was $350,000, and CFR CEO Jeri Barr was confident the gala, which featured live and silent auctions, seated dinner and a live telecast, would bring in that amount. (Learn more about CFR at www.thecfr.org).
Barr’s husband, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, was there talking shop with U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta). Other pols in attendance included U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) and Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County Commission.
Junior League of Cobb-Marietta president Angie Fowler was there with husband Robert; president-elect Carey Merritt was there with husband Jack.
Jerrie Alexander, there with husband Tom, stood out in her white feathered boa and emerald green gown. Jo Vernon, there with husband Humberto, wore a beaded black pantsuit and black and white boa.
And Cindy Samples and Shirley Whitmire had this flapper-fabulous look going. Cindy paired her little black dress with yards of pearls, while Shirley sort of looked like an Oscar statuette, gleaming in a gold sequinned cocktail dress.
The ladies reminded S.B. about the upcoming Jewel of the Nile gala to benefit the Circle for Children. It’ll be March 15 at the new Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, and comedian Jeff Foxworthy is honorary chair. Cindy is this year’s chair and Shirley’s on deck for next year. Details at thecircleforchildren.org.
All right, back to the CFR.
We visited with Carla and Brent Brown and Mary Claire and Rob Andrews. Co-chairs were Cheryl and Jerry Nix and Elaine and Bob Feldberg. The committee included Randall Bentley, Tony Britton, Jane Bunn, Bruce and Mary Clayton, Nancy Davis, Margie Deitz, Cassy Ferrell, Lee Freeman, Joe Garner, Melanie Howard, Bob Kiser, David Lee, Ann Lovvorn, Kaaren McNulty, Kim Menefee, John O’Hara, Van Price and Carol Stelling.
The event honored Douglas H. Chaffins.
Next, I ran by the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead, where a smaller but no less fab crowd turned out for a fun costume-optional fete benefiting AIDS Survival Project (aidssurvivalproject.org).
Leigh Ann Nall and Patti Roberts, in sumptuous jewel-toned garb, were elegant Elizabethan courtiers. Leigh Ann’s husband, Clint, looking a little scruffy, was done up as Anton Chigurh, Javier Bardem’s nefarious character in “No Country for Old Men.”
Steven Schaffer was there in a chef’s toque, but had to be reminded by wife Rachelle that he was there as Remy, the gifted culinary rodent in “Ratatouille.” I thought for sure that Scott McDowell, there with wife Susan, was meant to remind everyone of Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd. Nope, that’s just how he looks.
“Aren’t I lucky?” Susan chirped.
The event, which featured heavy hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar, has for 20 years been chaired by Craig Eister, sporting a bushy mustache and chapeau like Daniel Day-Lewis’ in “There Will Be Blood.”
His partner Doug VanOrsdall wore a velvet tux jacket, but said he wasn’t in character: “I’m just glam.”
Now there’s an acceptance speech.
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