Beverly Hills & Celebrity Ranch Polo Event, LA's Best 25th Year Anniversary and Silicon Beach Fest Highlights

By Joy A. Kennelly

If you're a fan of polo you would have really enjoyed the recent celebrity match between the Beverly Hills and Celebrity Ranch Polo Team. It was my first time ever watching and it's quite an exciting sport! Very fast moving, and attendees all dressed up to fit the Great Gatsby theme which made it even more special.

Even saw my former short film fest (SPIFF) advisor, Writer/Actor, Patrick Kilpatrick there and finally met Ed Lozzi in person after all these years of blindly pitching him for clients. You can view pictorial highlights on my new Joy's Travel Adventures Flickr Account if you click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joystraveladventures/sets/72157634199983071/

Now if you're into charities that help children, you would have enjoyed the LA's Best 25th Year Anniversary party which was a great mix of politics, entertainment, fashion and sports attendees.

Here's a sample of the glittering guest list in attendance I saw, and occasionally interviewed,on the red carpet: 

Carla Sanger, LA's Best President & CEO; MIchaela Pereira, Co-host of brand-new CNN morning show, “New Day;" Guest; Host of the evening, Chris Paul, six-time All-NBA point guard, MVP of 2013 NBA All-Star Game;  and Marvin J. Suomi, LA's Best Board Chair and President & CEO, KUD International, LLC.

Jane Fonda, actress/activist and guest. We should all hope to look as beautiful as she does at her age. I may not agree with her politics, but I love her as an actress.:)

Former LA Mayor James Hahn and his wife came out too. He told KTLA LA's Best has been helping kids for 25 years and over 350,000 children have gone through this unique after-school enrichment program originally launched by Mayor Tom Bradley (whom I still remember fondly as one of the great LA Mayors if childhood memory holds true.)

 Lubov & Max Azria, Honorees, Max (Founder, BCBG brand) & Lubov (Creative Director of BCBGMAXAZRIA) She is the most gracious, elegant, humble, unassuming woman you could ever hope to meet. 

Made my whole night to learn she had read my blog and enjoyed my coverage. It was great to see her and her family too. 

She and her husband were honored for creativity and if you're familiar with their designs and clothing line, you can see why. When I interviewed her that night, she said they were new to the LA's Best family and it was an amazing honor to be included. 

She wasn't the only one to feel that way. Dr. Bill Dorfman AKA Dr. Bill (“The Doctors,” “Extreme Makeover”) told me the same thing. He has been helping children for a long time and brought his family along to celebrate too.

Clean Comedian/Style Host, Jonathon Slocumb, arrived looking dapper. Always appreciate comedy that's clean because the world is dirty enough as it is.

GroupLove, a local sensation who recently appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, were the musical performers of the night.

MTV's Push Girls delighted all of us. According to Wikipedia, "Push Girls chronicles the lives of four women - Angela Rockwood, Tiphany Adams, Mia Schaikewitz and Auti Angel - who have been paralyzed by illness or accident and displays the day-to-day challenges and triumphs they encounter."

Very inspirational women.  

Speaking of inspiring, this esteemed trio has been inspiring children as part of the various LA Best boards. L-R Best Friends Advisory Board Chair: Amber Holley Melius; Advisory Board Chair, Alice Desobry Bowens and Board of Governor's Chair: Marvin J. Suomi.

Very impressive people and boards.

And from the website: "Since the beginning, the core activities at LA’s BEST have been divided into three and a half beats: help with homework, a learning activity that boosts core academic skills such as reading or math, something that’s new and just plain fun, and a nutritious snack. These components provide structure for a program that is otherwise highly customized based on students’ needs and the site staff’s interests and experience." 

I don't know about you, but I was very inspired by the positive work this organization is doing to help children. Makes me want to volunteer in some capacity. I did enjoy a nice chat with our newly elect City Controller, Ron Galperin, who informed me he was looking forward to making a lot of audits and finding opportunities for better use of our cities resources, including more support for the Film & Television industries.

Sounds great to me! It was a very fun experience and although I didn't stay for the entire event, I saw enough to know this is a quality organization with great support throughout many aspects of our Los Angeles community.

Another event which has continued to grow in prestige and attendance is the Silicon Beach Fest which recently happened in Santa Monica. I plan to cover it more extensively for TechZulu, but wanted to give you a few fun pictorial highlights to pique your interestof my written review later. Recognize these people? I'll tell you who they are when I do my formal write-up.