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<\/a>(L-R) Erica Gerard Di Bona, Vin Di Bona, and Karen Salkin. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n
I love a supportive man, so Vin is right up there with Carl Reiner, who was always so proud of the singing of his wife Estelle, and of course, the most supportive guy ever, Mr. X, who not only came<\/em> to most of my TV show tapings, but is actually the person who created<\/em> my cable series, Karen\u2019s Restaurant Revue<\/em>! (And then, as I was about to go through the curtain for my first appearance on\u00a0The Tonight<\/em> Show<\/em>, he got to sarcastically say, \u201cYeah, Kah, you were right\u2014doing a cable show was a bad idea.\u201d)<\/p>\n And Vin Di Bona and I have a mutual very dear friend, Paul Gilbert, so I really wanted to meet Vin, especially after Paul told me that he\u2019s a \u201cgreat guy.\u201d And he was absolutely lovely. It\u2019s always fun, (and a bit rare,) to meet an uber-successful person who\u2019s also very nice. So Vin was the highlight of the event for me. (And he told me that he had just been talking about Paul that day!)<\/p>\n But the entire event was good, right from the get-go, as it always is at the Hollywood Museum. There was a makeshift bar on one side of the space, with nice bartenders, and a pretty buffet set-up on the opposite end of the lobby. The fare was different than any I\u2019ve ever seen there before, which was fun because I\u2019m a fan of diversity. There were three kinds of finger sandwiches, caprese bites, (with a choice of tomatoes or blackberries on the skewers with the mozzarella chunks,) tiny onion tarts, and a whole bunch of delish desserts. I\u2019m either ashamed or proud to admit that I ate a handful of mini strawberry shortcakes in cups! The pi\u00e8ces de r\u00e9sistance were bite-sized cranberry scones. (My friend Roz said, \u201cThe cookies are hard,\u201d so I explained, \u201cThat\u2019s because they\u2019re scones!\u201d)<\/p>\n Just a bit of the fare. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n There was a plethora of speeches from the happy assemblage, including E.T.<\/em>\u2019s Dee Wallace and Hollywood Museum Founder Donelle Dadigan. I was the most entertained by artist Shepard Fairey, (whose credits include designing that famous Obama \u201cHope\u201d poster.) He said that he and Erica had met on the Board of Trustees at The Rhode Island School of Design, (RISD,) where he went to college. I actually love that place, having gone to both the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College. I used to drive by RISD, and think about all the gifted artists who must be behind those walls! (I love having things in common with talented people. For example, Vin also lived in Rhode Island, and he and I both attended UCLA, as did Mr. X, also in the Master of Fine Arts program some time after Vin. And yes, I did<\/em> go to all three of those colleges, and even one more!)<\/p>\n The gist of the many tributes was that Erica writes wonderful \u201cthank you\u201d letters, and the recipients are so lucky. Erica herself quipped that \u201ca letter is so much better than anything.\u201d She told us that she doesn\u2019t start her letters with \u201cthank you,\u201d preferring to end with it. (But I<\/em> do both<\/em>!) I was happy that she and I agree on the usage of exclamation points when others say no to them! (See?)<\/p>\n Hollywood Museum Founder Donelle Dadigan at the podium to begin the speeches. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I also appreciated that she said to write a letter \u201con anything\u201d and \u201cin any method that you can.\u201d Erica and my mother would have gotten along great because the latter used to write her missives on the backs of paper placemats from the restaurants my parents ate in while traveling! One of her old pals still mentions how much he always loved receiving those.<\/p>\n My favorite quote of the night came from Vin. About the sound of his wife\u2019s typing, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s like hearing children laugh in a playground.\u201d What an absolutely charming and loving way to put it.<\/p>\n When the speeches were over, guests could purchase the books, and Erica signed them all in the \u201cBlondes Only Room.\u201d (The hair color rooms, which are my fave part of the Museum, date back to when the building was the Max Factor Salon. I featured them on a television special I hosted on The Travel Channel way back in the day, and have adored them ever since.)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>