Sweet Smell of Success

First she was a lead player in a nonfiction book. Now she’s being followed by a TV crew. Gale Hayman, formerly of Giorgio and now of Gale Hayman Cosmetics, is being filmed by the CBS news show “48 Hours” as part of a story on entrepreneurs. This week, Hayman is in Los Angeles where the cameras will roll at a party being thrown for her by KNBC anchorwoman Kelly Lange and her husband, director William Friedkin. CBS also sat in on an interview she did with Women’s Wear Daily. Hayman, meanwhile, is launching her new fragrance, Beverly Hills/Gale Hayman, in late April. It should be in Bullock’s by May.

FROM RUSSIA WITH PROVERBS: Visiting Soviet television commentator Svetlana Starodomskaya wrapped up her two-week stint on Channel 4 News last week and left town with some strong fashion opinions--as well as a suitcase full of Carol Little sportswear. She found the concept of sportswear separates quite appealing. However, the ubiquitous miniskirt, seen on L.A. females of all ages, got a nyet from Starodomskaya. “Some women, especially in L.A., mistakenly forget about their age,” said the outspoken, 53-year-old blond with more than a trace of an accent. “My advice is: if you’re a cow, don’t try to act like a horse.”

A RESEMBLANCE, MAYBE?: New York designer Charlotte Neuville will be able to wear her own clothes again. She just gave birth to Nell Neuville Merlo (7 pounds, 14 ounces) who hopefully has her mother’s sense of humor. The birth announcement--which reflects Neuville’s “twisted classics” design philosophy--is a post card of Elvis and Priscilla Presley holding their new baby Lisa Marie back in 1968.

HIGH-HEELED SHOO-IN: Miss California, Cynthia Nelson of Gilroy, will be an odds-on favorite at the Miss USA pageant, televised tonight at 9. Nelson enters the pageant with a distinct advantage. Because she won the Miss California USA pageant in Palm Springs last August, she automatically became a client of Richard Guy and Rex Holt of GuyRex & Associates, two Texas-based pageant producers who run the Miss California and Miss Texas contests. As a “GuyRex girl,” Nelson has undergone intensive training designed to give her every advantage in winning the Miss USA pageant. Whatever GuyRex is doing in its El Paso-based headquarters seems to be working. The last five winners of the Miss USA contest were clients of GuyRex.

BIRTHDAY BASH: DKNY--Donna Karan’s mega-successful lower-priced sportswear collection--is a year old. And to celebrate, 200 Angelenos flocked to a party and fashion show at Bullock’s South Coast Plaza store. Andrea Povala of Ontario drove an hour to attend. Dressed in head-to-toe DKNY, the personnel analyst says she loves the stuff because “now I can look just like Murphy Brown.”

SPY SELLS OUT: Spy magazine, the most relentless of social snipers, has exposed its Achilles’ heel. The March issue “entered the world of fashion publishing--seriously,” according to an introductory letter. Read “seriously” to mean courting the advertising bucks. The very un-Spy-like supplement has no jokes and no jabs. It does have 12-plus pages of fashion ads, and the fashion spreads feature $2,200 Channel suits and $1,785 Armani tuxedos.

WELL, FLUTTER MY SKIRTS: Remember Marilyn Monroe’s famous “Seven Year Itch” dress--the white, pleated, halter-neck frock that wafted skyward when she stood over the sidewalk grate? The original designer, Bill Travilla, plans to reissue the design in his new YT line this fall. He’s done versions of the dress before but swears this is the first time he’s done an exact duplicate. Travilla was encouraged to resurrect his notorious design just weeks after the Yves Saint Laurent couture ode to Monroe. The MM remake will retail for about $500.

FEAR OF FUR: Ninety percent of Norman Lawrence’s customers are afraid to wear fur. Which is where Norman J. Lawrence of London comes to their rescue. He takes their fur coats and conceals them in made-to-order raincoats. He’s at the Newport Beach Four Seasons Hotel until Monday taking special orders for the coats, which he has been making for about 17 years. You provide the fur, he and a furrier remake it into a lining for a silk poplin or linen raincoat. It costs between $1,800 and $2,250 and takes between 60 and 90 days. Though Lawrence denounces the practice of animal rights activists harassing women who wear fur, he admits he has mixed feelings about the whole thing. “I am sorry to see the protests and parades, but the fear to wear fur will only improve my business.”