C.J.: This birthday girl says she hasn't had any work done in all her years

One impertinent question hung in the air as Loni Anderson attended the 90th birthday party for her first mother-in-law, Phyllis Hasselberg, on Sunday: Has she had any work done?

"No, not a little bit, not a little tweak," said Hasselberg, the beautiful birthday lady who doesn't look 90. "And I don't have a nightly routine [as in a face-cleansing regime]."

At the party held at Friendship Village, a Bloomington retirement community, Anderson was keeping her presence low-key because, she said, this was Phyllis' day. Anderson flew in with her daughter, Deidra, a California school principal, whose father is Bruce Hasselberg, a publisher of specialist directories and Phyllis' son. Phyllis is also the widow of onetime Bloomington Mayor Don Hasselberg.

Charming and handsome, Bruce loves telling the story of his first date with Anderson almost as much as his sister, Barbara Hasselberg Chevalier, of Chicago, enjoys correcting the recollections of her brother and Anderson. Bruce met Loni when she and Barbara were Miss Minnesota contestants.

As Bruce tells it, Loni was dating, remember this name, Bob Flick, of the Brothers Four fame. "I went out with her after the Miss Minnesota pageant and I proposed the first night, and we were married four weeks and six days later," Bruce said with a smile. "My son [from a different marriage] said, You really asked her to marry you on the first date? I said, 'How many times do you get to go out with a Loni Anderson?'"

Barbara interjected, "No, you didn't," but after consulting with Loni, she more or less conceded that Bruce was right. Barbara also had a correction for Loni's version of another event in Anderson's book, "My Life in High Heels." Loni declined to waste energy challenging Barbara's recollection.

Loni went looking for protein after allegedly sampling various sweets. I saw her eat only one sugary treat -- HALF of a quarter-inch fudge square; the other half went to Deidra, who's also petite. There's video at www.startribune.com/video.

Proud of both her kids, Loni also showed partygoers photos of her son, Quinton, from her marriage to Burt Reynolds.

Theater's in the blood Roberta Mann Benson, daughter of Ted Mann, as is in Mann Theatres fame, acted like she wanted to keep a low profile at Phyllis' party. I didn't buy it because I did not recognize Benson -- and was paying no attention to her -- until she came up and told me her name.

Marrying kind -- again Bob Flick "is the one who got away," said Loni Anderson of her fiancé.

Last time I saw Anderson, 2002 I believe it was, she was dating attorney Geoff Brown. "Good guy, wonderful man," Loni said. "I said I'd never get married again. Bob must be the right one. I said I never would and now I am."

She said she knew Bob "before I knew Bruce."

Anderson and Flick reconnected during the seven years she spent going around the country speaking about smoker's lung, aka chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); both her parents died of cancers related to COPD.

"I happened to be in Seattle, where [Bob's] from, and I had just seen him on a Public Television special singing, and he was still really cute and he looked like himself and I thought, 'I'm going to see if I can find him. See what happened to him; maybe he's got a wife and 10 children.' We went to dinner and from that minute on, I knew he was still the one. We just talked on the phone for about three years. He says he's a slow mover."

Anderson doesn't "think we would have made it if I had married Bob when we were kids. A musician on the road is a tough life. And I wouldn't have accomplished the things I have. I think we got back together at the right time."

While Anderson can still cause a stir at the MOA, she got a taste of what it's like to be the less-famous half in Asia. In Japan, she said, Flick's still extremely popular, so much so that she was pushed to the side by fans rushing for Bob. "This is what it was like with the Beatles," she said. "Very old Beatles but still Beatles."

Baby Garnett on way KG's strained stomach muscles weren't the only ones being discussed last week when the injured Celtic did a curtain call for Timberwolves fans.

An e-mailer who claims to sit near the visitor's bench tells me that she overheard chatter about Brandi Garnett, KG's wife, being halfway through her pregnancy. "I know KG runs a pretty tight ship as far as his personal life. Have you heard anything about it?" the e-mailer asked.

I called Laura Riposa, Inside Track gossip columnist at the Boston Herald, and she e-mailed people who reported back that Brandi is "now noticeably pregnant." When asked why she hadn't written about it, Riposa, using the timing of a stand-up comic, said "Because you just told me."

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. More of her attitude can be seen on Fox 9 Thursday mornings.