Staying on Brand

Social gridlock reigned at the East Haley Street wine bar Uncorked when Santa Barbara TV game-show host Rebecca Brand marked the 18th anniversary of her 40th.

Rebecca, who turned a small business hosting dinner parties and teaching French impressionist oil painting at her home into a culinary and travel TV show empire, has just returned from China where she is considered the number one hired influencer for productions, making 400 product videos in the past two years.

“There is so much scope in China where I used a hundred editors for my videos and I’m also hiring ten people locally,” says bubbly Rebecca, who hosted Turner Broadcasting’s first ever game show – a remake of the 1950’s show Dialing for Dollars that aired out of the Cartoon Network’s Burbank Studios.

Among the tony torrent helping the birthday girl celebrate were Gloria Clark, Chris and Mindy Denson, Fred Brander, Charles Ward, Chip Lawson, and Richard Auhll.

Turning Back Time

As former Montecito funnyman John Cleese approaches his 80th birthday, he is undergoing stem cell therapy in a bid to fight back Father Time.

The former Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star says he has been undergoing the treatment for a number of years and he credits it with helping him look younger than his 79 years.

“I’m serious,” he says. “I think stem cell therapy is the most extraordinary thing and, of course, I’m sorry to say, it’s not cheap.

“I’ve been doing it for some years and the astonishing thing is you don’t hear much about it. I look younger than my age and it’s entirely down to stem cell therapy, and not because I’m a wonderful person, which I am, but that doesn’t affect my looks.”

John is currently starring in a new BBC series Hold the Sunset, about two retired widowed neighbors.