Elizabeth Banks among March of Dimes honorees
The event: Stars, studio executives, entertainment insiders and others turned out in force for Friday’s March of Dimes “Celebration of Babies: A Hollywood Luncheon” at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, raising $1.1 million for the organization, which is dedicated to insuring stronger, healthier babies.
The program: Jason Bateman of “Horrible Bosses” played host, but not until after Jimmy Horowitz and Wyck Godfrey - event chairs with their wives Joi Horowitz and Mary Kerr - announced that the annual fundraiser has brought in more than $4 million over the last four years. Horowitz is president of Universal Pictures; Godfrey produced “Twilight,” “I, Robot” and “The Fault in Our Stars.”
The awards: Honors went to “Hunger Games” actress Elizabeth Banks, FOX 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler and physicians James Byrne and Herman L. Hedriana. Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna presented Gabler’s award and Steve Carell of “Foxcatcher” introduced Banks, calling her “fearless, unfiltered and joyful,” and stepping down from the stage to document their friendship with a selfie, explaining that his 13-year-old daughter believed Banks to be “too cool” to be his friend.
The crowd: A-listers packing the ballroom included actors Selena Gomez of “Spring Breakers,” Eddie Redmayne of “The Theory of Everything,” Emily Blunt of “Into the Woods,” John Krasinski of “The Hollars,” Molly Sims of “Las Vegas,” Alyssa Milano of “Mistresses,” Shanola Hampton of “Shameless,” Phoebe Tonkin of “H2O: Just Add Water” and Aaron Taylor Johnson of “Godzilla”; Universal chair Donna Langley, Fox chair Jim Gianopulos, TriStar Pictures chair Tom Rothman, “Fifty Shades of Grey” director Sam Taylor Johnson, “A Beautiful Mind” director Ron Howard, “Jurassic World” producer Frank Marshall, comic book giant Stan Lee and Stanford’s Dr. Deirdre Lyell.
Quote of note: “I’ve done all kinds of cool stuff as an actor. I got to jump out of helicopters, do daring stunts, and play baseball in a professional stadium, but none of it means anything compared to being somebody’s dad,” said Chris Pratt of “Guardians of the Galaxy” in remarks from onstage. Pratt’s son, Jack, now a healthy toddler, was born 9 weeks early, weighing 3 pounds 12 ounces.
“That’s a decent size bass,” he said. “That’s very small for a human,” later adding, “None of what we went through would be as easy even 10 years ago - and much of that is the direct result of funding from the March of Dimes.“
The numbers: Tickets for the luncheon, attracting 520 guests, sold for $1,000 each and tables ranged up to $100,000.
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