CENTURY CITY, Calif., Oct. 2, 2001– Hollywood may be setting aside politics and lining up behind President George W. Bush in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks, but the entertainment industry elite showed they hadn’t forgotten their old friend Bill Clinton when they turned out to honor the former president for his work for environmental causes at the eighth annual American Oceans Campaign.
“He’s the most amazing man,” said AOC Founding President Ted Danson (Becker) about the former chief executive, who received the group’s prestigious Partners Award designed by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. Danson confessed that three days after the Sept. 11 attacks he had been tempted to cancel the gala awards ceremony, fearing it may have been inappropriate, but Clinton’s willingness to go on with the event convinced the actor that going on with business as usual was the right thing to do.
“Obviously he was asked six months ago to do this,” Danson told me. “Coincidentally, I can’t think of another human being I want to be in a room with tonight who has the ability to embrace and to commiserate and to empathize as much as he does. I’m honored and tickled that he’s here.”
“People wanted to see an old friend in Bill Clinton,” agreed Danson’s wife, actress Mary Steenburgen, who said the tickets to the event, underwritten by the upscale and environmentally conscious Italian men’s clothier Ermengildo Zegna, were a near-instant sell-out.
The Dansons were planning on skipping another high-profile event, the Emmys–but only because the day was also their sixth wedding anniversary.
The now-silver-haired Danson (who also revealed that a young fan recently said to him, “You must be Ted Danson’s father”) praised Clinton for his many efforts to protect the oceans and coastlines during his two terms in office, including extending the moratorium on offshore
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oil drilling, signing the BEACH Act and ordering the creation of a network of marine protected areas.
“He also signed the Oceans Act, which will create a commission to look at the ocean as an ecosystem,” said Danson. “You have to look at it as a whole before you can attack the problem.”
In light of national security concerns, the former president bypassed the red carpet arrivals line outside the Los Angeles Room of the Century Plaza Hotel (perhaps also to avoid questions about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to bar him from practicing law before it), as did outspoken emcee Bill Maher, who nearly got himself fired after his recent comments regarding American military policies on his TV show Politically Incorrect rankled audiences and caused several sponsors and stations to pull their support.
But there was plenty of star power to spare, with appearances by a wide array of celebrities including Danny DeVito (whose wife Rhea Perlman, who just appeared with her old Cheers co-star on the season premiere of Danson’s Becker), Sex In the City sweetheart Kristin Davis, West Wing stars Janel Maloney and Dule Hill, JAG leading man David James Elliott, Jeff Goldblum (who invited everyone to catch him playing the piano at the Lounge in West Hollywood next Tuesday), Lea Thompson, Victoria Tennant, political pundit Ariana Huffington, Malcolm McDowell (whose 18-year-old son Charlie introduced the prez), Maria Conchita Alonso, Gary Busey, Sports Illustrated and Cosmopolitan model Josie Moran, actor Brad Rowe (Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss) and still-fine 1980s TV blonde bombshell Heather Thomas.
Also joining Danson were his Becker co-stars, including Hattie Winston, Alex Desert, Saverio Guerra and the leggy and charmingly loquacious Terry Farrell, who REALLY knows her Ralph Lauren.
Even more stars and Hollywood power brokers were inside the exclusive pre-event cocktail party, including Sylvester Stallone and his expectant wife Jennifer Flavin, Dennis Quaid, All In the Family creator Norman Lear, Variety senior columnist Army Archerd, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and CBS head honcho Leslie Moonves, who co-chaired the event with his wife Nancy and media mogul
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Ted Turner. Many stars–including longtime Clinton booster Barbra Streisand and her hubby James Brolin, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire–hung out in a private V.I.P. lounge where the former president regaled them with his saxophone stylings.
Later that night, inside the tightly guarded ceremony, Clinton knocked everyone out with a sobering and inspiring speech about the current state of affairs in America, solemnly predicting the while the United States should indeed expect another serious terrorist attack, the nation’s unity will be its ultimate key to victory. “This country is going to be fine,” he told the crowd in his note-less 45-minute address. “Terror has not and will not persevere. They cannot win unless we give them permission.” Clinton was also saluted by singer Ray Charles, who provided the evening’s musical entertainment. The event raised more than $600,000 for the American Oceans Campaign.
Earlier that same day, Clinton made a stop at the Ermengildo Zegna men’s boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, waving to tourists as he got in and out of his car (shoppers said the sight of the ex-chief exec boosted their spirits tremendously). The previous day, Clinton received the Lew Wasserman Spirit of Democracy Award from John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, and the ex-prez was the keynote speaker at the Online Learning 2001 Conference and Exposition at the L.A. Convention Center.
