Bombshell by Mikimoto

The event: Preview of an exhibition of Marilyn “Monroe-abilia” staged by Mikimoto at South Coast Plaza. The recent champagne reception benefited the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCI Medical Center.

Pearls Are a Girl’s Best Friend: Hundreds of guests gathered in Jewel Court to ogle the Mikimoto pearl choker that baseball legend Joe DiMaggio picked up for Monroe 45 years ago on their Tokyo honeymoon. Guests who wanted an exact replica of the 9-millimeter love beads had only to sweep into Mikimoto and plunk down $20,000. A smaller version was available for $4,500.

“I think pearls are the most feminine piece of jewelry a woman can wear,” said Henry Segerstrom, managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, owners of South Coast Plaza.

Guest Danni Sun admired Monroe’s necklace but said her own string of pearls was “bigger and better.”

“I have a necklace of 31 perfect 17-millimeter pearls that my father gave me when I got my MBA,” Sun said. “They’ve been appraised for $700,000.”

Also up for oohing and ahhhing: photographs of Monroe and costumes--some authentic, some reproductions--from her movies “The Misfits,” “The Seven-Year Itch” and “Some Like It Hot.”

Mimicking Marilyn: Monroe look-alike Susan Griffiths of Tustin--who portrayed the bombshell in “Pulp Fiction”-- greeted guests and posed for photographers atop a sidewalk grate. Every few seconds, a blast of air raised Griffith’s pleated skirt above her knees--a nod to Monroe’s memorable New York street scene from “The Seven-Year Itch.”

Not everybody can look like Marilyn. “It takes the right facial structure,” noted a platinum-wigged Griffiths, 32. “Her face was very round and all her makeup was very angular. She had pointy eyeliner and pointy eyebrows.”

Imitating Marilyn can be a “blessing and a curse,” Griffiths confided. “I did a movie of the week about her for ABC and that was a blessing.”

But the constant attention from slack-jawed men can be bothersome. “I have a mental block about them,” she said. “I just go ahead and do my thing and don’t pay attention.”

On the serious side: Increased knowledge of the way cancer develops is providing researchers with new and better ways to prevent and treat the disease, observed Dr. Frank J. Meyskens, director of the Chao cancer center. “I have always believed that the best treatment for cancer is its prevention,” he said. “Certainly, we have to treat as well as we can those people who have cancer. But in the long term, we are going to make the most impact by screenings, early detection and prevention.”

Quote: The three most effective ways to prevent cancer: “Don’t smoke. Don’t smoke. Don’t smoke,” Meyskens warned.

Guest list: Renee Segerstrom; Bill Thomas; Billur Wallerich; Ruth Ding; Linda Meyskens; Helen Lin; Phyllis and David Hsia; Fred and Eva Schneider; Annie and Clement Chu; Bob and Peggy Goldwater Clay and Ann Shih.

Information on the Chao center: (714) 456-8200.