Rogues' Gallery

West Hollywood's newest showplace

Rock stars ruled L.A. in the seventies. In the eighties, it's artists. No wonder then that Earl McGrath, former president of Rolling Stones Records, has turned his West Hollywood home into an art gallery. He launched Gallery 454 North with an alfresco luncheon for nine of his artists—Ron Cooper, Willard Dixon, Doug Edge, Lilia LoCurto, Francine Matarazzo, Patrick Morrison, Michael McCall, and William Outcault. The ninth: James Mathers, whose Rose's lime-juice ads opened up a whole new medium for young artists—modeling.

Earl's aristocratic Italian wife, Camilla (left, with camera), whipped up her famous rice salad, and the California wines that washed it down were dubbed "The Grapes of McGrath." Also art-bathing were movie stars Harrison Ford, Steve Martin, and Cheech Marin; artists Chuck Amoldi, Billy A1 Bengston, Laddie John Dill, and Ed Moses; writers Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne; even disco-restaurateuse Helena Kallianiotes. Those once dueling divorces, L.A.'s queen-bee art collector, Marcia Weisman, and her ex-husband, Frederick "Toyota" Weisman, who recently leased the Greystone Mansion to house his art collection, were on the friendliest terms— proving that in contemporary L.A., art conquers all.

Through October 10, Gallery 454 North is showing Doug Edge, whose totemic bronzes have a surrealist. . .edge.

Bob Colacello