Surrounded by Beauties? Just a Change of Pace

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Call it the perfect gig for a single man.

Each summer, David Eads, vice president of sponsorships and events for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, takes a few days off to work for the Miss Universe beauty pageant.

Eads helps with the seating arrangements for the annual August event, making sure the show’s sponsors and VIPs get choice seats. And, of course, he gets to take in the pageant himself.

“It’s a total change of pace from what I do every day and it’s great fun,” he said.

Eads, 48, didn’t seek his gig with the pageant. In 1992, when he was in the sales department for the Wichita (Kan.) Convention and Visitors Bureau, he was called in at the last minute to help as an operations consultant for the pageant, which was held in Wichita that year.

He returned to help the following year and every year since.

“When you’re young and single and traveling around the world to do this, it’s a real fun gig,” he said.

This summer the pageant is close to home at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. Eads, who is still single, said he plans to enjoy every minute of it.

Art Sleepover

Not only did Stewart and Lynda Resnick donate $45 million to build an art pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, but they’re loaning much of their personal collection for one of the building’s first exhibitions in early October.

The Resnicks are handing over 125 of their European paintings and other pieces – more than they originally anticipated, Michael Govan, LACMA’s chief executive, said at a recent briefing on the pavilion.

With all those pieces donated to the show, the Resnicks’ house on Sunset Boulevard will be pretty much emptied out, Govan said. “I joked with her that she’ll need to move her bed into the pavilion to feel like she’s at home.”

Hoop Dream

The Lakers aren’t the only ones celebrating a basketball championship in Los Angeles.

Ricardo Reyes, a longtime busboy at West L.A. restaurant Barney’s Beanery, was recently given a new Ford Mustang by producers of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” after he beat a string of current and former NBA all-stars in an arcade-style basketball competition. In front of millions of TV viewers, Reyes bested Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Lamar Odom and Charles Barkley in 30-second hoops-shooting challenges at the show’s El Capitan studio in Hollywood.

AJ Sacher, the regional manager of Barney’s Beanery and Reyes’ boss, said the restaurant has seen an increase in business as customers have come in wanting to shoot hoops with Reyes. “It’s great for the restaurant,” Sacher said.

Reyes, who has been busing tables at Barney’s for 20 years – and playing the basketball game on the side – said there’s still one person he would love to take on: Michael Jordan, his all-time favorite player.

“It’s my dream to play with him,” Reyes said.

Staff reporters Howard Fine and Richard Clough contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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