A Bacharach Boogie

Songwriting legend Burt Bacharach, who died in Los Angeles in February at the age of 94, was commemorated in energized fashion when the Brooklyn, New York-based Mark Morris Dance Company performed to his many hits at the Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series.

The “Look of Love” show, a music collaboration with Ethan Iverson, was performed with an ensemble of piano, trumpet, bass, and drums with singer-actress and Broadway star Marcy Harriell adding her undoubted vocal talents to such hits as “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Walk on By,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” and “What the World Needs Now.”

Bacharach wrote 73 Top 40 hits, winning six Grammys, three Oscars, and one Emmy during his glittering career; many of the songs collaborated with his longtime lyricist Hal David.

An extraordinary man, an extraordinary show.

Riding Toward a Cause

Sexagenarian software engineer Jim Feeney is peddling his wares for charity!

Feeney, from Seekonk, Mass., is on a solo bike ride around the U.S. to raise money for SBP, a charity dedicated to disaster resilience and recovery.

The impressive ride covers 10,130 miles crossing 32 states over five months.

Since starting his journey last month, he has raised $100,000 and hopes to achieve $300,000, which will help rebuild 10 homes.

SBP was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and is dedicated to shrinking the time between disaster and recovery for families affected by natural disasters.

The charity has returned more than 3,800 families to their homes in more than 15 disaster-impacted communities since its founding 2006.

Feeney stopped in our Eden by the Beach last Thursday on his way up the California coast and expects to be in New York on Aug. 3.

An extraordinary effort….

Irreconcilable Differences Discovered

Carpinteria actor Kevin Costner, 68, and his wife of 18 years, Christine Baumgartner, are splitsville.

The model-fashion designer, mother of their three children, Cayden, 15, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 12, has filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences.”

Both parents are seeking joint custody. The twosome started dating in 2000 and tied the knot at the Oscar winner’s 160-acre Dunbar Ranch in Aspen, Colorado, in 2004.

They both have a prenuptial agreement in place to protect Costner’s estimated $250 million fortune accrued from acting, producing, real estate, and an environmental cleanup company, Ocean Therapy Solutions. He also collects $1.5 million per episode from his hit Paramount show Yellowstone, which is coming to end at the finale of its fifth season launching in November.

Costner was previously married to Cindy Silva from 1978 to 1994 and they share three children – Annie, 39, Lily, 36, and Joe, 35.

He also shares a son, Liam Costner, with Bridget Rooney, niece of the late Pittsburgh Steelers owner, Dan Rooney, who he dated after his split with Silva.

Actress Bridget, who I used to know in the Hamptons when I stayed at a friend’s beach house in Amagansett, is now married to petrochemical billionaire Bill Koch, who adopted Liam, 26. They live in Palm Beach, Fla.

Speaking Plainly About Parkinson’s

Actor Michael J. Fox, 61, who has been living with Parkinson’s disease since his diagnosis at 29 in 1991, has spoken candidly about his health yet again.

The Back to the Future star describes Parkinson’s as “the gift that keeps on taking” in an interview with Jane Pauley on CBS.

Montecito resident Fox, who retired from acting in 2020 due to the symptoms, confesses that life “is getting tougher. Every day it gets tougher…

“My life is set up so I can pack Parkinson’s along with me if I have to.” 

He described his illness as “banging on the door. I’m not going to lie; it’s going to hurt…I’m not gonna be 80. I’m not going to live to be 80.”

All too sad…

A Dollar Earned is a Dollar Saved

Montecito actress Gwyneth Paltrow will not receive the hefty attorneys’ fees she paid to successfully defend herself against a lawsuit from a 76-year-old retired ophthalmologist, who claimed she was at fault for crashing into him at a Utah ski resort in 2016.

In a new ruling, a Utah judge said attorneys for the Oscar winner and Terry Sanderson had agreed to drop the matter of Paltrow’s attorney fees.

District Court Judge Kent Holmberg’s final decision did not detail why the matter of attorneys’ fees that Paltrow sought in her 2019 countersuit was dropped.

The Goop founder, who won an unanimous decision in the protracted legal battle seven years after the two crashed on a beginner’s run in the Deer Valley Resort, was awarded the nominal $1 she sought in her countersuit.

Temporary Judges

While she has been in the U.K. with her fellow American Idol judge, Lionel Richie, performing at King Charles’ coronation concert at Windsor Castle, Katy Perry has been temporarily replaced by singer Alanis Morrisette and British rocker Ed Sheeran on the popular TV talent show’s panel.

Boghosian on Board 

Former pharmaceutical executive Robert Boghosian has joined the board of CAMA – the Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara.

A native of New York City, he has held various management and executive positions at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Warner-Lambert.

Boghosian retired in 2008 after serving five years as senior vice president and chief compliance officer at Beckman Instruments.

He and his wife, Beth, are supporters and volunteers with several local organizations including the Music Academy, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Direct Relief, and the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center.

Sightings

Actress Jane Fonda noshing at Tre Lune… Carol Burnett and husband Brian Miller marking her 90th birthday at Lucky’s… Thirty-something actor Peter Horton getting his java jolt at the Dart Coffee Company.

Pip! Pip!