Simon and Kaye Earn Kudos as Fund-Raisers

Two bright lights of the stage and screen take another bow Wednesday night.

They’re Danny Kaye and playwright Neil Simon--but this time the bravos come for extraordinary effort off the stage and screen.

The evening celebrates Simon and Kaye being named Grand Patrons of the Music Center. Grand Patrons are people who have contributed $1 million to the Music Center’s United Fund.

For Kaye, it’s recognition after more than three decades of fund-raising--since he was a show-stopping performer at the very first benefit organized for the Music Center, and has, over the years, done repeated benefit concerts and appearances.

For Simon, it’s recognition of a playwright making a unique commitment to the house--and to the hometown patrons. The Music Center has received a percentage of the profits of the five plays Simon has premiered at the Ahmanson--hits like “California Suite,” “Chapter Two” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs”--and that includes the money from their Broadway engagements, national tours and motion pictures sales.

The celebratory dinner in The Founders at the Music Center is being hosted by the Officers of the Performing Arts Council, the L.A. Philharmonic Assn. and the Center Theatre Group.

YOU OUGHTA BE IN PICTURES--And, judging from the kick-off tea at fancy Max au Triangle on Wednesday, everybody will want to be Feb. 28, the night of American Cinematheque’s Moving Picture Ball. Lynne Wasserman--she’s president of the board and co-chair of the party--unwrapped the once-in-a-lifetime invites. They’re Moving Picture Ball popcorn boxes, to be mailed minus the popcorn--and she explained that for the bash on the Great Sound Stage at 20th Century Fox, “you can wear white tie, black tie--or no tie.” Co-chair Jackie Applebaum had gotten Polaroid to donate 1,000 cameras and film and said there would be cut-outs of famous screen personalities--like Ronald Reagan--for picture possibilities for the folks back home. There were lots of better-than-matinee goodies to munch by the likes of American Cinematheque’s board co-chair, UA’s Ken Kleinberg with wife Helen, MCA’s Herb Steinberg, A.C. artistic director Gary Essert, Roz and Peter Bonerz (the dentist who had the office down the hall from Bob Newhart). Jamie Lee Curtis joined dozens of patrons to hear details--major ones, like Eddie Murphy being the special guest of honor, and minor ones--like how to buy a table for $2,500. And indeed, Lois Howard, president of the premiere patrons, said almost half the tables were taken before the last chocolate truffle was consumed--and before the invites were even in the mail.

FOLLOW-UP--The case of Bernard Butler Smith, the South African citizen and reserve soldier who got media attention when he asked for political asylum, is still unresolved. But he’s currently volunteering in the Catholic Workers’ Hospitality Kitchen on Skid Row--and is living there, since the amount of money he was permitted to take with him from South Africa has run out.

PARTIES--City Councilman Robert C. Farrell gets the honors Thursday at the Community Counseling Service’s 10th annual Dinner Celebration. It’s at USC’s Town and Gown--and Farrell is being recognized “for his strong commitment to the welfare of the homeless mentally ill and refugee community of Central L.A.,” according to Dr. Cecil Hoffman, the CCS executive director . . . The cast of “Cats” celebrates its first anniversary here Sunday night at 385 North. (And, insiders tell us, tickets are again moving hotly along.) What do you serve felines? Chef Roy Yamaguchi will be doing scads of goodies, including Seafood Gyoza (But don’t look for it in the pet food section.)

STAR MARCHER--When thousands launch the nine-month Great Peace March from L.A. March 1, look for Eric Stoltz, the physically disfigured teen-ager of “Mask,” and Alexandra Paul of “American Flyer.” No, not among the celebrities in the Coliseum stands. Among the marchers. Stoltz’s publicist (he’s in Budapest finishing up “Lionhart”) said indeed, her client and his long-time buddy, Paul, had applied to be part of the cross-country trek. She didn’t sound too enthusiastic, obviously since Stoltz (a Golden Globe nominee) is hot right now. “I believe in it (the march), but it’s nine months of his life. I really wish all the casting directors wouldn’t be reading this.” Sorry.

POLI-SIGH--Local supporters of presidential possibility Mario Cuomo will soon be learning that political operative Fred Martin--the New York guv’s guy in D.C.--is now going into business for himself. As an independent political consultant . . . Geraldine Ferraro’s autobiography, “Ferraro: My Story,” has received, from the conservative American Spectator, the award as the worst book of the year for 1985. New Republic Senior Editor Fred Barnes, writing in the Spectator, called the Ferraro book “a prolonged whine. Jimmy Carter never shifted this much blame . . .”

FOLLOW-UP--The case of Bernard Butler Smith, the South African citizen and reserve soldier who got media attention when he asked for political asylum, is still unresolved. But he’s currently volunteering in the Catholic Workers’ Hospitality Kitchen on Skid Row--and is living there, since the money he was permitted to take with him from South Africa has run out.