DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200638

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell 

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** The Passion Show, a fashion show, dinner and dance to benefit Operation Smile, will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. A column in Saturday's paper gave a wrong day. Correction published in The Virginian-Pilot, Monday, Sept. 22, 1997, page A2. ***************************************************************** RELUCTANT FASHION PLATE WILL STRUT DOWN THE RUNWAY FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Never had it crossed my antic mind that one day somebody would bid me to join a swank fashion show celebrating Operation Smile's 15th anniversary next Friday in Norfolk's Marriott Hotel.

A dozen international designer houses are shipping their latest creations.

Weeks ago its organizers asked me to be an usher to escort a model down the runway. My colleagues collapsed in laughter. I recoiled.

``Much as I love Operation Smile - it blesses the lives of children around the world - to send me down that aisle among those models would be like inserting a camel in a line of gazelles. It wouldn't work.

``It didn't work when Noah tried it debarking from the Ark. Gazelles bolted, the camel sulked and bit Noah's oldest son, Shem.''

So they went away - and sent Michelene Gary after me Friday. To her, all life is a football game, and she is cheerleader for her team with the ball on the two-foot line, the score tied, and a minute to go.

``Don't fret,'' she said. ``Leon Hall, the fashion world's foremost impresario, directs the production.''

``He never met an impediment like me,'' I told her. ``When I walk down the block-long hallway in this building, it is as if an ill-thrown lopsided bowling ball is on the prowl. Colleagues jump in doorways and back up against walls to escape.

``Ten feet down the runway I'd fall off into the kettle drum.''

``There will be no kettle drum,'' she said. ``I promise.''

There will be, she said, the Strolling Silver Strings, 35 students from programs for the gifted in Norfolk's five public high schools playing violins, violas, cellos and an upright string bass. As strollers they leave the stage and roam the ballroom, playing individually. They have done 300 performances in Europe and the United States.

Further, she said, the five-member Hot Boudin Brothers will play cajun, zydeco and New Orleans rhythm and blues.

``With all that,'' I said, ``my wandering down the runway would be, as it is so often, a case of `Send in the Clown.' ''

``Call it what you will,'' she said. ``It will add a note of suspense as you waver by.''

She showed me the list of 12 ushers, businessmen led by Mayor Paul Fraim and three media men: Tom Randalls of WTKR-TV, Eric Worden of WPTE-FM, and I, the barrel's rotten apple. The celebrity hostess is Linda Vestar, anchor of NBC News at Sunrise.

For Operation Smile's only fund-raiser, Gary said, tickets are $150 for individuals, $300 for couples. ``The seated dinner will be superb,'' she said. The evening begins at 7 p.m. For reservations, call 627-0301.

``Since 1982,'' Gary said, looking me in the eye, ``volunteers have donated their time and skills to repair the faces of more than 40,000 children disfigured by birth defects.''

``I shall dig out my father's tux and go practice walking down that runway,'' I said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Michelene Gary

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