ONE OF SHOW BIZ’S CLASS ACTS : There’s Lots of Heart Under All That Hype

Asked what he thinks about Hollywood, a character in Kaufman and Hart’s 1930 “Once in a Lifetime,” deadpans: “It’s wonderful all right. It kinda reminds me of the first time I went to the circus--only there’s no elephants.”

I’ve sort of had that reaction myself, watching events here. Like politics, the entertainment business is so highly visible, its foibles make it a ripe target.

Take a simple fund-raising event. In Hollywood it can turn into a media extravaganza. Heartfelt intentions may be present, but the hype and frenzy often drown them out. It leads you to wonder which came first--the charity or the deal.

The Times’ Marylouise Oates reported that Democrats last weekend raised $1.5 million at Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home as she gave a private concert for the party’s faithful. That’s terrific for the party, of course. But it doesn’t end there--this is show business, after all. It turns out the private concert will end up as an HBO special that will generate even more funds.

A disaster occurs, and you can bet that it will only be hours before a producer announces plans to make a TV movie or some pop star decides to do a benefit. Only a few weeks ago, writer John M. Wilson reported in Calendar the amazing parade of three-dozen producers who poured into tiny Emporia, Kan., hoping to lock up rights to the story of a minister convicted of murdering his wife and plotting with his mistress to kill her husband. What a business.

And it’s tough not to find humor in the heaping spoonfuls of hype served at the start of each TV season--press releases and commercials boasting about a sitcom or miniseries that will sweep the nation. Cynics see through this annual ritual. But who’ll remember September’s excesses at season’s end in May?

Then there are stories that defy skeptics.

For instance, Elizabeth Taylor. Beautiful, charming, revived Liz. Her good friend (since the days of “Giant”) Rock Hudson died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome a year ago. She decided to chair a fund-raising dinner to generate money for AIDS Project Los Angeles, one of the health agencies that assists people with the insidious disease.

The glittering event at the Bonaventure Hotel just a year ago raised more than $1 million. Taylor and company got the stars and entertainment execs out in force-- Calendar’s Paul Rosenfield characterized the evening as “historic.” Not since the 1971 Motion Picture & TV Relief Fund gala starring Frank Sinatra and Streisand had the generations of Hollywood turned out in such numbers.

Skeptics wondered why former First Lady Betty Ford was chosen to receive the dinner’s first Commitment to Life Award. “What did she have to do with AIDS?” they asked; others responded that it was a smart move. Ford’s lack of involvement notwithstanding, she had had her own encounters with disease, but more: She was just the kind of mainstream personality needed to “legitimize” the cause. Whatever the reason, it worked.

It would have been a triumph for Taylor to leave it at that. Many stars pick out a disease, lend their name and face for a poster and then go home.

But Taylor confounded us again. All during the last year, she made appeals and appearances on behalf of finding a cure to the disease. She testified before a congressional committee to urge more dollars for research and she’s chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

On Saturday, she’ll receive the Commitment to Life Award at an AIDS fund-raising event at the Wiltern Theatre. This time, no one will ask, “What does she have to do with AIDS?”

A year ago I reported on the efforts of producer Barry Krost and Tina Sinatra to form an Entertainment Support Committee for AIDS Project L.A. There was an impressive list of powers--studio executives and agents and stars like Cher, Gregory Peck and Linda Ronstadt.

But the common reaction among the skeptics who have seen this all before, was: “OK. So they’ve lent the use of their names. What are they going to do?”

What they did was “make the difference in being able to provide education to the broader community and providing services to people with AIDS,” according to Paula VanNess, the project’s executive director. In other words, the Hollywood names carried the clout.

It’s the sort of spirit that keeps things human in a business that strikes many of us onlookers as having more than its share of vultures and excessive behavior.

How many times do you hear about star X punching out photographers or how certain of our beloved stars will only allow the cameras to shoot certain sides of their faces. Many members of the press have to deal with photo and quote approvals by stars. Or one hears about how the star donates his or her performance (but not the flight expenses), then walks away with a $5,000 costume provided by the sponsors.

Inconsistencies, hype, sincerity . . . what a circus, indeed.

But there are countless other stories that make skeptics blink. Among them are the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industries, Variety Clubs International and the 21 years of Jerry Lewis telethons. There is a long and noble list of other such charities, including the enormously publicized rock efforts of recent months. With little fanfare (granted, sometimes with a lot of fanfare), organizations like these have raised and distributed millions of dollars to good causes.

Despite it all, by lending its names, time and prestige, show business does manage to come through. Sometimes.