A ‘Small Evening’ Nets $75,000 for Scott Newman Foundation

“I’m very pleased. We didn’t do a whole lot of arm-twisting and the evening is really a success,” summed up Kathleen Unger, chair of the premiere of “The Glass Menagerie” at the Cineplex Odeon, benefiting the Scott Newman Foundation.

It was a “small evening,” and planned that way, Unger said, insisting that what they wanted was a solid, but not all-stops-out benefit for the 8-year-old anti-drug foundation. But the Thursday night screening and party afterward at the Four Seasons Hotel netted some $75,000--and how “small” can an evening be when the lobby crowd gets to see director Paul Newman chatting it up while chowing down on beer and some borrowed popcorn.

Newman, who got the foundation started after the drug-related death of his son, Scott, in 1978, told the audience that the foundation’s acclaimed book, “Drug-Free Kids,” would soon be coming out in Spanish and that a film version has been completed. Newman then talked about “The Glass Menagerie,” starring his wife, Joanne Woodward, and kidded that revenues “from the salad dressing are now outgrossing my film.”

In the audience were Mike and Judy Ovitz; Sydney Pollock; Jacques Camus and Doris Field; Newman’s attorney, Irving Axelrod with his wife, Ethel (she confided that after years of searching for a good barber, her husband now just let her cut his hair); James Belushi; Cineplex-Odeon’s Garth Drabinsky;, and Ginny and Henry Mancini--he did the haunting original music for the film and was introduced by Drabinsky as “the Academy Award winner, often, Mr. Mancini.” The Four Seasons served up Cajun-style food, which really only makes sense if one remembers that the film is set in St. Louis. Amanda does come from the South and so did Tennessee Williams, and so that’s how it all ties together, kinda.

And wasn’t it all worth it, just to see the still beautiful Mr. Newman strolling past the buffet tables drinking Michelob out of the bottle?

HOT CHAT--People in Malibu are convinced that Jim and Tammy Bakker have leased a house there for the upcoming month. It’s the off-season, and they probably got a wonderful deal with winter rates. . . .

And this is certainly the time to get into the Golden Door if you’ve got the $3,000-plus for a week at the world-renowned spa, but just never managed to get a reservation. This advice from one Beverly Hills matron who got called this week by the spa, and indeed, even though they told her a month ago they were booked solid, suddenly space had opened up for next week. And the week after. And the week after that, she was told. People not worried about the body beautiful? No way. It’s just the stock market, sweetie.

PEOPLE AND PARTIES WE LOVE--Everyone loved the late William Morris exec Stan Kamen. He gets remembered Tuesday night when Carl Reiner emcees the Stan Kamen Big Brothers Show Biz bash at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Two more loved types (if we call Walter lovable he’ll bean us) get spotlighted when Walter Matthau presents Jack Lemmon an award for his many years of commitment to helping fatherless children. (Can’t wait to see which one of her 14,000 dresses Carol Matthau will wear!). . . .

The honorary committee has dozens of brand names, and no wonder since the honoree is the honorable Leonore Annenberg, the former U.S. chief of protocol and wife of former Ambassador to England, Walter Annenberg. She gets honored by American Women for International Understanding at a dinner Nov. 20 at the Beverly Hills Hotel--and we can certainly expect the Kitchen Cabinet out in full force. . . .