The Dodgers Go to Bat for Charity

Members of the Los Angeles Dodgers 65 Roses Club make contributions to the club on the basis of home runs hit by the Dodgers during the regular season. It goes to combat cystic fibrosis.

But what started as an ordinary fund-raising event, “A Touch of Love,” attended last week by 400 at the Los Angeles Hilton and hosted by Orel and Jamie Hershiser, turned into a celebration with the announcement that researchers, supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, have identified the gene responsible for causing cystic fibrosis.

Dodger players modeling (with their wives and children) included Tim Crews, Tim Belcher, Dave Anderson, Mike Davis, Eddie Murray, Rick Dempsey and Jay Howell. Jay Tallon, vice president of Tallon Termite & Pest Control, sponsored the event.

The new, slim Tommy Lasorda was there too, and Hershiser and Kirk Gibson paid up, making good on their challenge to give the cystic fibrosis charity $15,000 if Lasorda lost 20 pounds. . . .

WILD: That a Welsh corgi could be a catalyst in a romance is as unlikely as its being a star guest at a library black-tie event. However, such is the case for the Friends of the USC Libraries Scriptor Award Dinner Sept. 28 at USC’s Doheny Library.

The corgi who brings the lovers together as barking-biting Edward in “The Accidental Tourist” will be a celebrity for the affair when Anne Tyler, author of the best-selling novel upon which the film is based, is honored with the USC Friends Scriptor Award. Lawrence Kasdan and Frank Galati, who wrote the screen adaptation, also will be recognized in the tributes from emcee Hal Kanter, Dean and University Librarian Dr. Charles Ritcheson and Motion Picture Assn. of America president Jack Valenti.

YACHTING: The Big D is missing at Newport Beach. That’s because the yacht is headed for Vancouver, British Columbia, for the grand-opening ceremonies of Stephen Cannell’s North Shore Studios next weekend.

Friday evening, Stephen (chairman and CEO of Cannell Studios) and his wife, Marcia, will be entertaining on the yacht at a private party for Canadian government officials and Cannell Studios executives. Saturday, they and a whole crowd, including Michael Dubelko, president Cannell Studios; Peter Roth, president of Stephen J. Cannell Productions, and Paul Bronfman, president of Comweb Entertainment and joint partner in North Shore Studios, will be among those at the lavish evening of dinner and dancing on the studio’s sound stages. A Western barbecue next Sunday tops off the weekend. Paramount in the fun will be Elwood Veitch, minister of regional development, and J. E. Loucks, mayor of North Vancouver, and also celebrities Jordon Baker, Antoinette Bower and Hagan Beggs.

MORE YACHTING: Meanwhile, the 90-foot yacht Laura, which docks close to the Big D, was in full regalia for the party Liz and Gordon Anderson hosted in Newport. “The Laura’s a party boat, and I love it,” said Liz Anderson, in glittery lavender togs. She set three tables on the top deck for a sit-down dinner for convivial pals, including Jack and Mary Ann Heidt, Sue and Fred Christie, Norma and David McIntyre, Jean and Bruce Juell, Ann and Steve Hinchliffe.

STARS: What musicians! Simon Ramo is almost as acclaimed for his violin as for being a co-founder of TRW. But when he and Virginia organize, they really produce. This is the way it was at the dinner-dance at Los Angeles Country Club they hosted to honor Walter and Leonore Annenberg, formerly Court of St. James ambassadors.

Ramo joined Ray Moshay’s big band to play violin, at which point band leader Ray relinquished his drums to mogul Marvin Davis, and Charles Wick stepped in at the piano. Then Ted Mann and actress Rhonda Fleming sang solos and duets before Ramo beckoned Jimmy Stewart for “Ragtime Cowboy Joe,” George Schultz for “Georgia” and Diana Shore for the finale.

ALTOGETHER: Divorce doesn’t get in the way of charity. When Beverly Sassoon gathered 350 for the celebrity brunch, auction and fashion preview by Torie Steele to benefit the United Scleroderma Foundation, ex-husband Vidal was right up front for the fund-raising--a net of $150,000. Also attending at Bel Age Hotel were their daughters Catya and Eden Sassoon and modeling were Carol Connors, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.

PAST PERFECT: Beverly Hills Mayor Maxwell Salter and his wife, Joyce, and French Consul General Gerard Coste were among the 500 at the SRO performance of the Luckine Dance Company at Greystone Mansion, an affair planned by Arthur M. Kassel, president of the Beverly Hills/Cannes Sister City Committee. . . .

It was a little chilly and damp, but the Metropolitan Associates picnicked even so on Olive and Alex Varga’s San Marino lawn. . . .

ELEGANCE: Nedra Zachary, ball chairwoman of the “Fledermaus Ball” Oct. 14 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, hosted luncheon to set in motion revelry and operatic selections for committee members, including Shirley Colby, Suzanne Berglas, Marilyn Wulliger, Elfy Joseph, Helga Magar and Ida Parker and Dr. Loren Zachary. The annual Viennese ball is sponsored by the Loren L. Zachary Society and held under the auspices of the Consul Gen. of Austria, Dr. Franz Cede.