The Politician and the Aspiring Actress: The First Encounter

As rock singer Don Henley remembers it, he didn’t exactly invite Gary Hart to the 1987 New Year’s Day gathering of 50 or 60 close friends at his Aspen, Colo., ranch.

But Henley did invite Orion Pictures executive Michael Medavoy and his wife, Patricia, to the party--a homey, once-a-year affair at which the rock star does all the cooking for intimates like actor Don Johnson and record executive Mo Ostin.

The Medavoys showed up with presidential candidate Gary Hart and his wife, Lee, in tow. And during the party, Hart met Donna Rice, a one-time pharmaceuticals saleswoman and aspiring actress with whom Henley (who is single) said he’d gone out “not more than four times” since meeting her in a Hollywood restaurant more than a year before.

(Hart maintained Tuesday during a question-and-answer session following his speech before the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. that he met Rice on several subsequent occasions to talk about her offers of campaign fund-raising in the entertainment industry. Lee Hart said Wednesday that she recalled meeting Rice.)

Twice a candidate for the U.S. presidency, Hart, like many ambitious politicians, has unabashedly courted Hollywood in his drives for office. In an increasingly heated contest among candidates for show-business funds, Hart has drawn strong support from the Medavoys, Warren Beatty and entertainment mogul Marvin Davis.

Last December, Hart didn’t even need to travel to Hollywood, because Hollywood had come to his home state, to the glitzy, star-packed ski town of Aspen.

“There’s a party every night in Aspen. It’s Beverly Hills at the foot of the mountain between Christmas and New Year’s,” says Irving Azoff, chairman of MCA Inc.’s music group, and a regular member of the annual migration.

By most accounts, Hart, who splits his time between homes in Denver and Washington, D.C., missed the A-ticket party of the Christmas-New Year’s season. It was a celebrity-saturated bash thrown by “Miami Vice” star Don Johnson for the likes of Bruce Willis and Martina Navratilova at a rented house on nearby Red Mountain, just a few nights before Henley’s party.

Hart’s friends recall that the candidate and his wife stayed for two days with the Medavoys, who had rented a house in Aspen for the holidays. Medavoy, an executive vice president of Orion Pictures Corp., was a major force in mobilizing Hollywood’s big political contributors behind Hart in his 1984 presidential bid.

Patricia Medavoy called the visit “innocent” and added that “the high point of Gary’s attendance was probably when he split logs for the children” outside Henley’s home.

In his only interview to date, Henley maintained, “I didn’t introduce (Rice) to Gary Hart. I was in the kitchen 99% of the time.” (The singer-songwriter said his hands were full with the menu: beef brisket, turkey, ham, potato salad and gumbo.)

Henley, former drummer for the Eagles, said Hart “certainly was welcome in my home”--even though Henley, once a vigorous Hart backer, recently switched his allegiance to presidential contender Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), who is also supported by Ted Field, Azoff and others.

Henley and Rice, he said, dined with companions on New Year’s Eve at Gordon’s, a trendy Aspen restaurant. Henley emphasized that the actress wasn’t a guest at his home; and was invited to the party after calling him earlier in the week to say she and a girlfriend had rented a vacation home. Henley also said he wanted to clarify published reports that Rice served as a “hostess” at his party.

“She’s a Southern girl, and she helped serve,” said Henley, adding that Rice was one of several friends who pitched in to help at the party. “If that makes her a hostess, sure she was,” he said.

While in Aspen, the Harts and Medavoys also attended a dinner party on New Year’s Eve held by Jane Fonda and husband Tom Hayden where Rice was not present. “It was a gathering of five couples and a number of kids--one of those quiet, old-fashioned coffee cake and ice cream affairs,” a spokesman for Fonda said. One of the guests said the highlight of that party was “watching Jane and Tom’s toothless dog play fetch.”