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A Record $5 Million for AIDS : Benefit: The First Lady is lauded at the somber and emotional Commitment to Life VII
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If anyone doubts how the AIDS epidemic has decimated the ranks of the arts and entertainment fields, the point was relentlessly made at Thursday's starry and somber Commitment to Life VII at the Universal Amphitheatre, where the entertainment industry raised a record $5 million for the community outreach organization AIDS Project Los Angeles.
Where previous APLA benefits have tended to reach for a mix of entertainment and purpose, this one kept the audience teary-eyed nearly all the way through. A show that begins with Bruce Springsteen singing his ballad "Streets of Philadelphia" from Hollywood's first and only mainstream movie about AIDS"Philadelphia"needs somewhere to go. This one did, emotionally, all the way to Whitney Houston's final song. In between, were no less than Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand and the evening's two honorees, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
In a prayer-like statement, Taylor set the evening's tone: "I never dreamed when I conceived this award, that eight years later we'd still have no cure. But here we are, coming together once again, to honor, to remember, to mourn our losses and to pray that, maybe this year, heaven can wait… ."
Disney Studios Chairman Katzenberg, a longtime APLA supporter, spoke of his friendship with the late lyricist Howard Ashman ("Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin"), whose death he said is a lasting memory.
"Who here doesn't dread opening up the trades and turning to the obituary pages," Katzenberg said. "As an industry we have lost so much. But as an industry we can bring so much more to the fight. The entertainment community is like no other … no other group possesses such creativity and influence. We are dreamers with the power to inspire and educate. And until science finds a cure … we have the ability and the responsibility to shine the spotlight brightly on this plague and on the brave efforts to eradicate it."
Streisand introduced Clinton with remarks pointed at her husband's predecessors: "For more than a decade, the reliance of our Presidents on selfish individualism led us into the wasteland of official indifference to the suffering of many. One stark result of that politics for contempt and neglect, driven by homophobia, is that millions are now afflicted by the AIDS epidemic which might have been contained if only our high officials had cared. Let me now introduce someone who clearly does care."
Mrs. Clinton, who chaired the President's effort for health-care reform, said: "We are aware that people with HIV and AIDS need comprehensive health-care services and that these are too often too difficult to obtain. We have worked very hard this year to develop a national approach to health care that will guarantee health security to every American."
She added, "In order to achieve that, we have to pass legislation that will, once and for all, make it illegal to deny insurance to people who need it most."
In an environment of anger and frustration, in a fight against an unexplainable and ravaging disease, no deeds and no amount of money can ever be enough for some: A few hecklers greeted Clinton, shouting that "you've done nothing," but they failed to interrupt her remarks. And some cynics earlier this week sent out prank faxes on phony APLA stationery. It read that the awards part of Thursday's show had been canceled due to a lack of action on the part of the recipients.
Industry executive Barry Diller, who chaired the event with industry mogul David Geffen, Creative Artists Agency partner Ron Meyer and Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner, credited the industry with its support for AIDS groups. Critics, he said, say the industry "is cowardly, has remained silent and ungiving, that it pays only lip service… . Well, you Hollywood scoundrels, tonight you've given $4,924,009—and it will be over $5 million in a flash."
The amount was a record, topping 1992's $3.9 million.
The program included tributes to many artists who have died of AIDS, from Liberace to Ashman and from Keith Haring to Michael Bennett to some names less known outside the film community.
Among those performing were Angela Lansbury, Jennifer Holliday, Sarah Brightman, Patti LuPone and Melissa Manchester.
Liza Minnelli and a chorus sang what she introduced as an anthem for AIDS: "The Day After That," from the musical "The Kiss of the Spider Woman."
Halfway through the program, Tom Cruise noted the thousands of the names of the dead that had been flashing on overhead screens and, in one of the more remarkably touching moments, asked the audience to stand and shout out the names of the friends, lovers, relatives they have lost.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg were honorees of the seventh annual AIDS Project L.A. fundraiser. Event alternated speeches by honorees and actors with dance and musical performances. But, save for presence of Bruce Springsteen (singing “Streets of Philadelphia”) and New York-based dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones, show might have been billed as “Night of 1,000 Divas.”
Ticket sales announced at top of evening totaled just under $ 5 million; merchandising of such items as $ 500+ AIDS awareness bracelets surely brought total up appreciably.
Speeches were given by Elizabeth Taylor, Tom Cruise and Barbra Streisand (bringing on Clinton: “For the first time in our history, we can imagine a woman president”). Other than introducing Katzenberg and Clinton, speechifying could have been kept down: People spending up to $ 1,000 to attend this benefit hardly need to be told that AIDS is a scourge. Musical perfs, on the other hand, were uniformly terrific, and nicely staged.
The evening was programmed to “celebrate the legacies” of various celebrity AIDS victims. Tributes ranged from Lauren Bacall’s winning tribute to designer Halston and Doris Day’s pretaped audio remembrance of Rock Hudson to fleeting or obscure references to many of the others: Freddie Mercury was represented by film clips of Queen in action, Robert Mapplethorpe by a montage of his photographs as Sarah Brightman sang from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Requiem.”
There were a few moments of camp value. Barry Diller, who opened the show, commented that studio execs were so happy that he wasn’t asking for multimillion-dollar investments in his attempted Paramount takeover when he phoned that they were thrilled to come up with a couple hundred thousand dollars for APLA.
Patti LuPone, of the “Sunset Boulevard” London cast, sang “As If We Never Said Goodbye” in the immediate presence of Streisand, whose recording of the song was released first; Jenifer Lewis opened her tribute to composer Paul Jabara with an offstage sound-alike version of Donna Summer’s “Last Dance,” announcing to an audience clearly expecting Summer that “they couldn’t get the bitch.”
Debbie Reynolds announced, “Here I am again, sharing something else with Elizabeth”– a funny line, but the house would have come down had Taylor come out to acknowledge that she, too, had been married to Eddie Fisher.
Musical accompaniment, by hard-working members of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra under various conductors, was excellent; the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes danced a couple of numbers.
Show came in at a tight, intermissionless 2 3/4 hours.
Complete lineup of performers is not known. If you have any information or further details regarding the musicians onstage for this date please get in touch.
