Scene and Heard

Protocol experts may wonder who gets precedence when both presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush are in the room. But it is no conundrum for 43. He did take the stage first at Monday's Celebration of Reading Dallas but only to pave the way for his dad. "Now it's my honor to introduce the real President Bush," he said as his father came out from the wings and on stage at the Meyerson Symphony Center.
In a historical pairing only seen when President John Quincy Adams visited John Adams in Massachusetts, father and son presidents sat side by side on the front row of the Dallas symphony hall and listened to readings from authors David Baldacci, Jeffrey Engel, A.J. Jacobs and Louise Bayless Parsley.
"I was looking for something to do tonight," George W. explained. "I'd finished my time as a greeter at Elliott's."

Barbara Bush might have had cause to reconsider the surprise guest that she invited to read at Monday night's Celebration of Reading Dallas benefit after he got a big laugh at her expense. When her No. 1 son, President George W. Bush, was unexpectedly introduced, the hometown crowd in the Meyerson Symphony Center stood up and gave approving whoops.
Later, after several famous authors had read, George W. got up from his front-row seat next to his father, George H.W. Bush, to read from his forthcoming memoir.
"I am writing a book," he said. "This is going to come as a great surprise to some of our fellow citizens who live on both coasts."
He said he had checked with his publisher, Crown, to get permission to read from the manuscript. "They said, 'No way will you read from the book.' I said, 'I've got to. My mother said to read from the book.'"
Instead, he began reading a tongue-in-cheek version of moving to West Texas as a toddler. He closed his vignette with, "Mom was celebrating our new life in the desert by drinking bourbon...straight bourbon...right out of the bottle."
He quickly added, "Gotcha!" folded his notes and sat down.
"Ha, ha, George, that's very funny," Mama Bush said sarcastically. She closed the evening by turning to her husband and telling the crowd, "The good George and I would like you to join us in the lobby for a light supper."

Laura Bush caught exhibitors by surprise this week when she made a surprise visit to the Dallas Internationl Art, Antique & Jewelry Show at the Dallas Convention Center.
The former first lady was accompanied by her pal Debbie Francis and interior designer Ken Blasingame who helped the Bushes with the décor in the White House residence.
Mrs. Bush walked down every aisle to personally greet exhibitors.

Thursday night's grand opening of the Louis Vuitton luxury boutique at NorthPark looked like the good old days of spring 2008. Lots of well-groomed and well-shod beautiful people grabbed nibbles of caviar and glasses of champagne while chatting with Vuitton's dashing CEO Daniel Lalonde as well as W magazine's publisher Nina Lawrence and editorial director Patrick McCarthy who had all flown in for the occasion.
But as swellegant as the occasion was, it was merely the preamble. After the party, the Louis Vuitton and W magazine high commands decamped for the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek.
In the Mansion's history-laden wine cellar, they hosted an intimate dinner for the local gentry like Dallas-Monterrey businessman Eduardo Brittingham and his wife, Kary; Eduardo's British-born partner Horatio Lonsdale-Hands and his wife, Karen; lifestyle entrepreneur Kimberly Schlegel Whitman and her husband, Justin (son of one-time Hollywood leading man and John Wayne co-star Stuart Whitman); Goss-Michael Foundation director Joyce Goss; and Deborah Scott, wife of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts CEO John Scott.

If you're craving a Boeing private jet with a master bedroom, shower and dining room, Donald Trump listed his famous 727-100 with "Trump" emblazoned across the top of the fuselage for sale this week. (The master bath features a bidet...eeewww.)
Unlike most rich New Yorkers who run their planes in and out of the less congested Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, The Donald has always kept his plane ostentatiously parked on the general aviation tarmac at LaGuardia Airport--a marquee to arriving airline passengers.
This particular bird kept a much lower profile during seven years when it lived at Dallas Love Field. The airborne palace was already an aging grand dame when Trump picked it up on the cheap from Dallas-based Maxus Energy (previously Diamond Shamrock) in 1987 after oil prices and the entire Texas economy collapsed.
Diamond Shamrock bought the 1968 model from American Airlines on Dec. 16, 1981, refitted it with a luxury VIP interior and based it at Love Field.
Today, even though it is practically a tourist attraction at LaGuardia, its tail number, VP-BDJ, identifies it as having Bermudian registry. (The DJ at the end stands for his first and middle names, Donald John.)
CNN estimates the plane may be worth $4 million to $8 million. That's putting a pretty big premium on the luxury interior. The airframe itself has very little value.
One Texan who has owned a 727-100 tells me, "I bet that airplane wouldn't go for $2 million."
By contrast, a Gulfstream V like those operated by T. Boone Pickens, Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones costs north of $40 million.
George Sorial, managing director of international development and assistant general counsel at the Trump Organization, told CNN that the boss is upgrading and "Mr. Trump simply doesn't need two [planes]."
Or perhaps his wife, Melania, doesn't like flying on a plane that's two years older than she is.

When she got back to Texas this fall, homegrown Disney star Demi Lovato bought herself a 17th birthday present from Park Place Motorcars Dallas--but it was a couple of months later than she had hoped.
The locally raised star of the movie Camp Rock and the Disney TV show, Sonny with a Chance, was in Canada during her August birthday shooting a sequel, Camp Rock: The Final Jam, with the Jonas Brothers. (She also used this summer to split with Trace Cyrus, older brother of Miley Cyrus.)
Filming on the Disney movie recently wrapped. When Demi got back to her family home in Colleyville, she ventured out to see her uncle David De La Garza who works at Park Place Dallas.
Demi picked up her first car: a black 2010 Mercedes E350 and has been getting acquainted with knew and mysterious details like how to put in gas.
But Demi won't be doing any late-night parking with her pal and co-star Joe Jonas. Rumors of a romance between the two erupted during filming of Camp Rock: The Final Jam. Last week, Demi used her Twitter account to shoot down that speculation.
"There's been a lot of rumors lately that I'm dating one of my best friends Joe," she wrote in a midnight tweet. "I can promise my entire career that I am not."
One minute later, she followed that thought with "We've NEVER dated. He's incredible, but we don't have feelings for each other in that way. I love you guys, and I wouldn't lie about that."

Retired local actor and producer Bob Hinkle was the dialect coach who taught James Dean, Rock Hudson and others to walk and talk Texan for the movie Giant. The publication of his new memoir, Call Me Lucky: A Texan in Hollywood, fills in lots of pieces of the Giant story, including Mr. Dean and Elizabeth Taylor's mid-shoot visit to Dallas.
During the production in July 1955, Ms. Taylor told Bob she was dying to see Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas.
After Bob got Stanley Marcus on the phone, the Neiman's chairman dispatched a plane to West Texas and brought Bob, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Dean to his Dallas home.
In Bob's new book are lots of photos of James Dean practicing putting in the Marcus' Lakewood yard, Mr. Dean and Ms. Taylor breakfasting at the Marcus home, visiting Fair Park with Stanley's wife, Billie Marcus, as well as shots aboard the plane.
Saturday at 7 p.m., Bob and his co-author Mike Farris will sign copies of the book at Legacy Books in Plano.

Tuesday was Bruno Davaillon's first "official" day as executive chef at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. In reality, the Frenchman has been in the saddle for two weeks.
And one of the perks of the job is that he's living at the hotel until his wife and son join him at the end of the year.
Having spent last five years working for Alain Ducasse, Bruno comes to Dallas with more than enough tensil strength for the gig.
Most recently, he was executive chef at Mix, the Ducasse-run restaurant in Las Vegas.
"I think Bruno was attracted to Dallas because he actually wants to cook for someone more than once," says Mansion managing director Duncan Graham. "In Vegas, why would you eat someplace more than once?"

Some of the guests at Saturday night's Two By Two for AIDS and Art at the Rachofsky House didn't know who actor Alan Cumming (Circle of Friends, Goldeneye) was. But the Scottsman was a conquering hero by the time he left the stage. The Tony Award-winner worked through a hysterical five-song set with lots of witty but unprintable banter. He started with "Mein Herr" from Cabaret and ended with his interpretation of Dolly Parton's "Here You Come Again," while punctuating his stories with colloquialisms like, "Crikey!"
As Alan left to a screaming, standing ovation, veteran Sotheby's auctioneer Jamie Niven took over on the stage in the pasha-worthy transparent tent to get bids on just nine-items from the enthused black-tie crowd. In half an hour, Mr. Niven had lowered the gavel on more than $1.3 million worth of purchases, standing underneath suspended garlands of 10,000 orchids.
A Mark Bradford collage sold for $180,000 while a 15-inch Brice Marden drawing went for $200,000. Peter Doig was seated up front and watched as one of his paintings sold for $300,000. The bidding got fast and furious as Marlene Dumas' painting The Placeless Man came up. The offers soared above $200,000, then $300,000 before Nashville centimillionaire Harold "Spook" Stream, a regular Two By Two attendee, ponied up $450,000. "He still got a real bargain," noted Dallas Museum of Art benefactor Marguerite Hoffman.
"We didn't anticipate prices this big," said an elated host Cindy Rachofksy. "I think Alan Cumming was responsible for getting everyone so excited."
More than $4 million was raised to be divided between the Dallas Museum of Art and the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
Two By Two's honorary chairman Harry Belafonte charmed the Dallas audience when he stared disdainfully at the prepared remarks he was handed. "There was an assumption that I could not master the English language," he said.
Introducing the singer, Ms. Rachofsky noted that he sang with Frank Sinatra at JFK's inauguration, he helped his friend Martin Luther King plan the 1963 march on Washington and he was an early champion of AIDS causes. Viewing the ensuing standing O, Mr. Belafonte smiled and said, "I should have come last year."

British musician Gavin Rossdale was the focus of mass, unfettered adoration when he performed a unique outdoor concert Thursday night at the Preston Hollow estate of art collectors Cindy and Howard Rachofsky. Married to superstar Gwen Stefani, Gavin is the former frontman for the band Bush. "This house is otherworldly," he said, looking up at the Rachofsky's Richard Meier-designed mansion.
The event was First Look, the preamble to Saturday's black-tie Two By Two for AIDS and Art. The audience stood on the grass behind the Rachofsky house and listened with rapt attention as he worked through a set of his songs. But it was his cover of the Stevie Nicks tune "Landslide" that had everyone swaying and singing along. Has it been 1975, everyone would have been holding lighters aloft. Among the prominent crowd was Sotheby's chairman Warren Weitman and his wife, Eve Reid, Monterrey-Dallas businessman Eduardo Brittingham, husband and wife doctors Craig and Shanon Schwimmer, Dallas real estate veteran Leland Burk, civic leaders Sally and Tom Dunning and art collector Marguerite Hoffman.
Opening for Mr. Rossdale was hobbitish fashion designer Christian Siriano, winner for season four of Project Runway. Forty-Five Ten owner Brian Bolke helped stage of pre-concert runway show of the his clothes which have been worn by Victoria Beckham, Heidi Klum and the Pussycat Dolls.
Jenny and John Kirtland (owners of indie label Kirtland Records) hosted the party with DJ fave Lucy Wrubel and her husband, Steve.

The day after her American Airlines Center show, Miley Cyrus turned up for a Monday meal at La Cubanita, Alberto Lombardi's McKinney Avenue restaurant.....That was new Dallas Maverick (and former Cleveland Cavalier) Drew Gooden in the Living Room bar at the W Victory hotel following the Mavs' Saturday pre-season game with Cleveland.....Mavs forward James Singleton dined at Craft on Saturday.

Even with Bruce Willis on the stage and Titanic star Billy Zane (Cal Hockley) in the audience, the real stars of Wednesday's once-in-a-generation opening night at the AT&T Performing Arts Center were Dallas philanthropists Dee and Charles Wyly. While Lincoln never went to Lincoln Center and Kennedy never went to the Kennedy Center, the Wylys were in the house at the first performance at the center's Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre.
Lest anyone forget their lead gift for the building, the Wylys names were projected in white light on the exterior of the theater for arriving guests to see.
"That was a really nice surprise," Charles said of seeing his illuminated name.
While the AT&T Performing Arts Center will be a place for all Dallasites, Wednesday's crowd was skewed heavily toward the Forbes 400 with a dash of cultural and institutional leaders thrown in for seasoning.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his wife, Gene, were there as was billionaire titan Harold Simmons and his wife, Annette; SMU benefactor Nancy Dedman; SMU president Gerald Turner; Dallas Museum of Art director Bonnie Pittman; DMA benefactors Deedie Rose, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky and Marguerite Hoffman; Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek founder Caroline Rose Hunt; and billionaire Thoroughbred breeders Lisa and Kenny Troutt.
With his shiny shaved head, actor Billy Zane looks like Daddy Warbucks' better looking kid brother. In town filming the new TV series, The Deep End, he attended the Performing Arts Center evening with Deep End co-executive producer Garry Brown and his wife, Renee.

Oprah Winfrey jetted out of Dallas on Monday evening, but that warm aftergl-O still lingers. On Tuesday, Channel 8 news anchor Gloria Campos got a lavish bouquet of flowers from Oprah. Monday afternoon, the two women co-anchored the 5 p.m. newscast on Channel 8--the Glo and O Show.
"It was a mammoth arrangement of roses, mums, orchids and hydrangeas," says Gloria. "The card read, 'Thank you for a great experience.'"
Meanwhile, over at the Ritz-Carlton, restaurateur Dean Fearing didn't get to lay eyes on Oprah (her schedule was jam-packed). But he did get a Sunday night request to dispatch some tortilla soup from Fearing's up to Oprah's Ritz suite.

With Oprah Winfrey making a visit to Dallas, there was no one that was going to come between her and her local friends, billionaire philanthropists Annette and Harold Simmons--no one, except maybe their mutual friend Bono.
Oprah and the Simmonses are neighbors in the summer enclave of Montecito, Calif. When Annette heard that Oprah would be taping a show at the State Fair of Texas, she called and invited her to join them for Monday night's U2 concert at Cowboys Stadium.
"I'm already going with my boyfriend, Bono," Oprah replied.
"Well, I hope your boyfriend Bono has as seats as good as your boyfriend Harold," Annette joked.
She had a point. Annette and Harold own the private box adjacent to Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones.
But as luck would have it, Oprah was worn out by her exertions in Dallas. She checked out of her room at the Ritz-Carlton and skipped the U2 show. She went straight to Love Field, boarded Air Harpo and jetted back to Chicago at 7 p.m.
But who would have guessed that Annette and Harold Simmons and Bono were such good pals that they had a long pre-show visit at Cowboys Stadium?
"We got to know Bono three or four years ago," says Annette. "You wouldn't think Harold and Bono could have a conversation that lasts more than a minute. But when they first met, they talked for 30 minutes. Harold was very impressed with his ONE Campaign for Africa."
When they arrived at Cowboys Stadium Tuesday night, the Dallas philanthropists were ushered to a private room in the bowels of the building and in walked Bono. The Irish rock star and the Texas billionaires visited for 30 minutes.
Upstairs, Jerry Jones was visiting with a different kind of superstar. When the Simmonses entered their box, Jerry grabbed Harold to introduce him to Tiger Woods.

Bruce Willis has competition for sexiest man at next week's opening festivities at AT&T Performing Arts Center.
Actor Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets, Baby Mama) just confirmed that he will emcee Friday night's reprise of the Scene 1 gala at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre.
Mr. Willis will be here to host the first Scene 1 gala on Wednesday night at the Wyly featuring Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid), Tony- and Pulitzer-winning writer/director James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods) and Tony-winning actress Debra Monk (Curtains).

Samar by Stephan Pyles opens tonight. Sunset Lounge features half-price wines by the bottle starting at 6 and $4 you-calls.

Unlike Dita von Teese two years ago, multi-threat actor and singer Alan Cumming will keep all of his clothes on when he performs at the black-tie Two By Two for AIDS and Art gala on Oct. 24. And even though, the Scottish entertainer picked up a Tony for his role as the emcee in Cabaret, he still might have butterflies at the Dallas event at the home of art collectors Cindy and Howard Rachofsky.
That's because Harry Belafonte will be one of the VIP members of the audience. Others include repeat Two By Two guests like actor Stanley Tucci and designer Kenneth Cole, chairman of the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

Did louche singer George Michael get dumped by his Dallas partner Kenny Goss last Christmas and no one knew? That's what the tabloids are saying. Allegedly, Kenny broke it off over the singer's infidelity and drug problems.
But from two different continents, George and Kenny are saying the same thing: "No."
"The rumors that are being published about George and me are absolutely not true," Kenny said in a Tuesday statement. "We are very much together in a relationship of over 13 years. I have been in Dallas overseeing the work of our non-profit organization, the Goss-Michael Foundation, and I will be back home in London soon. This underlines the fact that you shouldn't believe everything you read."
In London, George's spokesman told The Mail Online, "There is no truth in the matter at all. Kenny has been away in Dallas where he owns a gallery but is scheduled to return home this Friday. They are planning a lovely weekend together."

Those who worship the capricious god of the Old Testament were given pause by three words on the website for Saturday night's Cattle Baron's Ball: "Rain or shine." Smelling hubris from on high, Yahweh decreed, "All right then, let it rain...and rain, and rain and rain."
Hard, steady, Biblical rain poured on the Wynne family's Star Brand Ranch turning pastures into Texas quicksand with lots of muddy mires that sucked feet down into the muck.
The guests fell into two camps: There were the drenched and bedraggled who bemoaned their ruined Lucchese boots, their limousines sunk to the wheel wells and the interminable wait in the rain for valets to return their cars. And then there were the hail and hearty who saw the evening as a full-immersion baptism into a Woodstock of the West.
Host Jimmy Wynne was in the latter camp, cheerfully welcoming all guests and keeping dry underneath the same hat worn regularly at the ranch by his grandfather, the late American Liberty Oil tycoon Toddie Lee Wynne, the owner of a famous pink mansion on Lakeside Drive who commuted to his private Matagorda Island on the Texas coast aboard his personal Convair airliner.
Ball chair Katherine Wynne LaLonde vacillated between both camps--frustrated but cheerful.
"Nobody talks about a dry Cattle Baron's Ball," I told her. "People will talk about this for years."
The pasture used for limo parking became a Titanic debris field with stretch Lincolns scattered in the mud like pickup sticks. Teary mothers phoned babysitters to explain the delay while some entrepreneurial farmers brought in tractors and charged for a tow.
Revelers stampeded underneath the live auction tent where the ground was mostly firm, though the dance floor became muddy and slick as an ice rink.
The evening's headline act Montgomery Gentry was unfazed. At 11:20 p.m., a four-wheel drive SUV hauled Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry to the live auction tent where all of the festivities had been moved under cover. One newspaper columnist (me) accidentally stepped in the track made by their truck and sank right down to his kneecap.
By 11:30 p.m., Montgomery Gentry was blasting out hits as party guests rode the mechanical bull in front of them.
Like a Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon, the evening merited two titles: Tune in for the next episode of "Where for Ark Thou?" or "Disaster in the Pasture."

Patrons of this month's "Act III" opening events at the new AT&T Center for the Performing Arts got an insider's preview of things to come last Wednesday at a dinner at the estate of Gene and Jerry Jones. (While not as big as the Joneses' new Cowboys Stadium, the historic house overlooking Turtle Creek is commodious and luxurious.)
Broadway star Patti LuPone came by to serenade the local gentry like Margot and Ross Perot, Sarah and Ross Perot Jr., Nancy Hamon and Nancy Dedman.
Ms. LuPone will perform at the Oct. 17 gala at the Winspear Opera House. To close out the Jones party, she belted out "Everything's Coming Up Roses," her Act I closer from Gypsy.