Elliott, publisher of Applause! magazine, a lifestyle magazine for Greater Cincinnati's African-American community, is also behind the Imagemaker Awards, the annual do honoring African-American overachievers.

        Here's the deal: Elliott always manages to get an incredible entertainment lineup. Past years have had Freddie Jackson, CeCe Winans, Jennifer Holliday, Tremaine Hawkins.

        Oh yeah, it's also one of the best-dressed events in town, but that's beside the point.

        What isn't beside the point is this year's entertainment. It's local, but still a coup: Elliott has persuaded Cincinnati Ballet director Victoria Morgan to preview Graceland, centerpiece of the upcoming Spring Festival.

        It's the one based on Paul Simon's 1986 Grammy winning album of the same name, the one he did with the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

        Morgan and Ballet soloist Jay Goodlett choreographed the thing, then scheduled it for a March 9 world premiere.

        But first, Elliott has a series of excerpts on her Imagemakers program Saturday at the Aronoff; 761-6900 for info.

        One more coup: Photographer Gordon Parks, currently showing at the Cincinnati Art Museum, is also on the bill.

        Heard around town: “So many people liked it so much last year and told so many other people that everyone started asking for an encore about a week after the show. We felt we had no choice.”

        That would be volunteer Doris Marks Callas at a Diva Dazzle cocktail party, talking about why they're throwing Diva Dazzle II.

        Diva Dazzle was an AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati party last year that assembled a bunch of divas — Shirley Jester (honoree, now Diva Emeritus), Mary Ellen Tanner, Carol Sherman-Jones, Key West female impersonator Randy Roberts — and turned them loose.

        Word spread so much about it that people started bugging Callas. She agreed to do it and announced details over cocktails at Crowne Plaza's Gourmet Room.

        It's April 28 (421-2437 for info) at the Omni with Broadway's Pam Myers leding the charge, with help from Sherman-Jones, Tanner, Kathy Wade, Spring Starr Pillow and more. Singer Mary Jo Katona, who has raised a ton of money for Caracole, the AIDS hospice, and other charities with her Back to Broadway productions, is this year's honoree and next year's Diva Emeritus.

        Oh, and something else heard at the party: The Gourmet Room, once a five-star restaurant but closed for several years, is reopening.

        “Probably late June,” confirms sales and marketing director Al Eastman. “It will be hors d'oeuvres, champagne by the glass, desserts to catch people before and after arts events.”

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