How tall is he, we wondered, and Tess Csiszar, a special event planner at Saint John’s, replied, “Six feet seven inches tall.”
We were talking about honoree Dr. Steven O’Day, a resident genius in oncology and breast cancer at Saint John’s. He was speaking during the 32nd annual Odyssey Ball benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Institute that attracted 500 philanthropic loyalists to the ballroom of The Beverly Wilshire. The evening raised $700,000.
“Courage is being scared to death,” claimed John Wayne, “but settling up anyway.”
California-born (San Mateo), Dr. O’Day acknowledged his mentor, the late and impassioned cancer specialist Dr. Donald Mortron.
“I want to reflect on the years of failure, disappointment and tremendous sharing of loss with patients, families and caregivers …
“But their loss and my failures informed my life and gave me profound insight into their resiliency, grace, kindness, humility and dignity that inspired me to continue to grow and be a better doctor. And, more importantly, a better human being, for which I am eternally grateful …
“Our recent progress in the fight against cancer brings to mind a quote from Winston Churchill. ‘Now is not even the beginning of the end … but it is the end of the beginning.’
“We live in revolutionary times in cancer care, a time of exponential growth, and, yes, we believe that the best is yet to come!”
We are always appreciative to the hotel’s director of catering James Cutfield, his menu planning and the alert efficiency of his staff (thank you Joachim and Mike). James is a shining star in his field, and should deliver master classes.
Michael Jackson’s beautiful daughter Paris is this month’s cover girl for Harper’s Bazaar. Credit editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey and her creative director Stephen Gan for their innovative covers giving the predictable Vogue covers a run at the newsstand.
The April issue features a photo layout by Jean-Paul Goode and a feature from Candace Bushnell about her visit to Paris, France, to describe 19-year-old Paris Jackson’s romp in the City of Light.
“Paris may be the next It Girl,” informs Candace. “But she has to buy and install her own light bulbs like everybody else. She also has to make her own bed. And clean up her bedroom.”
Paris says that she’d love to write rock music, but I’m good at sad stuff and acoustic stuff …
“Paris divulges that she doesn’t mind being a bit of a loner, has a tight group of friends, goes camping a lot at Joshua Tree, sees her older brother Prince and usually falls asleep binge-watching a Netflix show.”
We met Paris’ mom, Debbie Rowe, when she served as the nurse for Dr. Arnold Klein, whose longtime patient was Paris’ dad.
Does Paris see her mom? We hope?
Apparently, Debbie’s raising horses in the San Fernando Valley.
More to come about the wiretap in Trump Tower, reports the New York Post’s tireless columnist John Crudelle. Both the FBI’s James Comey and the head of National Security are meeting with Congress behind closed doors to review their testimony and allegations.
John gives the back of the hand to The New York Times’ coverage of the presidential election that forced publisher Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger to “choke” an apology to his subscribers about the paper’s biased reporting that prompted John and others such as broadcaster Larry Elder to cancel their Times subscriptions.