Barbara Davis

Everyone knows the groom is not supposed to see the bride's dress before the wedding day, but apparently there is nothing wrong with previewing the reception plans. At least that's what the people at the Creative Coalition must think, because they announced publicly this week that they are busily making arrangements for its fabulous nonpartisan presidential inaugural celebration -- even though the race for the White House is still on.

For Carousel of Hope Ball watchers, it was like seeing a flag at half-staff: Barbara Davis, the grande dame of Los Angeles' charity scene, wore black to the hottest benefit on the social calendar. Black might be de rigueur for most women on the circuit, but at 15 balls past, Davis had always arrived swathed in clouds of peppermint pink. The official color of girlhood somehow seemed appropriate as a symbol of the cause: the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Denver.