Alan Peppard

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center didn't have to go far afield to find the star for its Conversation With a Living Legend event at the Anatole.

Between the TV ads he's paid for and the countless interviews he's given in the last month, Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens has been more ubiquitous than John McCain or Barack Obama.

Barnstorming the country to promote his Pickens Plan to cut dependence on foreign oil, Boone Pickens is a name on everyone's lips.

At the Oct. 24 luncheon, he'll be interviewed at the cancer benefit that has previously included Margaret Thatcher, Lance Armstrong, George H. W. Bush and Walter Cronkite.

Beer distributor Barry Andrews and his wife, Lana, are co-chairing the fundraiser.

The night before the luncheon, a party for event patrons will be held at the home of the Andrewses' daughter, Natalie McGuire, and her husband, Mike, in the Lakeside Drive mansion previously owned by Alex Rodriguez.

For info, call 1-866-262-9029.

The athletic, willowy blonde who showed up at Crest Cadillac-Infiniti last year looking for sponsorship for her gymnastics got a reluctant no from managing partner Mike Brosin. Her presentation and track record were great, but the year's budget had already been spent.

Mike was thinking about that decision last week after seeing the same blonde, Nastia Liukin, pick up her gold medal in Beijing.

Author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will speak at the Salvation Army's "Doing the Most Good" luncheon on Nov. 20 at the Hilton Anatole.

In an interesting coincidence, Ms. Goodwin picked up a Pulitzer Prize for her book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II.

The luncheon will be chaired by Dallasite JoAnne Roosevelt, wife of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's grandson, Dallas oilman Elliott "Tony" Roosevelt.