Hawaii
IT'S been a great old town for names. At the Hilton Hawaiian Village luncheon where Kaiser Permanente was named top marketer in the State, I found myself sitting next to Liberty House advertising exec Holly Bush. I allowed that hers must be a popular name around Christmastime at LH. She admits she married into the name, as did her mother-in-law, Rose Bush. Emcee Paul Ogata was tickled to learn that the head of last year's winner, Hilo Hattie, is named Carlton Kramer. That, said Ogata, was like the president of Kaiser being named Carl Straub. TV commercials for Kaiser were shown on a big screen and when the one featuring Dr. Vincent Au ("That's wrong, wrong, wrong") came on, a doctor at my table informed me that Dr. Au's brother was his dentist. His name? Dr. Les Au. How appropriate for a dentist... What’s in a name?
A heckuva lotta funWE'RE not through with names. Sunday night I found myself in Havana Cabana talking to an Irishman from Connecticut named Steve Bowery. He showed me his driver's license to prove it. And wouldn't you know he has four brothers and when growing up in New Haven, they were known to one and all as the Bowery Boys ... Earlier, stopping into the Nuuanu Avenue eatery for a Coke to whet her thirst was a gorgeous young woman who'd been getting some photos of herself shot in a studio across the street. Though originally from Hawaii, Rachelle Ovitz now lives in L.A. and models both there and here. Runway modeling, the statuesque young lady was asked? "Mostly underwear," she replied matter-of-factly, effectively ending the questioning. And sure enough, in Sunday's Liberty House ad in the Star-Bulletin, there she was, as advertised. Related to super agent Michael Ovitz, I was able to ask? Her reply, "I wish!"
Blake rattles and Rolles
IT had been years since I'd seen the Society of Seven at the Outrigger Main Showroom where they've been for 31 years. But when Blake Nuibe invited me to join him and his family at the benefit the SOS was throwing for the Honolulu Boy Choir it seemed a great time to see them again. Jean Rolles, senior V.P. of the Outrigger and chairwoman for the fund-raiser had donated the use of the room and all the waiters and waitresses donated their services to help raise money for the choir. It was a full house and, of course, the SOS and their entire crew worked without recompense to help out and say "aloha" to Nuibe, who's stepping down as exec director of the group. The boy choir was brought up to sing and ended their song with "Aloha Oe" for Nuibe. And when the well-fed Nuibe was brought up to join the group in singing "This is the Moment," it looked for a moment like the Society of Nine...
Royal sun of the Hunt
NOT seeming to care last week if an impending writers' and actors' strike takes place was the lovely Helen Hunt, whose search for the sunshine ended on a beach in Maui where she was spotted sunbathing while wearing a bright green one-piece suit and a blue baseball cap ... A "Survivor" cognoscente predicts the final two contestants left standing in the CBS series will be Tina and Elisabeth, the old yin and the young yang. And, he says, "Bet the rent on Elisabeth." She was my choice from day one. Who could vote against this babe?
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com