COLUMNIST

Danny Balkwill, Danielle St. Pierre take Ovations

MALCOLM PARRY VANCOUVER SUN

    SCOTT ASHTON SWAN, the veteran man-about-librettos, hosted the annual Ovation Awards show for musical-theatre performers at the Vancouver Academy of Music recently.

    Clouds burst outside the Kits Point facility in the style of Gene Kelly’s famous Singin’ In The Rain routine. Inside, the Over The Moon quartet — Pat Fry, Donna St. Germain, Deb Hope, Bev Hunter — warmed attendees with the likes of This Joint is Jumpin,’ which they’ll perform in Las Vegas this fall.

    Not in fishnets, five-inch heels and ostrich-feather head-dresses, though. Instead, the eight-times Western Canadian Sweet Adelines champs will do their barbershop routines in something like the velvet-and-lace tops and straight pants they wore to the Ovations.

    Danny Balkwill and Danielle St. Pierre were named outstanding male and female for their roles in Songs For a New World. The former precipitated a classically theatrical catcall after he and Ashton Swan performed some scripted shtick.

    “Leave your pictchahs,” an audience member yelled. “We’ll call you.”

    SEAN SHERWOOD, the Fiction and Lucy Mae Brown restaurateur, has moved into a haunted house. It’s the 1911-built Century House at Richards-off-Pender Street, that has a mischievous phantom upstairs and the ghost of several restaurants below.

    Umberto Menghi got the spectral parade started with Il Palazzo.

    Kim Osborne and Tom Griffin operated Lola’s there. Others followed. Now the Midas-touched Sherwood has named the joint Century, and hopes to lay the stone-faced structure’s gastronomic ghosts.

    Yes, Elmo. The Century name has emerged from the tomb, too. One recalls Yaletown’s Century Grill (now Blue Water Café), that made much whoopee but little moolah for its investors.

    DAMON DAMIANI, the Mercedes-Benz retail-branch director, launched his firm’s latest S-class models at a Waterfront Hotel reception Thursday.

    Starting at $118,500, these 382-horsepower sedans are the single-vehicle equivalent of twinning the Port Mann bridge. Potential buyers are deemed to be heavy hitters, too, since an invitation stressed “the exclusivity of this event.” Translation: Don’t bring your unemployed cousin who hopes to buy a used Kia.

    The wine served did reflect such down-market sensibilities.

    But the dollar signs returned with the jewelry and Hugo Boss garments worn by tall, slender fashion models who looked to have come down a different assembly line than most present.

    Original artworks might also interest such discerning folk — perhaps by George Vergette, whose Listen collection of 12 paintings opened Thursday at the Bjornson Kajiwara gallery.

    Folk crowded to see $2,000-to-$8,500 works that gently echoed those of cityraised Graham Gilmore. Four were bought, probably beating deals cut at the downtown jalopy jamboree. Vergette, who might have stepped from a fashionmagazine spread, even wore his own chalk-stripe suit, designer shirt and silk cravat. S-class indeed.

    BEN METCALFE, the late raconteur, left a fashion show once saying that, unlike the models, he had “pants-tight skin.”

    NANCY BURKE sure knew the distinguished provenance of the donated wine she toted Wednesday. Gold type on the five-litre bottle said Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2000, which Select Wine Merchants agent Valerie Fabre translated to mean $7,500.

    Burke hopes that figure will double at auction when she and Barbara Inglis chair the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival’s Bacchanalia gala at the Hotel Vancouver March 1.

    That’s unless there’s a repeat of the 1991 Pacific Northwest Wine Festival at which restaurateur Bud Kanke dropped a prize bottle and had $3,000 worth of 1878 Mouton Rothschild Pauillac soak his loafers.

    BUD KANKE spends winter weeks in Palm Springs. But the Coachella Valley can’t have a big bowl of fish soup to match the $9.95 lunchtime special at Kanke’s Joe Fortes restaurant Tuesdays. Ditto the same-priced seafood jambalaya with chorizo sausage the Thurlowoff-Robson joint serves Fridays.

    FRANCES HUI, the sometime realtor and Social Empire meet-and-dine club convener, held her own impromptu fashion show at the George lounge Wednesday.

    “Where did you get those?” many asked as the made-for-jeans Hui sported a pair featuring much lace appliqué and multi-coloured ribbons.

    Turns out they were from brother Richard Hui and girlfriend Sylvia Sze’s Plush boutique. The brand was Bony of Paris, although namesake Napoleon Bonaparte doubtless wore nothing even twice the size.

    The event, which featured free lashings of Tanqueray flavoured gin, was a launch party for the Godiva’s TV series 2006 season. That show’s historical namesake, of course, was famed for leaving her jeans at home when she went riding. It’s said that upcoming episodes make Desperate Housewives look and sound like study hall at a convent school.

    ALAN CLAPP, the longtime media chap, wants somebody — anybody — to help save the Challenger relief map of British Columbia. That’s the one that stood on the PNE grounds since 1954, was dismantled in 1998 and is now at Bekins Storage in Richmond. But Bekins owner Larry Rosenberg can’t maintain it for ever rent-free, so it could soon be destroyed.

    Clapp, who can be reached at 604-739-4185 or deluxe .inc @shaw .ca, rightly says that would be a tragedy, especially with the 2010 Winter Olympics approaching and B.C. pride on the upswing. He hopes to have the renovated map stand where millions could see it again. But that won’t happen if it becomes landfill.

    C’mon, affluent patriots. There shouldn’t be just one person guarding an iconic artifact that has delighted so many of us and could millions more.

    JOHN NORTON had a bright idea as he and wife Diane left the Sonoma County Vintners benef it for Arts Umbrella at the Pan Pacific Hotel Wednesday.

    As usual, the Nortons took home goods and certificates for services they’d bid on. Most of the latter have expiry dates. “And, like many people, we seldom collect on them,” John Norton said.

    Thus the good idea.

    “Couldn’t we donate the time-expired certificates to Arts Umbrella?” lawyer Norton asked rhetorically. “Most of the donors of services don’t ever provide them, so they might be happy to renew them. Arts Umbrella could hold a special event and sell them again.”

    As for such second-time donations earning a tax benefit for those passing them on, “Why not?” Norton asked. “It’s a genuine win-win.”

    How will Revenue Canada view this?

    malcolmparry @shaw .ca, 604-929-8456

Stu Waddell winked to join in a self-photo by exhibition-opening painter-pal George Vergette.

Nadia Hovan feted Danny Balkwill and Danielle St. Pierre for their Ovation musical-theatre awards.

Wine festival gala co-chair Nancy Burke accepted a $7,500 Mouton Rothschild from agent Valerie Fabre.

Over The Moon group’s Donna St. Germain, Pat Fry, Bev Hunter and Deb Hope will sing in Las Vegas.

Sxip software firm's Lori Pike saw Frances Hui and her Bony of Paris jeans set on a pedestal.