A starry support system for the Geffen Playhouse

Clint Eastwood stood behind the podium at Monday’s “Backstage at the Geffen,” getting ready to present an award to his longtime attorney Bruce Ramer, the founding chairman of the playhouse’s board.

Host Debbie Allen placed an empty chair beside Eastwood. He turned to it and said “Bruce, what are you doing here? I got in trouble last time I did this,” referring to his appearance at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

The annual fundraiser for the Geffen Playhouse was a sell-out, packed with star power that helped raise $1.2 million for the theater’s artistic, education and outreach programs.

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Josh Gad opened the show with “Man Up” from Broadway’s “Book of Mormon,” in which he starred as Elder Arnold Cunningham. Introducing Gad, Allen said “If you don’t know what the ‘Book of Mormon’ is, you might be at the wrong theater.”

Rita Wilson and Jackson Browne sang a duet; Mona Golabek played piano as she had for the Geffen’s “The Pianist of Willesden Lane.” And there to tell off-the-record backstage tales were Annette Bening, Morgan Freeman, Carol Kane and Topher Grace.

In addition to Ramer, the night honored actor, comedian and nine-time Oscar host Billy Crystal with the “Distinction in Theater Award,” starting with Norm Nixon presenting a tribute from the Los Angeles Clippers.

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Comedy legend Carl Reiner introduced Crystal, and thanked him for making his late wife, Estelle Reiner, immortal by writing her iconic line “I’ll have what she’s having” for the movie, “When Harry Met Sally.” That line, Reiner said, beat out Humphrey Bogart’s “beautiful friendship” quote from “Casablanca” in a book he brought along.

Like Ramer and others during the evening, Crystal reminisced about the late Gil Cates, founder of the Geffen Playhouse and 14-time producer of the Academy Awards.

“We did six Oscars together -- or 300 hours of live television,” Crystal said. He told a story about the year a 7-foot grizzly bear appeared on the show. On hearing there were sharpshooters in case the bear got loose, Crystal said Gates reeled off his responsibilities toward the cast, crew, host and audience, saying, “If that bear gets loose, shoot me.”

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Crystal also told the audience that he loves to make people laugh, cry and make them silent, recognizing the value of taking people away for a couple of hours in their lives. If he can do that, Crystal said, he’s done his job, adding, “If that’s what this [award] is for, then I thank you so much for recognizing that.“

Wendy and Barry Meyer, along with Ann and Jim Gianopulos, were honorary co-chairs of the evening, which began with a dinner at the Backyard restaurant at the W Los Angeles - Westwood Hotel. Barry Meyer is chairman of Warner Bros. Entertainment; Gianopulos is co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment.

Other guests included gala committee chairwoman Pamela Robinson Hollander; Roma Downey, an executive producer of “The Bible” miniseries; Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios; director Robert Zemeckis; former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan; Geffen board chair Frank Mancuso; and Russell Goldsmith, chairman and chief executive of City National Bank, the night’s title sponsor, with his wife, author Karen Mack.

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Find more of Ellen Olivier’s reports at Society News L.A. https://SocietyNewsLA.com

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