HOLLYWOOD GORGING ON THE HUNGER ISSUE : Any Doubts That Feeding Bag Ladies Has Become Chic Dissolved This Week When Stars Began Popping Up to Tout Anti-Poverty Organizations
Last year, Ethiopia.
This year, the Union Rescue Mission.
Saving America’s derelicts has superseded saving African famine victims as the pop charity issue of 1986.
Before the year is out, a deteriorating federal “safety net,” matched by a rising number of bona-fide street people, could wind up putting a Nick Nolte in every swimming pool, if not a chicken in every pot. Helping the down and out in Beverly Hills has become more than the theme of a hit comedy.
Any doubts that feeding bag ladies has become Hollywood chic dissolved this week when celebrities began popping up at press conferences and receptions from Century City to central Los Angeles touting the private anti-poverty organizations that aid 20 million downtrodden Americans.
About 500 Coca-Cola bottling executives met Thursday at the Century Plaza Hotel with Jayne Kennedy, Pat Boone, Barbi Benton, Vanessa Williams and dozens of other celebrities at a reception designed to introduce the bottlers to Hands Across America. Organizers of this latest USA for Africa event, scheduled May 25, hope to raise $100 million to feed America’s homeless and hungry.
As the first and major underwriter of the charity scheme, Coca-Cola used the exclusive “meet a star” reception to bolster morale among its distributors who will act as soldiers in the field in encouraging 6 million to 10 million Americans to pay $10 apiece to hold hands in the Hands Across America human chain, stretching from New York to Los Angeles.
Coca-Cola also used the reception to unveil its Hands Across America Radio Network: a set of 55 60-second radio spots, read by a different celebrity each day, that will update the human chain’s progress. The spot announcements, which begin April 1, will culminate 55 days later May 25 with an international three-hour broadcast about the Hands Across America line over Dick Clark’s United Stations radio affiliates.
“This’ll make my wife real happy!” hollered Northern Arizona Coca-Cola distributor Marion Milburn, clutching actresses Audrey and Judy Landers under each arm as he grinned for one of the dozen Coke hostesses snapping Polaroid pictures of bottlers posing with celebrities.
Milburn was pleased enough with his photograph to offer assurance to USA for Africa executive director Marty Rogol that he would personally see to it that the Hands Across America line would be complete on May 25, even in the desolate desert between Flagstaff and the New Mexico border.
“We’ll bus ‘em in from Provo if we have to,” Milburn enthused between admiring glances at his photo of the Landers sisters.
So far, the only celebrity who has publicly proclaimed that he’s willing to stand in the middle of the great Southwestern desert May 25 is Kenny Rogers.
Meanwhile, a second celebrity effort to aid the homeless and hungry--Comic Relief--went right to the heart of the homeless this week. Trailed by camera crews from local TV stations and “Entertainment Tonight,” comedian Robin Williams joined Mayor Tom Bradley at the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles to announce the growing lineup of volunteers for Comic Relief.
Security guards kept most of the crowd of about 500 street people--who’d come to the Mission for their regular lunch--away from Williams and Bradley.
One did get past reporters and TV crews long enough to toss a wadded paper at Williams before guards dragged him away. The paper turned out to be an accident report and damage claim against the City of Los Angeles, demanding $1 million for alleged injuries that occurred Monday morning. Williams passed the claim on to Bradley’s aides.
Comic Relief, to be co-hosted by Williams, plans to air its first production--a three-hour Home Box Office comedy special--March 29. A total of 29 name comedians have volunteered to perform, ranging from John Candy and Michael Keaton to Williams’ co-hosts Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg.
Because USA for Africa already has Coca-Cola underwriting a large portion of the $30 million it will cost to put on Hands Across America, Comic Relief producer/president Bob Zmuda is looking to the other big soft-drink company to underwrite his plans, he told The Times. Besides Pepsi, he also hopes to get support from Anheuser Busch.
Thus far, HBO has been Comic Relief’s chief support. By using the same kind of toll-free pledge number approach that was so successful in the Live Aid and Farm Aid projects, Zmuda said he projects that Comic Relief will raise funds to supply medical aid for the homeless in 18 cities.
Jazz musicians also joined Hollywood’s anti-poverty movement this week with a pair of rival “jazz aid” projects (see accompanying article) surfacing in Los Angeles.
Several dozen jazz vocalists, ranging from Della Reese and Kenny Rankin to Billy Eckstine and Carmen Macrae, gathered in a West Hollywood recording studio Wednesday to sing a jazz equivalent of last year’s anti-famine anthem, “We Are the World.”
The song, “Keep the Dream Alive,” will be released as both a single and the lead track on an LP album, according to producer Michael McIntosh. His “Jazz to End Hunger Foundation” will contribute proceeds from the record sales to the USA for Africa Foundation, with the condition that all funds are used to aid the U.S. hungry, not Africa.
