Fashion show of champions

By MARY EVERTZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 2, 2001

The reigning Miss America, Angela Perez Baraquio, was in Tampa on Saturday for Gridiron Glamour 2001, an auction/fashion show/luncheon that benefits breast cancer research.

The reigning Miss America, who travels 20,000 miles a month, was in Tampa on Saturday for one of the Super Bowl-related events, the Gridiron Glamour 2001 at Tampa's A La Carte Event Pavilion.

The auction/fashion show/luncheon, in its fifth year, is the pet project of actor Holly Robinson Peete and her husband Rodney Peete, quarterback for the Oakland Raiders. This year's show benefited breast cancer research, with proceeds going to H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa and the Stephanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer in Columbus, Ohio.

"I have six sisters, a mother, grandmother and many aunts and cousins, and like all women I have concerns about breast cancer," Baraquio said.

The eighth child in a family of 10, the former kindergarten teacher and middle school coach selected "character in the classroom" as her pageant platform. She has met with former general and now Secretary of State Colin Powell and new Secretary of Education Roderick Paige to foster her cause.

A petite 5 feet 3 inches, the first Asian-American (her parents were born in the Philippines) Miss America modeled four of the colorful, avant-garde outfits in the Saks Fifth Avenue show.

"She is really beautiful, isn't she?" said Miss Miami Latarsha Long as Baraquio paraded on the runway. Long was lamenting the fact that at 24, with a September birthday, she is no longer eligible to vie for the Miss America crown.

While they may be macho on the playing field, athlete-models such as Jose Canseco, Gary Sheffield and Aaron Brooks looked almost sheepish as they walked the runway.

Singers Natalie Cole, left, and Patti LaBelle share a moment as LaBelle is presented with the Woman of Courage award Saturday before the fashion show. LaBelle has lost three sisters to cancer.

Troy Vincent of the Philadelphia Eagles handled the pressure by doing a little dance as he modeled the Saks finery.

Marion Jones, who brought three gold and two bronze medals home from last year's Olympics, used her winning stride to showcase the clothes she wore.

Singer Natalie Cole gave a warm and personal tribute to "mentor, friend, sister and sometimes mother," Patti LaBelle. "When I talk about courage . . . that's what Patti LaBelle is all about," Cole said. LaBelle, who has lost three sisters to cancer, received the Woman of Courage award. LaBelle, who graciously accepted the award, was spectacular in her coat of many colors of red.

Star Jones (The View) and Pat O'Brien (Access Hollywood) were master of ceremonies at the event and got the bidding going on the auction.

High bidder of the day was Adele Smithers-Fornaci of Long Island, N.Y., who paid $5,000 for two Super Bowl tickets.

A hero off the field

Everyone knows football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is a champion, but above that the former San Francisco '49ers quarterback is a good sport. Montana, in the Tampa Bay area for the Super Bowl doings, spent Sunday smiling and posing and signing hundreds of autographs.

"He still has those beautiful blue eyes," said Cynthia Lake as she held up a freshly Montana-autographed football. Lake, executive director of the Suncoast Children's Dream Fund, and 12-year-old Bradley Bourgeois were waiting at the Don CeSar Beach Resort and Spa to catch the sports legend, who was on his way to a celebrity do.

The duo had spent the weekend collecting autographs of famous athletes. The signatures will be auctioned next month at the agency's big fundraiser at Tropicana Field. "He (Montana) has helped us out before when he spent time with a terminally ill child," Lake said.

Montana's first appearance Sunday was at a celebrity brunch hosted by him at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort. Here the grand prize winners of the Coca-Cola/Kraft Foods Super Bowl Promotion had two hours with their sports hero. When asked how he developed his throwing arm, Montana credited his dad and the tire he rigged behind their house. Plus, he lived on the top of a hill. "In the winter we would throw snowballs at the passenger windows of passing cars . . . that's till the police came," he said.

The five winners of the promotion got to be with Montana, had five days and four nights in the Tampa Bay area and got to enjoy the NFL Experience as well as the Super Bowl.

The Washington seen

While Tampa Bay was going Super Bowl crazy, life in Washington, D.C., went on as usual.

For the 88th year the Alfalfa Club, made up of past and present national power players, held its last Saturday in January dinner.

Both Presidents Bush were there, as were Secretary of State Colin Powell, Alan Greenspan, Vernon Jordan, Alexander Haig, Robert Strauss and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

While there were some movie types, the real star of the evening was Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. According to the Washington Post, "Before and after the three-hour dinner, which by tradition is closed to the press, Harris was mobbed by well-wishers in the Hilton lobby, and she gladly fulfilled every possible with-me-please photo request."

Escorted by former ambassador to Morocco Joseph Verner Reed, "The previously mascaraed Harris was the night's make-over knock-out," according to the Post. "She modeled a form-fitting, black and green gown that could not have screamed "hourglass' more if it had sand running through it."

It is dutifully reported each year that Alfalfa was founded in 1913 by four friends who routinely met for libations at the Willard Hotel. They named the club for the legume whose roots would "do anything for a drink."

The club currently has 200 bipartisan members.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was taken in as a "sprout" last year.

Among this year's crop of "sprouts": U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and winemaker R. Michael Mondavi.

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