An Evening With Maggie at Hotel Bel-Air Benefit

The fund-raiser at Hotel Bel-Air on Friday night had the ambience of a private party. There was magician Howard Posener drawing laughter from the indomitable baroness Margaret Thatcher as he fooled her with party tricks. So clearly it was meant to be a good time, not some mere formality.

Tickets, at $1,200 a plate, benefited the Adolescent Medicine program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the International Centre for Child & Family Studies. For their money, the 100 present got a lot of caviar and champagne, an entree choice of roasted rack of lamb or Dover sole meuniere, a chance to bid on auction items and the opportunity to hear the Iron Lady in one of her softer moods.

The former British prime minister was presented with her portrait by artist Salvador Arellano, best known for painting polo ponies. Acknowledging that it depicted her in slightly earlier times, the 71-year-old, smartly coiffed and coutured baroness said: “I think it’s lovely. When you’ve been in political office as long as I was, it’s good to be remembered not only as a tough creature, but also as someone who looks as lovely as that.”

Dr. Richard MacKenzie of Childrens Hospital and England’s Professor Neville Butler, ICCFS director, spoke briefly. Thatcher then took the podium, invoking George Bernard Shaw, John Wesley, William Blake and Ronald Reagan in a speech about “the moral foundations of a free society.”

Among those listening were Marcia Hobbs (chairwoman of Christie’s, which had hosted a linked event in the afternoon), British Consul General Merrick Baker-Bates, Will Doheny and Stefanie Powers and English director Michael Apted.