CultureMap reported last week that film star Val Kilmer had been poking around The Menil Collection bookstore picking up reading material on architecture and art. On Friday, the man admired for his Batman Forever performance and his Doc Holliday role in Tombstone, spent quality time at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Kilmer arrived unannounced and asked to join the media preview of the Alice Neel: Painted Truthsexhibition. "I'm not press, but I know press," he is said to have quipped to curators. In the group were the late painter's son and daughter-in-law, Hartley and Ginny Neel, and Kilmer made fast friends with them even asking Ginny to pose for a photo in front of the portrait that Alice Neel did of her.

He played his presence in an understated manner and was not overly recognizable, we were told, wearing glasses with his hair casually back.

It was a bonus day for MFAH curators Barry Walker and Jeremy Lewison, who took Kilmer to lunch in the museum's Café Express. Walker said that Kilmer, who was in Austin at the start of last week for SXSW, had been in town to look at art and at the city's museums.

A gem of a gala

If the jewelry parties associated with the April 10 Houston Grand Opera ball are any indication, this is definitely going to be one white-tie-and-tails soirée that requires a visit to the vault. We're anticipating a show of the best in emeralds, diamonds and rubies adorning the necks and ear lobes of the city's wealthiest swans. After all, there will be royalty in the house — Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York — and Texas nobility — the ball's honoree Lynn Wyatt.

Reading between the lines of the two most recent HGO ball salute invitations, one would feel compelled to indulge in a few baubles and beads. Why else would Saks Fifth Avenue host a pre-ball luncheon in the Fifth Avenue Club featuring jewelry designers Roberto Faraone Menella and Amedeo Scognamiglio?

Even after the fact, Australian jewelry designer Tony White is tapping into the pool of HGO supporters when he brings his fabulous wares to town several days after the ball. Gala chair Denise Bush Bahr is hosting a luncheon in his honor at the St. Regis., where he will be proffering his beautiful designs for several days.

Kicking around the park

It was enough to make you really hungry — Discovery Green's "Screen on the Green" movie series on Friday that featured not only the film Julie and Julia but also an introduction by chef Robert Del Grande. The hillside was packed as Del Grande spoke from the Anheuser Busch stage and ran a clip of his appearance on PBS's Cooking With Master Chefs. As Del Grande told the crowd, he first met Julia Child at a luncheon in 1985 and they became friends when they toured together promoting the PBS cooking series.

Before Del Grande did the public thing in the park, Discovery Green Conservancy and H-E-B, film sponsor, hosted a private reception in his honor at the Lake House where the swells dined on popcorn, hot dogs and icy beer. In that mix were Nancy and Rich Kinder, Guy Hagstette, Susanne Theis, Candice Schiller and H-E-B honcho Scott McClelland.

Simply bad manners

Several weeks after the New York Times tackled the subject of wayward RSVP manners, Houstonians are still clamoring for a local word on the subject. E-mails poured in asking CultureMap's etiquette expert, that would be me, for a reminder (they actually meant scolding) on the importance of responding in the first place and then, if committing to an event, the necessity of sticking with it.

One frustrated hostess called almost immediately after the Times article appeared. "Can you do something," she pleaded. "Last week, I had 125 RSVPs for a party and less than 100 showed up." That means dollars spent for extra staff and for extra food and drink out the window. If you don't give a flip about the mere civility of responding to an invitation, would not a financial consideration (particularly in these less than prosperous times) get your attention?

So here it is — PUHLEEZE, in the name of common decency, in the name of economy, in the name of keeping our city a civilized place to live, respond to all invitations in a timely fashion and, once you have answered affirmatively, stick with it short of swine flu or plane crash. And, if you responded negatively, do not show up.

A very happy ending

It was the final Saturday night of RodeoHouston and rodeo chairman Butch Robinson and wife Paula were happy to see the ropin' and ridin' winding down. They were joined in the HLS&R suite by their daughter, Ashley Robinson, a teacher in Highland Park, and her beau Mike Pride of Dallas. As Brooks & Dunn sang Neon Moon, Pride presented the unsuspecting Ashley with an engagement ring -- cheers all around!

Pride had planned on giving his special lady the ring while they rode the ferris wheel, but Saturday's wet and windy weather nixed that.

"We had a wonderful late-night celebration in the Board Room with all our great rodeo family," Paula e-mailed. The couple is scheduling a fall wedding. And as soon as mom recovers from 21 straight nights at Reliant Park, the planning will begin.

Sight 'ems

Lynn Wyatt, Joan Schnitzer-Levy, Louise Cooley and Lady Palmer, (aka Loraine McMurrey) in from Scotland, power lunching at Tony's.