People: Feb. 17, 1986

• Share

Sun Valley, ski resort to upscale downhillers, schussed past 50 last week, and as prelude to the birthday, dozens of showfolk showed up in Idaho for the second annual Sun Valley Celebrity Ski Invitational. The highlight of the event: a charity auction presided over by Paul Newman that raised an estimated $140,000 for the Scott Newman Foundation for drug rehabilitation, established by the actor following his son's 1978 overdose death. Setting some kind of record for psychiatric fees, Brooke Shields' mother Teri bid $12,000 for a one-hour "consultation" with TV's Dr. Ruth (Good Sex) Westheimer. Asked whether the session was for her or her daughter, Mom reportedly said, "We'll each take half." Meanwhile, out on the slopes, Olympic Gymnast and Advertising Omnipresence Mary Lou Retton (4 ft. 9 in.) derived a different satisfaction from the diminutive Westheimer. Said Retton: "I finally found somebody two inches shorter than me." Dr. Ruth was soon seen in the lodge asking for a ski instructor, preferably one 6 ft. 3 in. tall.