Even Disasters Take On a Certain Chic in Hollywood

USA Today reported last week that El Nin~o fever has reached such levels of panic that Malibu-ians are sealing off their waterfront homes with sandbags.

They don’t know what panic is. In a truly Malibu-oid stroke of coping with the elements, a recent Giorgio Armani fashion show at Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks’ airy Colony home was moved from the high-tide beach to the tennis court, natch. Beverly Hills Armani doyenne Wanda McDaniel made even disaster sound fashionable. Armani’s latest chiaroscuro designs were crowned the “El Nin~o Collection.”

A post-show lunch of Patina’s swordfish sandwiches and salads was served in a white banquette and orchid-strewn tent transformed into a look-alike of Armani’s pad on Pantelleria Island north of Morocco.

Cruising the Armanis were Michelle Pfeiffer, Geena Davis, Kate Capshaw, Nora Ephron, Christine Lahti, Jennifer Tilly, Elizabeth Perkins, Jamie Gertz, Melissa Etheridge and Nancy Daly, who sported a cane because she broke a foot stepping into a pothole. In Sardinia, that is. The event benefited Daly’s charity, the Children’s Action Network and the Westside Children’s Center.