Cornel Wilde

The 1986 Orange County AdClub AdAwards, the 20th such celebration, reflected some of the glitter of an Academy Awards presentation Tuesday night at the Disneyland Hotel. "Reach for the Stars" was the theme of the prestigious event; movie star look-alikes wandered about, and a real movie star, Cornel Wilde, was the emcee. The evening's top honor, the Sweepstakes Award, went to Salvati Montgomery Sakoda Inc. of Santa Ana.

Dorothy Lamour, who died earlier this week at 81, could do it all. She was an accomplished singer, looked great in a sarong and was the perfect foil for funnymen Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Several of Lamour's most famous films are available on video. In her first films, Lamour was cast as beautiful, exotic, sarong-clad South Seas heroines. The best of her South Seas adventures was John Ford's terrifically entertaining 1937 disaster flick "The Hurricane" (Sultan Entertainment, $15).

When an event begins with Shirley Temple Black signing copies of her book "Child Star" and ends with George Murphy, Buddy Ebsen and Donald O'Connor doing that old soft shoe, you know you have been to a bash to be thankful for. And there were enough memories in between at the "Thanksgiving Gala and Auction" in the Irvine Marriott on Sunday night to fill a movie fan's scrapbook. Emcee Milton Berle puffed at a "pre-Castro" Cuban cigar and cracked jokes.

If "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" whets your appetite for more adventures of the bandit of Sherwood Forest, you might check your video store for other movies about this heroic character. The following are available for rent or for sale at $20 or under: "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (MGM/UA, 1938). Until the Costner movie, this one, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland, was the most popular Robin Hood film, serving as a model for most of '40s and '50s versions.

Will veteran Old Globe actor Larry Drake win one of television's Emmy Awards on Sunday night in Pasadena? Drake is being considered for his role as Benny Stulwicz, the retarded mail clerk on "L.A. Law." It's not the first time that Drake has played the part of a retarded man; local audiences may remember him as Lenny in the 1985 Old Globe Theatre production of "Of Mice and Men."

The champagne sparkled and fizzed, but it was the shop talk that kept things popping at Ambrosia-Grand Teton Chalet, site of the Master Chorale of Orange County's opening-night gala to honor supporters. "I was nervous up there," admitted actress and singer Nancy Dussault, a guest performer with the chorale on Saturday night when it launched its season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. "These one-night situations are hard. I didn't learn the music until last week."

KELLY LeBROCK and her husband, STEVEN SEAGAL, who appear together in the action film "Hard to Kill," just added 100 acres to an 80-acre ranch they bought earlier this year in the Santa Ynez Valley, about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara. LeBrock, who starred in the movie "Woman in Red" and was also in "Weird Science," was a model for Vogue magazine when she met Seagal, a martial arts wizard, in Tokyo. He later became an actor and won acclaim for his role in the film "Above the Law."

So he can act. But can he paint ? Yes, was the consensus at the first Los Angeles exhibition of works by Tony Curtis. The sixtysomething, silver-haired Curtis drew a sizable crowd to the Beverly Hilton on Saturday night for a reception and viewing of his extensive collection of acrylics, pen and ink drawings and sketches, most done at his home in Hawaii. If his name was the draw, most were pleasantly surprised by Curtis' canvases. "This is top grade," said a fellow painter who said his name was "Ellis--first and last.

The American Ballet Theatre is coming to town with all bugles blasting. The Los Angeles American Ballet Theatre Gala on March 4 (at the Beverly Wilshire) will kick off the 1985 Los Angeles season (opening March 5 at the Shrine) with a flourish. How could it not when First Lady Nancy Reagan is the gala's honorary chairman and Mikhail Baryshnikov, ABT's artistic director, will probably be the gala's shy and highly pursued main attraction.