33 minute read
Behind the Vine
MONTECITO JOURNAL34 “Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.” – Cullen Hightower Hana-Lee Sedgwick is a writer, wine consultant and lover of all things wine and food. As a Certified Specialist of Wine and Sommelier, she loves to explore the world of wine in and around her hometown of Santa Barbara. When not trying new wines or traveling, she can be found practicing yoga, cooking, entertaining and enjoying the outdoors. Visit her popular blog, Wander & Wine, for wine tips, tasting notes and adventures in wine and travel: wanderandwine.com
by Hana-Lee Sedgwick
Photographers Capturing This Moment in History D uring these times of uncertainty, it’s safe to say we are all missing a human connection with those in our community. Though we are technically “all in this together,” self-isolating at home tends to feel, well, rather isolated. It’s no wonder why “The Front Steps Project” – an idea hatched by two photographers on the East Coast to highlight faces in the community from the safety of their front steps – has launched into a nationwide movement. Looking to document this unusual time in our history, several local photographers have started their own iterations of the Front Steps Project here in Santa Barbara, and have created a welcome sense of solidarity in the process.
While some Santa Barbara photographers have followed The Front Steps Project’s model of raising money to support local organizations, others are using it as a creative outlet. Regardless of the driving cause, all the founders and participants agree that the main goal is to lift people’s spirits during this unprecedented crisis. “While everyone is hunkered indoors, I thought capturing photos would be a nice way to cheer people up and give them a memento to remember these strange times by,” says Blake Bronstad of Blake Bronstad Photography, who embarked on a limited series of what he calls “porchtraits” in Santa Barbara. Since starting a few weeks ago, he’s taken roughly 22 porchtraits free of charge for both friends and strangers.
Similarly, Nicole Berry and Sophia Taylor, the creative duo behind the photography and styling business Gold vs Black, launched their front steps project to support friends and family during these times and give back to the community in a meaningful way. “We asked ourselves, how can we keep our creativity going in a useful way right now? How can we make people smile?” explains Nicole, who shares that they’ve taken over 30 portraits of family, friends, and strangers throughout Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Ventura, and plan to do so as long as there is interest. “We’re all starved for human connection right now and this project has put us in a unique position as photographers to capture this moment and open that door to see people,” says Sophia, who shares that the majority of their requested $20 minimum donation goes to the Santa Barbara Foodbank. Adds Nicole, “We’re passionate about helping people create a sense of normalcy and humanity during this time and giving back to our community, but this experience has given back to us tenfold.”
Also choosing to support the Santa Barbara Foodbank is family and birth photographer Aurielle Whitmore of Aurielle Photography, who was drawn to the humanitarian aspect of The Front Steps Project. “I loved the idea of giving back during these times,” explains Aurielle. “I was also really empathizing with those missing out on maternity photos and the families bringing home new babies, which can already feel so isolating in those first weeks, so I wanted to help people feel less isolated while documenting a piece of this history.” After taking the portraits of 77 families spanning between Buellton and Ojai over the course of two weekends, Aurielle is thrilled to have raised over $2,300 for the Foodbank. “It was exhausting, but really rewarding, and fun to meet new families and get to know other folks in the community.”
After COVID-19 “turned life upside down” as she puts it, Rebecca Farmer of Rebecca Farmer Photography found the “urge to do something meaningful” after being encouraged by her photographer husband, Jonas (photo by Blake Bronstad) (photo Jonas Jungblut) (photo by Gold vs Black)
(photo by Rebecca Farmer)
(photo by Aurielle Whitmore
Jungblut. “My husband, Jonas, who is also a freelance photographer, really inspired me to do some sort of personal project during this time [that would] keep me busy while also bringing in a little income. He started his own personal project doing virtual portraits via Facetime [and was] spending hours each day connecting with people from all over the world.” Watching him capture virtual portraits and fulfill the innate need for human connection is what she says prompted her to start capturing images of local families in quarantine. “Documenting families as they are on their porches or yards has brought so much joy to everyone. I love doing these shoots because they feel real and raw. This is a global pandemic, but it feels so isolating and Ionely... if these shoots can bring a little joy then I have done my job.”
Though challenging, this period of isolation has brought neighbors, friends, and even strangers together in a new and different way and proven that though we are apart, we are still very much connected as a community. “This is truly an historic moment in time,” adds Rebecca, “and one day we can look back on these photos and remember all we have learned and how far we have come together.” •MJ
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Urinetown, The Musical, “Don’t Be the Bunny” Fall 2017
morning because that’s what I do when I’m directing a show. I solve problems in my sleep. But I don’t have much to be anxious about now.”
Except leaving. Because even as we talked in his nearly empty office, the verbs were all present tense, as if nothing was actually going to be different.
Cast of In the Heights, Fall 2018
Q. What stands out most from when you first started at SBHS?
A. The theater program had really gotten kind of grim, nobody was going to the shows, the place physically was run down and the teacher in charge had quit that summer. So they gave me free rein to design it as a real theater, with professional designers and choreographers, and to just really push the envelope. We created a program almost from whole cloth. Because there were very few students left, but the ones that were here were a core group of 15 kids who clung to it. It was great to discover the program together.
The orchestra had changed direction to jazz bands, so there was no orchestra to do a musical. So I was able to use the people I knew in the community to come in and create it. I had never directed a musical before I came here, so Christina McCarthy and John Douglas and John Nathan helped us to make the switch.
MONTECITO JOURNAL36
How were you able to do things that many people, myself included, considered some of the best musicals in town, save for maybe the Broadway touring shows?
We treat the students like actors, we don’t treat them like kids. We’ve done material that a lot of people feel might be beyond them because there’s an instinct to shield kids from the world, but we think you should confront it. And while there is ego in theater, of course, our philosophy was that your job is to serve the production, do your part in the show and your job as an actor is to make other people look good, not yourself.
Set of Hair. Designed and directed by Otto Layman, Spring 2016.
Plus, we had such a freedom to create here that it attracted those professionals who can’t do that in the real world. That’s how we got John Nathan, because they don’t do musicals at UCSB, and he brought the jazz ensemble. I kept meeting other people who liked what we were doing, and that helped us build the stagecraft program here, which I think is the best in town. Christina’s philosophy for choreography for the stage really meshed with mine. She taught me the function of dance in a musical. It just kept growing.
Beyond the high technical level, it also seemed like most of your shows had that true ensemble feeling where it wasn’t just the stars who did a great job. How did you develop that?
I think there can be too much emphasis on technique in high school. There’s a sort of school (of thought) – not unique to Santa Barbara – where theater ends up becoming kind of presentational, with everything being played out to the audience and you forget about the people on stage with you. I much prefer a kind of authentic, raw, organic performance from a kid. I think students respond to that.
If you give them room to be fierce and bold, they will take it. I think we scare parents sometimes, but on the other hand it’s been… Well, parents send their kids here because of the community that we build. It’s been heartening to me to see that they still have a Facebook group for the theater family that’s been going for 20 years.
Let’s rewind through the videotape, sort of “This is Your Life” style. What are some of the things that stand out: particular shows, people, audience response, controversy?
I remember the first time – and it still happens to me every show – when we let people in for that first preview and I felt we weren’t quite done or ready to open. I never went out front before a show because I always had the feeling that nobody would be out there in the hallway to see it. No matter how many shows we do, I always still have that feeling.
It was thrilling to have my child (Sable Layman, who played the part of Roxy in Chicago as a sophomore) in the program here. I think about her running up and down the ramps outside. I used to bring her to class all the way back when she was six months old. We’d set up the baby stuff on stage and she’d be there all the time while we were working. Now she’s about to graduate from UC Berkeley and become a theater teacher in San Francisco, which warms my heart.
I’m in my empty office right now. But I still feel that energy from having students in here every day. I loved the noise level. So I loved the remarkable
Kenny Loggins performs “Footloose” with the cast of Footloose, closing night 2009
Otto and wife, Mary Layman. The best reason to retire.
talent and being able to explore and build things with students here.
Another highlight is when we were invited to perform Hair at a festival in Scotland.
A turning point came when I met Jeff Barry and he enrolled his twins Jessica and Clayton here. That really changed our direction coming right after Scotland. After that, we only did two more straight plays: Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio, which were my adaptations. We finally had the boys to do musicals full time, that era that also had Jordan Lemmond, and Emilio Madrid, who made it cool for boys to want to be in theater and do musicals. They were part of a steady dream of big actors and singers, many of whom are now out there working.
But for me, it’s not the kids working in the business. I’d say 99 percent of the kids who were in theater here aren’t involved in that world anymore. But they learned how to be bold, and quick on their feet, and they care about other people. I hope we made a great family for them, and that I leave this place better than I found it.
Otto and Sable Layman at a rehearsal of On The Razzle in 1999
There were some other very cool things. We did a lot of stuff here after I learned that you don’t ask – you just do it. We made it rain on stage for Singing in the Rain when we had a 500-gallon water tank in the basement that we pumped up into the fly (rigging above the stage). For Bullets Over Broadway we built the Gowanus Canal and had actors plunge into it. That was part of not only producing great shows, but teaching that the only limits are the ones you impose on yourself.
I’m pausing here because I’m tearing up a bit. Sorry to be so emotional. I just love the idea of not only training actors but shaping better people.
Yeah, it’s been emotional for me too. There’s really no good time to leave. How can I say, you’re the last freshman class I’ll ever have? But I am leaving behind 20 great talents for whomever is next, not even counting the
new ones coming in. I created something really great to work with. Plus the Parents’ Foundation is just amazing – we have to raise all the money, and that’s about $50,000-$75,000 a year. We pay for our musicians, and double musical rights. But the parents have always been enthusiastic about all of it, here every night, doing ticket sales, concessions, and fundraising. They’re a remarkable group. It makes a huge difference when the parents buy into it.
What do you consider to be your legacy in high school theater in Santa Barbara?
I think that we succeeded in finding an academic respect for the theater that can be elusive because it’s usually considered an elective or a fluffy course. But the community and the school and the district realized these kids actually work harder than any other non-theater students, including athletes. They’re taking AP classes and they’re also here in the theater a minimum of 15 hours a week during a show. A semester is a total of 90 hours of class time, by the time we close, a kid in the musical has done 220 hours, more than double. And that’s why I think, when I look back, that we’ve left a body of work that when people see what we’ve done, they say I can’t believe this is high school theater.
What resonates most for you right now in this moment as you consider what you accomplished? Perhaps, even, what you are most proud of? (Pauses for several moments.) I’m going to get personal because you’ve been vulnerable too. I grew up in a divorced family, and I didn’t really have a father. I saw my biological dad three times in the last 40 years of his life. So for me to be a parent to hundreds of kids over the years has been an overwhelming emotional experience. Outside of the shows we do and the cool stuff that we make, being able to spend every day with this family of kids who trust you, fight with you, cry with you, yell at you… It feels like I created a place where people can express their love and commitment. That’s really what I take away, the personal relationships that have that parental flavor.
MONTECITO JOURNAL 37
What is in your future? Complete retirement? Some other projects?
Well mostly (when the pandemic recedes) I’ll start by chasing my wife around the world because we’re big travelers. We had planned a big bicycling trip in Croatia for this summer, and we’ll do that once my (injured) knee is better. Also, I was originally a writer, and I still write. So I’ll have more time to be more creative. But I don’t think I’ll direct. When I walk away, I’m done. I can’t imagine directing a show at somebody else’s space with their rules. I may still design for here, but I don’t want to interfere or cast a shadow on whomever comes after me. So my presence will be scarce. In fact, I look forward to going and seeing shows just by watching them, not thinking about how I would direct it, or counting the number of musical instruments.
Beyond that, I’m not sure what the next chapter of my life is. But I’ve never been bored a day in my life. If you have a rich interior life like I do, that’s kind of impossible. •MJ
MONTECITO JOURNAL38 not so much. Paper towels have only existed for a little more than 100 years, and they’re hardly helping us hide from apex predators. Before paper towels, Civilization got along just fine with cloth towels, mops, sponges, and rags. So what’s the drive behind stockpiling paper towels? I never understood the desire to live track our parcels like they’re returning POWs or Lindbergh returning from Paris.
Similarly, because I’m a writer, I don’t relate to people’s claims of quarantine boredom. Because writers lead such internal, solitary lives, I’m a black belt when it comes to filling the hours with meaningless, self-improvised diversions. Like thanks to “live tracking updates,” I can order anything online and watch its progress from anywhere in the world… to my front door. Woo-hoo! It’s like a lame Netflix series crafted just for me. Thanks, Jeff Bezos!
And while I never understood the desire to live-track our parcels like they’re returning POWs or Lindbergh returning from Paris, now that we’re sheltering in place I’m grateful for the added entertainment. Sometimes I’ll order multiples of the same item from different vendors and “race” them. Or to mix it up, one can order multiples of the same thing with different shipping methods and race the delivery services. Spoiler alert: USPS is rarely in the winner’s circle.
Another fun diversion is to study the “Movers and Shakers” list on Amazon, i.e. what’s trending. As a student of human behavior, and as one who’s always trying to stay a step ahead in the stocking of the COVID bomb shelter I call home, I’m always interested in what’s selling in the pandemic... and, more importantly, I love to posit what these choices say about our species.
The eminent psychologist Abraham Maslow famously created a “hierarchy of needs” pyramid that illustrates the fundamental thirsts humans are trying to quell, along with the urgency of each. At the bottom of the pyramid are Man’s most un-optional needs: air, water, and sleep. Then as one climbs the pyramid, things become more desired but less needed. So halfway up the pyramid are things like “human connection,” a “sense of belonging,” wifi signal, and love. Then at the very top of the pyramid is “transcendence,” which is akin to Buddhism’s Nirvana. UnNatural Selection
In the COVID crisis, however, it seems apparent that joining the base of Maslow’s pyramid, right alongside Man’s need for oxygen and shelter, is Man’s (and even moreso, Woman’s) unquench-able thirst for toilet paper and paper towels. The thing I have yet to see discussed, including by myself in an earlier piece on bidets, is why toilet paper of all things has struck such a nerve. Why not hoard something endlessly useful – like gaffer’s tape? And why, nearly two months into quarantine, are TP and paper towels still in such scarce supply?
My theory is it’s biblical, i.e. we’re living in a time of plague so, as with the original plagues, people are naturally expecting a flood. Okay, so even if today is the Book of Genesis redux, Super absorbent Bounty is good but it’s not THAT good. It’s not going to absorb melting ice caps or rising sea levels.
Other quarantine big sellers Maslow might find interesting are guns, alcohol, beard trimmers, and hair dye. All of which I guess make complete sense. Except if your hair is only being seen on Zoom, shouldn’t there be just a nearby Zoom icon or app with which to color it?
Home gym and wellness equipment are other big sellers in the age of home quarantine. The wellness stuff I can’t “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” – Dalai Lama demic is not that we now spend all our time together, but that you do too. The world has normalized our unsolitary confinement.
Here’s the weird thing I found out. Our TP obsession… or at least our fixation with the hygiene of our nethers, not only makes complete sense… it is in fact a key ingredient of Humankind’s evolutionary success.
Turns out, we may be the only species with fatty buttocks protecting a concealed aperture for waste. The design genius of our entire backside is this: buttocks have the ability to store fat (aka fuel) which allowed hominids to venture further out on to the savanna, and last longer and forage further whilst hunting. But you can’t just have offense without defense. What the recessed anus provided was an ability to conceal the scent of human so that we would not and could not be tracked by better carnivores, like jaguars, wolves, and saber-toothed tigers. Which is good to keep in mind the next time you call someone an A-hole. The A-hole being a critical lynchpin of humanity. From a design perspective, “A-hole” is kind of a compliment.
Our desire to clean ourselves and be scentless – though there are better ways to do it (see my earlier bidet piece) comes from somewhere deep in our amphibious/reptilian brains and is likely related to not just our success but dominance as a species. It’s good to know we’re not just lemmings; our insane TP hoarding is based on something of great evolutionary value.
Paper towels, on the other hand, SHELTERING (Continued from page 12)
get behind because isn’t the presence of your entire family pretty much the antidote to mindfulness and meditation? Last I checked there is no “ohm” in home.
Co-rona, Co-vid, and Co-habitation
Three months ago, people used to say they wanted less time at work and more time with family. The time it took to cure people of that notion was not even six weeks of quarantine. So if we’re updating the Maslow pyramid, clearly another strong desire people have, along with “connection,” is their almost equal desire for disconnection, also known as solitude.
This desire for privacy, and hence private rooms, has been an interesting journey in architecture.
In agrarian, pre-Victorian society, there was very little separation between family members inside the home. This was practical and had to do with the naturally protective value of huddling together as well as the inherent efficiencies of warming air and water, with only crude plumbing, and without central air or heat or furnaces.
As the western world became less agrarian, Victorian culture fostered the birth of the “closed” living plan, where one travelled through halls rather than someone else’s room to reach a destination. Victorian homes were generally dark with so many walls partitioning the natural light
Post dinner, the “open floor plan” allowed for division of labor along TRADITIONAL gender lines
– but the overriding Victorian desire was for everyone and even every activity to have its own room (like the fainting room, parlor room, and the larder). This highly segmented style of architecture struck a nerve and lasted about 65 years. Many people. Small rooms. Many doors. Kind of makes you jealous right about now, right? It shouldn’t surprise you the “door slamming farce” originated during this era. Because every Victorian home seems to have about 100 doors.
When the Great Depression came, homes once again got flooded with people, not just the nuclear family but extended family and sometimes boarders as well. Of necessity, privacy took a back seat to the economies of scale. In the span of 100 years the home had gone from a few large, pragmatic rooms with family huddled. To many rooms but with much separation. Then to many rooms, dark, and crammed with people.
The economy didn’t get going again until the end of WWII which gave birth to the open floor plan, which also got a boost from new building materials previously unavailable to the consumer, i.e. long steel beams (previously war rationed) which allowed for grandiose ceiling spans (without the need for multiple load bearing walls) and helped give birth to the “open” floor plan, which exploded with Philip Johnson’s alarming (at the time) Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut in 1949, which made the cover of Life Magazine. As a light and airy relief from the doom and gloom of World War Two, the open floor plan allowed you to visually take in most of your empire at once, and see everyone, and all your cool stuff, at the same time. Little did people know when the open floor plan took off that it’s a little like not having eyelids.
Since then, and till now, the open floor plan architectural style has enjoyed an unprecedented 70-year run, because there was prestige in creating wide open interior spaces, and just as important, prestige in showing you could keep tidy these wide open expanses. It implied staff. And if not a staff, then at least a very devoted and obedient house spouse. Yes, with the open floor plan, lucky Mom got to prep meals and watch the kids – two jobs for the price of none!
The open floor plan is like models appearing on Instagram with no makeup. Presumably to show modesty, but with an implied boast “I naturally have no flaws whatsoever.” Of course the greatest implied boast of the open floor plan is not so much the status symbol of a house that is always clean. It’s a family that you always want to see. Can you imagine?
Unfortunately in the Age of the Coronavirus, the Family That Is Always There, which sounds like the title of a ‘50s horror movie or a Tale From the Crypt, has overstayed its welcome. Turns out we’d all, if we had the money, like to live like Mr. and Mrs. President and their son, who each occupied their own floor in Trump Tower. Come on, you’ve fantasized about it.
The major trends of our world cannot help but manifest in our habitats. We always try to adapt our nests to prevailing conditions, be they natural, cultural, and sometimes imagined (cold war bomb shelters, for example). Today as we try to adapt our interiors to the horrific condition that is exterior, it’s good to keep in mind “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
I’m reminded of a story that is particularly apt, told to me by the writer Rob Ulin. Rob was buying a house in Santa Monica that had just come on the market under bizarre circumstances. The previous owner was a legit survivalist who had built himself a full-on survivalist’s bunker. The problem was when the survivalist went to check the levels in his propane tanks, he blew himself up in the process. Thus the bomb shelter did in fact serve its intended purpose. Only it protected the environment from the survivalist rather than the other way around.
Which just goes to show. Man plans, and God says “Ha.” Except when she says “Kaboom.” •MJ
H OME I S W H ERE TH E H EART I S. NOW MORE T H AN EVER HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS. NOW MORE THAN EVER
MAY YOUR H OME BE YOUR SANCT UARY. MAY YOUR HOME BE YOUR SANCTUARY.
Magnusson Fellow, who escaped the Nazis during World War II, was accompanied by her physician husband of 33 years, Yoel, as friends with posters and honking car horns marked the big day during the pandemic.
“It wasn’t exactly what was planned for the occasion but, given the limitations, the best anyone could do in the circumstances,” said Judi Weisbart, who attended the bash with her husband, Harry.
Flip It
Montecito TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who earlier this year bought an historic Tudor-style home, The Porter House, built from a pair of English barns dating to the 1700s, has put the Miramar Avenue property on the market for $6.9 million.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom 5,500 sq. ft. house on 1.35 acres, was bought by the multi Emmy winner and her actress wife, Portia de Rossi, four months ago for $3.6 million, but has undergone extensive renovations with a new kitchen and bathrooms.
There is also an octagonal study with 28-pane casement windows.
Riskin Partners in Montecito is dealing with the sale.
Farewell, Oliver’s
Oliver’s, the Coast Village Road vegetarian restaurant that took five years to transform from the old Peabody’s space under owner cell phone billionaire Craig McCaw, 70, has been sold, says my mole with the martini.
McCaw, who has moved back to Seattle, has been divesting himself of his properties in our rarefied enclave, including his estate on Park Lane and his beach house.
He is currently working on developing his 780 acre James Island near Vancouver, British Columbia, which he bought in 1994 for $19 million, with Arizona-based housing developer, the Discovery Land Company, into around 100 building sites of two to five acres.
The island, which currently features a 4,500 sq. ft. house, six guest homes, Following the drive-by party was a Zoom call from friends from all over the world. Special appearances were made by Jane Goodall, Christiane Amanpour, and others, plus live performances by Joyce DiDonato, Monica Yunus, and Camille Zamora. (photo by Judi Weisbart)
Marilyn Gilbert sang opera from her car while people honked, yelled, and sang out of their car windows as Eva beamed with joy (photo by Judi Weisbart)
Oliver’s on CVR sold?
MONTECITO JOURNAL40 “Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” – Dale Carnegie
a private airstrip and an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, was listed for sale for $75 million several years ago.
In July, 2019, the island was valued at $56,747,000.
E-mails to McCaw went without response. Stay tuned...
Friends in High Places
Former TV talk show titan Oprah Winfrey, Montecito’s most famous resident, has had a pivotal role in the move by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from Canada to Los Angeles.
Prince Harry, 35, and former actress wife Meghan Markle, 38, are now living in an $18 million eight-bedroom, 12-bathroom Tuscan-style home on 22 acres in the oh-so exclusive Beverly Ridge Estates gated community, and also has its own security team.
The mega Beverly Hills property is owned by Tyler Perry, 50, actor, writer and director friend of Oprah’s, who has been listed by Forbes as the highest paid man in entertainment, raking in more than $130 million annually.
The tony twosome were flown to Los Angeles in Perry’s $150 million Embraer E190 jet, according to reports, and are now a short drive from Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, who visited Oprah’s East Valley Road
estate last year, and celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson, Cameron Diaz and Katy Perry.
Last week the couple, who have dumped royal duties, were filmed at the house, which would rent for $200,000 a month, according to real estate professionals, celebrating the first birthday of their son Archie, with Meghan reading Duck! Rabbit! for Save the Children’s Save With Stories campaign, with the book featuring an Archie’s Book Club sticker clearly on the cover.
Now a resurfaced video has revealed how Oprah, 66, who attended the duo’s wedding at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, two years ago, often gifts friends’ children with a set of “100 essential stories” featuring her personalized stickers.
Symphony maestro Nir Kabaretti
Santa Barbara Symphony’s Music Education Center is now offering virtual programming through the orchestra’s Youth Ensembles programming and the private lessons Scholarship Program.
The center continues to retain and employ a teaching staff of 12 local professional musicians and two conductors to lead classes and lessons.
Each year the center impacts more than 10,000 students throughout Santa Barbara County.
“Under the direction of Kristine Pacheco the symphony is leveraging the collective talents of the incredible teaching staff to sustain and strengthen the bonds with our students and
Social Distance Drinking
Carpinteria twosome Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have obviously got a hit with their new Quarantine Wine, which I wrote about in this illustrious organ last month.
“We thought, let’s play if safe and we bought 2,000 cases,” Kutcher, 42, told the Tonight Show At Home edition. “In eight hours, we sold all 2,000 cases. We were shocked.”
The dynamic duo only did one video on social media to promote the pinot noir from Nocking Point Wines in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, with all proceeds split evenly between five chosen charities – Flexport, Direct Relief, America’s Food Fund, Give Directly, and the Frontline Responders Fund.
“It blew our minds,” adds Kutcher, and the couple scrambled to procure more wine to meet demand.
They’ve raised $1 million so far and want people “to keep giving knowing it’s going to the right places.”
The wine sells for $50 for two bottles, which have a unique blank white label. If you care to join in the quaffing, go to OfficialQuarantineWine. com.
Stranger than Fiction
Former Montecito resident Paul Hogan helped put his native Australia on the map with his “shrimp on the barbie” TV adverts and co-wrote and starred in the 1986 box office hit film Crocodile Dundee.
But as the actor, who used to live on Parra Grande Lane, prepares to
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release his autobiography, The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower, in November, he has admitted to feeling he doesn’t deserve his fame or wealth.
The 80-year-old says he often expects people to say: “What are you doing here? You’re just a bloody rigger,” a reference to one of his early jobs on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Hogan says it’s about time he took a trip down memory lane.
“Now that I’ve moved firmly into the fourth quarter it’s about time I shared the stories behind the headlines and movie posters. Because, more often than not in my life, fact has been funnier and stranger than fiction.”
Not Loafing Around
Vogue supermodel Gigi Hadid has always made a lot of dough, but now the former Montecito Union School student is making it for real during the coronavirus lockdown.
Gigi, 25, who is expecting a daughter with British singer Zayn Malik, has proven to be quite the quarantine chef at her family’s farm in Pennsylvania with impressive examples of her homemade no-knead focaccia bread.
“A quarantine goal of mine was to start making bread,” she told her 53.7 million Instagram followers, before saying the process was “worth the wait.”
On a Roll
Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry, 35, has been getting most creative with the new virtual episodes of ABC’s American Idol, where the judges and contestants have been participating by webcam.
On the first show, attempting to be “as safe as possible” during the broadcast, she appeared on screen as a giant bottle of hand sanitizer.
Then last week the former Dos Pueblos High student was filmed at home wearing a giant toilet roll.
“Just wanted to make sure everybody has enough toilet paper at their homes,” Katy told host Ryan Seacrest, 45, and fellow judges Lionel Richie, 70, and Luke Bryan, 43.
Seacrest asked: “What ply are you?” as she paraded in the in-demand commode commodity.
Ever the joker… Au Naturel
Montecito actress Gwyneth Paltrow always puts on quite a glamorous show on Hollywood’s red carpet, but the Oscar winner, 47, says she actually prefers to go makeup free.
“I’ve never been a makeup person really,” she tells the Beautiful issue of People. “I always love not wearing makeup. For me, makeup has always meant I’m going to work.
“I went to an all-girls school and we didn’t wear makeup. We weren’t dressing up for anyone. All through junior high and high school makeup
Being Blunt
My item on the wit of the late British playwright Noel Coward prompted a response from an old friend, former Fleet Street columnist turned successful celebrity book author Sean Smith.
He recounts the time Coward went to an unimpressive first night of a new play in London’s West End starring friend Gertrude Lawrence.
Afterwards he was asked what he thought of the production. “My dear Gertie, fantastic… isn’t the word,” he replied.
Rest in Peace
Carter Hines R.I.P.
On a personal note, I mark the passing of longtime Montecito resident Carter Hines at the age of 78.
Carter, who was stationed in the Army in Hawaii, attended City College and Long Beach State, before starting his 55-year-old business, Carter Hines Drapery, which will be continued by his widow, Victoria.
A member of the Montecito Tennis Mafia for many years, as well as the Coral Casino and Birnam Wood, he is particularly remembered as an affable bartender at The Nugget in Summerland on locals night.
Sightings have been suspended during the coronavirus, given the social distancing edict from California governor Gavin Newsom.
They will return when the restrictions have been lifted.
Pip! Pip! - and be safe
MONTECITO JOURNAL 41
Readers with tips, sightings and amusing items for Richard’s column should e-mail him at richardmin eards@verizon.net or send invitations or other correspondence to the Journal.
To reach Priscilla, e-mail her at pris cilla@santabarbaraseen.com or call 805-969-3301. •MJ
