Tough Audience Has a Heart for ‘Heart’ Benefit Bow

Actress Sissy Spacek admitted she felt nervous as she walked past the spotlights and opening-night mob.

“I don’t like seeing my own films with a crowd. I can’t run out,” Spacek said, entering the premiere screening of her latest film, “Crimes of the Heart.” The benefit Wednesday night at Plitt Century City Theatre was hosted by the Women’s Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

But it wasn’t a night for hiding. Not for co-star Jessica Lange, who said it was the first time she’d seen “the whole thing pieced together.” And not for co-star Diane Keaton, who arrived late, peering from behind a black hat, chalk-striped dress and red fingerless gloves.

“This is always a tough audience,” said the film’s producer, Freddie Fields, perusing the show-business crowd of more than 1,200. “These are all the pros and the vets.”

The sold-out, black-tie event attracted guests from several studios and scores of famous faces such as Polly Bergen, Dinah Shore, Ann Miller, Judd Nelson, and Kirk Douglas with his wife, Anne, a longtime guild board member. This 29th annual benefit raised $400,000 for research, education and patient-care programs at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Beth Henley, was directed by Australian Bruce Beresford and shot last spring in Southport, N.C. It will be released Dec. 12 by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.

Actress Polly Bergen hovered near associate producer P. K. Fields--who also is her daughter. “She’s a nervous wreck,” Bergen said before the film.

“I don’t know if I can sit through it,” P.K. Fields said. “They’ve got to laugh at the right times. If they don’t, I’ll cry.”

Actor Judd Nelson, who wore a gangster-size suit and ate “DOTS” during the movie, came out calling it “magnificent. Those actresses are so good, I didn’t know where to look. It was like watching tennis.”

On the other hand, Beverly Hills attorney Allan Browne said he “kept waiting for the plot to begin. But if you told me the movie was going to be a flop, I’d be here anyway, because Cedars is a worthwhile charity.”

As verdicts were tossed about, guests marched through the underground tunnel leading to the Century Plaza Hotel for a Southern-style dinner served in a gazebo-like atmosphere.

Chaired by Joanna Carson, Fran Stark and Harriet Deutsch, the party ran with an air of precision, and--as Deutsch noted--little waste. All but $50 from each $275 ticket goes to charity, she said. “We’re the best beggars in town.”

Of the $400,000 raised, said guild president Marcia Koch, more than half is committed to the Women’s Guild Hospice Program and the eighth-floor Women’s Guild Pavilion at the medical center. The guild will decide how to spend the rest of the money early next year. (Funds from last year’s benefit--the world premiere of “A Chorus Line”--were given, in part, to new pain management and in vitro fertilization programs at the hospital.

The 3,000-member guild, one of 32 support groups of Cedars-Sinai, has raised $7 million over the years with its benefit premieres. This year’s film was chosen late--by guild standards--not until August, said Anne Douglas.

“There were not a lot of terrific pictures this season,” said Wendy Goldberg, dinner co-chairperson, who said the guild learned of “Crimes of the Heart” last May through its executive producer Burt Sugarman and producer Fields.

Goldberg’s husband, Leonard, new president of Fox Film Corporation, noted that “Crimes of the Heart” was the kind of prestigious “adult” movie that plays well to the over-25 guild audience. “An Eddie Murphy kind of film wouldn’t be appropriate,” he said.

By midnight, Spacek, Keaton and Lange--who had been seated in a row at dinner--were gone. Producer Dino De Laurentiis’ table was clear. Co-star Tess Harper also was leaving, mentioning how “difficult” it had been to watch herself on screen.

The guild had attracted name stars--but not without some omissions.

Spotted standing at the theater concession stand during the screening was actor Tom Hanks in crumpled blue shirt and pants. He’d come to see “The Mission” screening at the Plitt’s other theater, and hadn’t expected to find himself among tuxedos.

“I was surprised to see all this going on,” he said, grabbing his package of chocolate Goobers and wandering back to his seat.