GEORGE CHRISTY
George Christy Jim Budman and Walfred Calderon
Filmmaker Matthew Budman with Heather Hahn
Royal Mounties stood tall
and firm in their colorful red uniforms while the Four Canadian Tenors serenaded Norman Jewison and wife Lynne St. David as they strolled into the Roots Store on North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. Hosted by Roots founder Michael Budman and his architect wife Diane, the designer of the Roots Stores, the drinks party saluted the good people of Travel Alberta. The Canadian province remains a favorite for Roots photographer Rylan Perry, who shoots portfolios of photographs with models in the snow and otherwise wearing Roots’ world-famous sports and leather gear.
The Four Canadian Tenors
entertained the following day at David Foster’s wedding to Dutch model Yolanda Hadid at Haim Saban’s Beverly Hills estate. David, a Canadian, produced bestselling albums for Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Seal, Michael Buble, the Canadian pop singer who worked as a commercial fisherman for six years. Michael sang at the wedding, as did Kate Hudson and Avril Lavigne in a duet.
Roots’ Store manager Nicole Redd and her assistant Debbie Jung flank Dan Aykroyd
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a window table, Jack Nicholson was feasting with his favorite pizza Margherita, Edoardo’s signature sweet corn agnolotti, scallopine of veal with lemon. Nestled in a booth were contemporary art connoisseurs and collectors Arthur and Jeanne Cohen, who are Friday night regulars, The Cohens beautiful daughter Juliette is acting off-Broadway in New York, and son Luke has been awarded scholarships at Yale and Columbia.
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Donna Dixon (Mrs. Dan Aykroyd) with Roots designer Diane Budman and Augusta Tigrett
t was in 1973 when the Detroit-born visionaries Michael Budman and Don Green partnered and created Roots, updating sports clothing and leather goods for the Gen X crowd. Their first store opened to overnight success in Toronto, and the rest is history. Roots went on to take over Canada and Asia with an empire of multitudinous stores, with top designers copying their sportswear styles. Michael and Don pioneered environmental comdmittedly attracted to mitment and eco-friendly prodLos Angeles, Michael and ucts. Diane, over the decades, became frequent visitors, baskhe Beverly Hills store ing in the posh comfort of the remains a go-to for Dan Beverly Hills Hotel (which we Aykroyd and Donna Dixon, long ago christened the Pink Robbie Robertson, Jerry Palace in Paradise in our cover Bruckheimer, Mark Canton, article for Town & Country Wayne Gretzky, and magazine). Hollywood’s Young Turks. Once bitten, they return for the on Matthew Budman’s a finest leather goods at don’tfilmmaker, affiliated with break-the-bank prices. heiress Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Productions fraternity motto at Ole (Megan’s dad being billionaire Miss goes like this: “If we don’t Larry Ellison, who bought his win the game, we always win the party.” No game this week, but the Budmans won their Page 6 | November 18, 2011
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Roots’ PR ambassador Raymond Perkins
Norman Jewison with wife Lynne St. David
Malibu habitat from our philanthropist friend Louise Danelian). Megan’s an indie director and among the producers on the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-nominated True Grit. She bid and won the rights to produce Terminator Five. Michael and Diane’s daughter Alex Ann is majoring in film at Scotland’s St. Andrews University. o secret that the family loves film and our easy-come-easy-go California lifestyle. They epitomize our personal credo of Health, Friendship and Loyalty.
Alex Ann Budman with Roots photographer Rylan Perry
party. For the uninitiated, Ole Miss is the sports-crazed University of Mississippi in Oxford. Hometown for Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner and Kathryn Stockett (The Help), and where bestselling novelist John Grisham, wife Renee and family own a farm.
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fter the drinks party at the Roots store where siders with Alberta beef and Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head vodka were served, twenty pals joined the Budmans at the around-the-corner e.baldi on North Canon Drive for owner/chef Edoardo Baldi’s always best, down-to-earth Italian cuisine. No fusion. Mercifully. No snail mousse or fried foraged moss or roasted lettuce juice (yes, juice!) that are items at Copenhagen’s Noma, where the chefs are influenced by molecular gastronomy, which we find overrated. Noma’s rated by international critics as Numero Uno. Ouch!
ichael and Diane arranged for a long table in the midst of the dining room. Roots’ PR ambassador Raymond Perkins, always on top of every successful Roots Stores’ event, planned a familystyle menu of appetizers. This included Edoardo’s favorite polenta, followed by langoustines, branzino and tender slices of steak. Very nice, also, were the wines: the Pinot Grigio Sanct Valentin 2010 white and the Ornellia Le Serre Nuove 2009 red.
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appy diners included Roots Store manager Nicole Redd; film producer Michael Jewison and wife Anita Camarata; CBC’s talk show host George Stromboulopoulos; Michael Lerner; Robbie Robertson; Rylan Perry; documentarian Anthony Green who filmed this last Rolling Stones tour. Guests were acknowledged by Dan Aykroyd, with individual toasts, as prize-winning photographer Jim Budman documented the evening for a photo album.
Robbie Robertson
rying Isaac Tigrett, founder of the Hard Rock Cafes with Peter Morton and later the House of Blues. Augusta informs that spiritual Isaac is in Asia, pursuing a holistic life.
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onna Dixon was ecstatic about her polar bear mission in the vast Far North of Canada, joined as she was by Diane and daughter Alex Ann. Donna’s a full fledged member of the century-old Explorers Club, having met the requirement of unearthing an ancient artifact by discovering a dinosaur relic. Explorers Club “firsts” include “finds” on the North and South Poles, Mount Everest, the deepest points in the oceans.
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very year, adventurous Explorer Club members of all ages host a black-tie “gourmet” dinner in midtown Manhattan. A recent menu boasted hors d’oeuvres of varied insects; Yak Wellington; sweet-and-sour bovine penis; maggot-covered strawberries; roasted scorpions on toast; earthworm stir fry! We’ll pass, thanks. Where’s the bar? Online at www.bhcourier.com/georgechristy.cfm
Walfred Calderon
Roots Stores’ founder and partner Michael Budman welcomed the Royal Mounties to the North Beverly Drive store for Roots’ salute to the Canadian province of Alberta, where Roots sportswear and leather gear are often photographed.
Filmmaker Anthony Green with Jessi Cruikshank
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e were charmed by our seat-mate, jewelry designer Augusta Tigrett, a beauty not unlike a twenty-something Faye Dunaway. Her late mom Maureen Starkey was wed to Beatle Ringo Starr before mar-
Edoardo Baldi is the chef/owner of e. baldi in Beverly HIlls
BEVERLY HILLS