Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 17

Showplaco (or sals? Shirley Eder, left, hears thai Brentwood, Joan Crawford's home, may turn up on the real estate market again. The details are in Eder's column, on Page 11B. Thursday, March 3, 1SS1 MISS MANNERS 2 i ENTERTAINMENT 6-7 CAMERA PAGES 9-10 0 DETROIT FREE PRESS FEATURE PAGE 11 f1 looking nood in Palmer Park Spring fever Its proper care and feeding .1 5 A' i 'W, By MARJ JACKSON LEVIN Tree Press Staff Writer It happened last week. Spring arrived on schedule, but quietly, as usual in Michigan. Some people slipped outside to snip forsythia branches to bloom inside; some searched the malls for a fashionable uplift, others started spring cleaning by throwing out their snow boots.

Spring, after all, should be celebrated, preferably in style. And though you might assume style is harder to attain in these inflationary times, any number of small miracles can occur if you take a fresh approach. The trick is not only to snap off spring boughs, but to snip away old ideas as well. Take a lighthearted look around you and imagine what could be done with familiar accoutrements used in a new way. If you can afford, new accessories, try stretching your investment by put ting them to several innovative uses.

Or create a very special happening. Following are six suggestions for how have a stylish spring. They are intended to bring a lift to your life until the sunshine and flowers arrive. ISay it with flowers or vegetables or whatever else happens to be pretty and bright. Shop the vegetable stands for beautiful vegetables to be used in interesting table arrangements (to be consumed later in the week).

Gary Flowers of Birmingham suggests putting stalks of fresh rhubarb in three pilsner glasses for an inexpensive and striking arrangement. Try a single tulip in an empty wine decanter. Fill a teacup with violet leaves and nestle violets in the center. For a spectacular floral statement, stick a bunch of bright redorange gladiolas in a clear glass bowli-you should be able to buy at least 10 for under $10 from your local florist. Do you own an exceptionally lovely quilt? Take it out of the bedroom and use it as a tablecloth.

Rearrange your art, recover an old pillow, display your most interesting piece of jewelry on an end table. Don't be afraid to move your finest things front and center. If it's pretty, it will work anywhere. 2 Tired of being responsible, punctu- al, over-scheduled? Take a day off and curl up in bed with a delicious book "Maria Callas" by Arianna Stas-sinopoulis (Simon Schuster, $15.95) is the choice of the season. First, arrange to get everyone out of the house for at least six hours.

Pack the kids' lunches, tell your mate you're going to drop out, tell your mother you're out of See SPRING, Page 2B "'Vy Ill lypgp I i i SPOTTED THIS WEEK: the first bare-legged jogger of spring. Name: Jesse Tolbert. Age: 19. Tolbert isan avid guitarist who, at age 10, was taking lessons in a Detroit music shop from now-famous jazz guitarist Earl Klugh. This fall, Tolbert will enter the music program at Wayne State University.

In the meantime, he is teaching himself to read music, working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor, swimming and running three or four days a week. In his running, Tolbert prefers a quick sprint. He saves his long-distance energy for all-day bicycle cruises. On a recent, shorter bicycle trip, he was overtaken by two female cyclists who were quite vocal in their admiration of his legs, he says. What they didn't realize was that Tolbert's sweetheart was riding nearby.

(Forget it, ladies. She. runs with him, too.) Text and photo by Lona O'Connor, who scours the Detroit area looking for stylish people, places and things. it II Love is cause for a rally Darling's favorite springtime lovers are assistant U.S. attorney Victoria Toensing of Birmingham Free Press Pholo bv TARO YAMASAKI; Accessories Courtesy of Jacobson'sDrawing by JON BUECHEL Celebrate spring by decorating the table with stalks of rhubarb in a pilsner glass, or pamper yourself with breakfast in bed, a good book and curtains open to the sun.

and Joseph di Genova of Washington, D.C., chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Rules Committee. Their wedding date, June 27, will be almost a year after Joe met Vicki at the pro-ERA rally in Detroit last July when he bought an ERA button from her. Vicki, an' active feminist, is researching non-sexist marriage vows and plans to walk down the aisle with Joe, not have someone "hand me over like a piece of property." So there, Marabel Morgan, there are men who are not intimi II -V--? i i 1J so easy here i Toensing By MARJ JACKSON LEVIN ree Press Staff Writer Michelle Lepeu is exactly what you might expect a French automotive executive's wife to be chic, charming, oriented toward home and family. She moved to Birmingham from Paris three months ago, after her husband, Jean Ij -J III c' V' Marc, was appointed vice-president of financial affairs for American Motors Corp.

She is also curious, taste maker I 1 1 if C- I 1 1 dated by beautiful, intelligent, successful women but seek them in their natural habitat. See you at the next ERA rally, darlings. Speaking of new women, darling spotted two seated at the bar at the Golden Mushroom in South-field last Thursday night. Men were flocking around the leggy blonds, jockeying to buy them drinks. Nicole Lee Miller, 6, and Lisa Fitzgerald, 9, accepted their Cokes graciously.

Their aunts, Linda Erwin and Janet DiMatteo, explained theywere on their way to see "Annie," and the girls requested they stop by that place where they had had so much fun last year before the Ice Capades. Darling hopes they're still having as much innocent fun a decade from now. Out: Turquoise jewelry. In: Coral beads. "If you see someone flying by at 60 mph, it's mel" said Susan Slade, wife of Roy Slade, president of Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Her husband's first local painting show will open April 4 at Robert L. Kidd Associates Galleries in Birmingham. Next day, good friend Liz Katz will exchange marriage vows with Elliot Banks in the Slades' famous home, Saarinen House. The following week, activities begin to lead up to the Academy's April 11 Art Antique Auction. "We'll have house guests and people to entertain," said Susan, who seems to run a non-stop open house.

Friends say there has been beaucoup excitement around Cranbrook since the Slades moved in. 6 intelligent and happy and pleased to find her new environment so congenial. "Everything is so easy here," she said. "In France, it would take months to make new friends, find a tennis partner, meet your neighbors." RECEIVING VISITORS recently, Mme. Lepeu was dressed in brick-red pants with a matching silk shirt and low-heeled velvet shoes.

For accent, she wore a few pieces of gold jewelry. Complimented on her trim figure and simple but elegant outfit, she reacted with surprise: "But American women can buy. the same things. The clothes are very nice here." See PARISIAN, Page 2B it Free Press Pholo by LONA O'CONNOR "In France, it would take months to make new friends, find a tennis partner, meet your neighbors," said Michelle Lepeu, who moved to Birmingham from Paris three months ago. 11 3.