HOLLYWOOD POWERS HELP AIDS VICTIMS

In a major effort put together in recent days, about 100 of the entertainment industry’s most powerful names are pledging ongoing support to help victims of AIDS.

The individuals aboard so far come from Hollywood’s biggest studios, commercial TV networks, several recording companies, entertainment law firms and talent agencies.

Backers told Calendar that this is a first-of-its-kind project that dramatically expands the resources currently available to the AIDS Project Los Angeles, the organization at the forefront of assisting Los Angeles-area people who have contracted the killer disease, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

In the last two weeks, film-TV producer Barry Krost and producer Tina Sinatra organized the Entertainment Industry Support Committee for AIDS Project L.A. They see it as a continuing program, the first such response by the show-business community since the AIDS crisis emerged four years ago.

“It’s always show business which comes to the fore--we can make a difference,” Sinatra said in an interview last week.

“The awareness brought to world hunger by musicians with ‘We Are the World’ is, I’m sure, more than the politicians could have made,” Krost added. “This effort for AIDS is for this city, this town. This is where we live. We’re starting here.”

The way the committee will work, Krost said, is that when a specific need for a client or clients is established, AIDS Project will contact Krost or Sinatra and they will call on the committee for favors. It may be for an outright donation of money in order to buy a plane ticket for a patient who needs to return home, for food or local transportation (loaning the use of a car and driver). “It may be for psycho-social supports, for videocassettes from the studios or albums from the record companies . . . for tickets to the theater or ballet, film screenings . . . things to make life more bearable,” Krost said.

“It’s easy for these people to write checks,” he added. What’s hard is to harness their energies in specific ways. Krost said that efforts in that regard are underway.

In the haze of a summer’s morning, Krost, sitting on the deck of his Hollywood Hills home, took several calls. “Did you get his name? Will he join the list?” asked Krost, the producer of “American Dreamer” and “When a Stranger Calls.”

Between calls, he and Sinatra ran through a hastily typed sheet of names. “By the time this is published, there will be many more names added. This is major help,” Krost said with obvious pleasure. Krost noted that actress Carol Kane was instrumental in generating many of the names on the committee, and that only a lack of time so far has prevented them from reaching more people.

“Only one person--who shall go nameless--turned us down. In the other cases, all we had to do was call. Herb Ross (the film director) wouldn’t even let me finish my sentence before he said he’d help.”

“It was as if they were just waiting to be called upon,” Sinatra said. “Here you have a group of some of the most accepted people in the world reaching out to some of the most unaccepted people in the world.

“Rock Hudson’s revelation that he had AIDS revealed the personal threat to everyone. But many of these people have been concerned for a long time,” Sinatra said.

One of the biggest horrors of AIDS is the stigma attached to having the disease. Said AIDS Project L.A. board chairman Peter Scott: “You find people refusing to house them, transport them. We’ve had people left on sidewalks because ambulance drivers would not touch them.”

Scott sees the involvement of some of Hollywood’s blue-chip names as one of the most significant developments in creating the public awareness necessary to successfully battle the disease. Until recently, it was easier to ignore AIDS because it was considered a disease that only struck male homosexuals, hemophiliacs and drug abusers.

Even in the entertainment industry, where an image of varied life styles has prevailed, tolerance hasn’t always been high. Most in the industry would agree that the subject of AIDS, therefore, was something to be treated delicately, even though anyone in the business would acknowledge that gays populate show business in large numbers. Not only in large numbers, but at all levels--from studio gate guards and sound technicians to major stars and board chairmen.

So, for four years as AIDS spread, many in the entertainment industry were able to dismiss the disease. “People with AIDS were treated like lepers,” Krost said. A distraught Joan Rivers has told the story of how she gave a benefit at West Hollywood’s Studio One disco a couple of years ago, only to have her pleas for help from other entertainers turned down.

But Hollywood always has been known to rally to causes, and Hudson’s condition galvanized support this time.

For the AIDS Project, the kind of public awareness that comes with the attachment of big names is critical. “These people with their visibility and recognition are wonderful educators.”

Scott said that making the public aware of the truths involved, reducing the hysteria and promoting safer sex is “the most important function AIDS support groups can now provide to the general public. It’s really the only thing we can do,” he said, until medical science is able to make inroads. Most medical authorities say that the only way to contract the virus is through intimate sexual contact or from contaminated blood.

Beyond educational purposes, Scott, Krost and Sinatra agree that the show business committee can provide specific help for persons with AIDS.

“We have every type of need imaginable,” Scott said. “Unless a person is very wealthy, people with AIDS find their personal resources are dried up rapidly . . . they are reduced to poverty level.”

(Currently, the number of AIDS Project clients is about 400, Scott said. “More are added monthly. Many die.” Project headquarters are in Hollywood and its $2-million funding is roughly 60% from city, county and state sources and 40% from private contributions. Most people involved are volunteers, and AIDS Project L.A. works with two other support groups--Aid for AIDS and the Shanti Foundation.)

Many of the names involved with the Entertainment Support Committee for AIDS Project L.A. are participating in the celebrity-studded “Celebration for Life,” a benefit dinner for the AIDS Project to be held Sept. 19 at the Century Plaza Hotel.

Last Sunday the “Celebration for Life” dinner effort was launched by Elizabeth Taylor at a brunch at Trumps restaurant. Pledges for $5,000 tables were taken by organizers.

Taylor will co-host the dinner with Burt Reynolds, Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley MacLaine and Burt Lancaster. Beyond show business, philanthropist Wallis Annenberg signed on early as the dinner’s first co-chair, enlisting support from Mayor Tom Bradley. ABC Entertainment Vice President Gary Pudney is putting the dinner together.

Recently, Paramount Pictures provided the AIDS Project with use of its studios as the starting and ending point for a walk-a-thon that raised more than $600,000.

Last May 19, entertainers in New York City provided “Comic Relief” at the Shubert Theatre. The benefit raised more than $500,000 for the N.Y. AIDS Medical Foundation. Among the performers: a rare reunion of Mike Nichols and Elaine May; Joan Rivers; Gregory Hines; Randy Newman; Steve Martin, and Penny Marshall.

“What we’re seeing is the beginning of a mobilization of show business,” Krost said.

SUPPORT COMMITTEE FOR AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES

As of Calendar’s press time, the Entertainment Support Committee for AIDS Project Los Angeles included the following:

Marvin Antonowsky, Universal Pictures marketing president Bess Armstrong, actress Peter Asher, record producer Mikhail Baryshnikov, American Ballet Theatre artistic director Craig Baumgarten, Lorimar Pictures production president Warren Beatty, actor/director Ed Begley Jr., actor Jeff Berg, International Creative Management chairman Tony Bill, film producer Michael Black, ICM agent Eileen Brennan, actress James Bridges, director Bernie Brillstein, personal manager Mark Canton, Warner Bros. v.p. production Doug Chapin, producer Cher, actress Douglas Cramer, executive, Aaron Spelling Prods. Jamie Lee Curtis, actress Tony Danza, actor Nicole David, agent Suzanne DePasse, Motown Pictures president Danny DeVito, actor Barry Diller, chairman, 20th Century Fox John Fiedler, Columbia Pictures worldwide production exec. v.p. Freddie Fields, independent producer Richard Fischoff, Carson Films president Robert Foxworth, actor Gil Friesen, A&M; Records president John Gaines, agent Sandy Gallin, personal manager Teri Garr, actress David Geffen, president, Geffen Co. Larry Gordon, 20th Century Fox production president B. Donald (Bud) Grant, CBS Entertainment president Peter Guber, co-owner of Guber-Peters Prods. Christopher Guest, actor Bill Haber, Creative Artists Agency Jack Haley Jr., producer Gary Hendler, attorney/producer Colin Higgins, director/writer Anjelica Huston, actress Stan Kamen, William Morris Agency executive v.p. Carol Kane, actress Jeff Katzenberg, Disney production president Diane Keaton, actress Frank Konigsberg, producer Barry Krost, TV producer Alan Ladd Jr., MGM/UA president Nancy Sinatra Lambert, singer Sherry Lansing, producer Jack Lemmon, actor Christopher Lloyd, actor Martha Luttrell, ICM agent Albert Magnoli, director Marianne Maloney, producer Larry Mark, production v.p., 20th Century Fox Penny Marshall, actress John Mason, attorney Walter Matthau, actor Malcolm McDowell, actor Guy McElwaine, Columbia Pictures chairman Pat McQueeney, personal manager Mike Medavoy, Orion Pictures executive vice president Dan Melnick, producer Sue Mengers, ICM agent Elizabeth Montgomery, actress Leslie Morgan, 20th Century Fox v.p. of production. Marsha Nasatir, producer Michael Ovitz, Creative Artists Agency president Jack Nicholson, actor Rick Nicita, Creative Artists Agency agent Gregory Peck, actor Rhea Perlman, actress Jon Peters, co-owner, Guber-Peters Prods. Sidney Poitier, director/actor Frank Price, chairman MCA/Universal Motion Picture Group Bruce M. Ramer, attorney Lee Rich, Lorimar president Linda Ronstadt, singer Mark Rosenberg, Warner Bros. worldwide production president Howard Rosenman, producer Herbert Ross, director Gena Rowlands, actress George Schlatter, TV producer Joel Schumacher, director Alan Shayne, Warner Bros. TV production president Frank Sinatra, singer Tina Sinatra, producer Abe Somner, attorney Dawn Steele, Paramount production president Mary Steenburgen, actress Anthea Sylbert, producer Brandon Tartikoff, NBC Entertainment president Anthony Thomopolous, ABC Broadcast Group president Steve Tisch, producer Robert Wagner, actor Paula Weinstein, producer JoBeth Williams, actress Henry Winkler, actor/producer Frank Yablans, producer Ken Ziffren, attorney