They weren't clueless—-just ringless. The couple promptly commissioned two bands from jewelry designer Loree Rodkin, a former '80s Hollywood manager whose client roster once included Robert Downey Jr., Sarah Jessica Parker and Brad Pitt. For the bride, Rodkin, 48, created a gold ring with five stones, including garnet and tourmaline; and for the groom, a hammered-gold band. "Loree's jewelry reflects her world, what she lives," says Edwards, who had already given Lobell a Rodkin-designed engagement ring of emeralds set in tiny medieval crosses.
The designer well knows the allure of gothic-chic. "I love the Crusades, the religious paintings and the pageantry," says Rodkin, whose four-bedroom Beverly Hills home has stained glass and religious artifacts to suggest a medieval chapel. She has struck gold—and silver—with mod macabre crosses and death's-heads that range in price from $200 to $300,000 (for a platinum-chain necklace with cross and flawless 4-carat diamond) and are sold at 58 stores in seven countries. Her designs have graced the hands, ears and other assorted body parts of Winona Ryder, Sharon Stone and Elizabeth Taylor. "It's like playing with grown-up Barbies," Rodkin says of her $5 million-a-year enterprise, which employs 15 craftsmen in a Beverly Hills office-studio. "Okay, really upscale Barbies."
Arnold Schwarzenegger bought Maria Shriver a Rodkin diamond choker one Christmas, and Antonio Banderas sports a cross-motif ring from Melanie Griffith. Elton John "likes anything with skulls," says Rodkin. And her close friend Cher owns 100 pieces, including a toe ring and a belly chain. "I look at my old, big jewelry, and I think that's too much," says Cher. "Loree makes the right pieces."
Her journey to become jeweler to the stars began on Chicago's pricey Lake Shore Drive, where she and younger sister Debra were raised by their mother, June; their father, Glen Rodkin, a restaurateur; and later on, June's second husband, Morton Deutsch. By age 19, Rodkin had moved to New York City for film school, but a trip to L.A. the next year turned permanent: She fell in love with Don Henley, singer-songwriter of a fledgling band called the Eagles. The relationship faded in a few years, "but I met lots of creative people," Rodkin says. "I realized life was a big adventure."
When she moved out of Henley's Malibu place and into her own apartment, a friend, impressed by her decorating skills, hired Rodkin to fix up several properties he owned. "I was opinionated, and I had good taste," she says matter-of-factly. Soon, while involved with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin (they were eventually engaged), she started landing clients such as Rod Stewart and rocker Alice Cooper, who, says Rodkin, "liked Tiffany lamps and beautiful fabrics."
It wasn't that big a leap from redoing luxury digs to managing stars. "You hire the agent, the publicist, you put the pieces in place," explains Rodkin. "Then [you] go shopping to make the star look better." Her first client was the late ballet great Alexander Godunov, who took a liking to Rodkin when they met in 1979 and offered her the job. Within three years, she was representing a young clientele that included Judd Nelson (who was also her lover for five years), John Malkovich and Lauren Holly.
Still, "Loree never liked being a babysitter," says her friend, actress and ex-client Virginia Madsen. Indeed, it was while putting out the many fires in Downey's drug-troubled career in the late '80s that she began to relax by sketching ideas for jewelry. When an L.A. boutique owner commissioned her to do 60 pieces, Rodkin—whom Downey fired in 1988, after his first stint in rehab—had a new career. In '91 she even designed the rings for Downey's wedding to Deborah Falconer. "That made me glad," she says.
The never-married Rodkin, who shares her home with her dog Elvis, says she has always been "revoltingly headstrong and independent" in her relationships. But that same drive has landed her a jewel of a career. "I'm so happy doing what I'm doing," she says, "I don't foresee another life."
ANNE-MARIE OTEY in Los Angeles
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
