Jamie McCourt, Dodgers chief executive, joins LACMA board

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Little did we know that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was interested in starting a diamond collection. It has done just that, after a fashion, by appointing Jamie McCourt to its board, a development that was announced late today. With husband Frank, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, she controls the most dazzling diamond in L.A. (Dodger Stadium), along with the team that plays on it. (She’s chief executive officer.)

LACMA board members are expected to donate at least $100,000 a year to the museum.

Does this connection mean that images of prime works from the museum’s collection will be flashed on the Dodger Vision screen between innings? Or that LACMA’s Casey Jones plan – the life-size, $25-million Jeff Koons steam locomotive that Director Michael Govan hopes to hang high over the museum’s entry plaza – could turn into a Casey at the Bat plan? Just wondering.

McCourt is not the only connection between the baseball scene and the realm of L.A. arts boards. Chairing the board of the Pasadena Playhouse is Michele Dedeaux Engemann, daughter of the legendary USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux.

Also joining LACMA’s board is Rebecka Belldegrun, president and chief executive of BellCo Capital, a management consulting and investment company. Belldegrun’s resume is an eye-opener: Born in Finland, she’s a medical doctor as well as a financier, having earned her MD from Tel Aviv University in Israel, after which she did her postdoctoral fellowship in corneal surgery at Harvard.

In a statement, Govan said the women’s appointment “underscores the ongoing dedication of the city’s philanthropic leaders to art, even during these trying times.”

To complete our roundup of board scores, Center Theatre Group, which runs the Ahmanson, the Mark Taper Forum and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, announced Friday that it has landed Timothy A. Regler, executive producer of the “Judge Judy” courtroom TV show, for its board of directors, along with Dale S. Miller, an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions and venture capital.

So how about a charity softball game between the LACMA and CTG boards and staffs, maybe to benefit some of the smaller fry in L.A.’s visual arts and theater? Jamie McCourt provides the field, and Judge Judy umpires.

-- Mike Boehm