Buzz with a little sting.

It was talk about bees-not talk of the Federal Reserve chairman--that had the crowd buzzing at a private event hosted by Brace Wessel, a partner in the Century City office of Irell & Manella LLP, and his wife, Gail Katz, a film and television producer.

The recent event at the couple's Santa Monica home celebrated the release of "In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic," the newest book by Bruce's brother, Wall Street Journal economics editor David Wessel, 55.

Bruce, 53, regaled the crowd with David's beekeeping antics, telling of an instance when the queen bee of his brother's hive--which was kept in his bedroom--died. Bruce remembered how his brother waited anxiously to see if the bees would accept their new queen, comparing that incident to how David now looks at Bemanke's handling of the financial crisis.

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"Bernanke is the queen bee," Bruce joked.

The event brought out Julia Louis-Dreyfus, star of CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine"; Barbara Fisher, vice president of programming for the Hallmark Channel; Orly Adelson, president of Dick Clark Productions; Howard Klein, executive producer of "The Office"; Andrea Hartman, deputy general counsel of NBC Universal; Renee Montagne, host of NPR's "Morning Edition"; Kim Masters, host of KCRW's "The Business"; Don Pierre, chief executive of the Cord Foundation; Dan Grunfeld, former top policy adviser to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; and Irell & Manella partners Elliot Brown, John Hueston, Steve Marenberg, Dan Lefler, Laura Seigle and Ian Weiner.