Gay Leaders Brace for New AIDS Initiative

Serious strategy sessions are under way among leaders in the gay community, faced with what one leader said was a “here-we-go-again” AIDS-control initiative sponsored by political extremist Lyndon LaRouche Jr. When faced with a similar state ballot measure last fall, opponents managed to fell it by a margin of 3-to-1. But such efforts, one gay leader said, involved raising more than $2 million--”and now, several of those who were instrumental in that campaign are either sick with or have died with the disease.”

TWO ARTSY AFFAIRS--Both, thank you, at the County Museum of Art, and both set for next week. One, a dinner party for just a few hundred special friends, is being hosted by John and Patricia Kluge. It’s to send off the exhibit “The Lagoon Cycle.”

Clive David, the bicoastal party planner, is putting together the event, set for the night of Nov. 17. He refused to release details, only saying that “the Related photo on Page 4.

party following the premiere will be given in a never-before-used specially constructed clamshell pavilion” designed by Bill Haller and Mike Brown.

Under a grant from Metromedia, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison have followed the life cycle of a Sri Lankan crab for 12 years, and their narrative artwork is made up of “aerial and satellite photographs and maps conveying the importance of ecological findings on the world food supply.”

Just think about that, as we are sure the guests will be doing at this swank event--guests like Betsy Bloomingdale, Anne and Gordon Getty, Gerald and Iris Cantor, Earle and Marion Jorgensen and Morton and Abigail Van Buren Phillips.

Two nights later, the museum along with Columbia Pictures and the Hemdale Film Corp. host the West Coast premiere of “The Last Emperor.” In a terrific tie-in, the show-biz committee is raising money to help finish the renovation of the Leo S. Bing Theater. Guests get to see the museum’s “The Quest for Eternity,” a special exhibit of sculptures from the People’s Republic of China (yes, another tie-in). Among those on the honorary committee are Daisy and Daniel Belin, Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Felisa and Nick Vanoff and Barry Diller.

HOLLYWOODY--Buddy Rich’s daughter Cathy and Jack Haley Jr. are putting on a show Dec. 1 at Universal, with some of the funds going to UCLA’s Buddy Rich Memorial Brain Tumor Research Foundation. Frank Sinatra has signed up to perform and is doing the job of persuading other talents to join in, along with Johnny Carson, Robin Williams, Mel Torme and Sammy Davis Jr. . . .

Arco’s Lod Cook hosts “Legends and Fans,” a glitzy evening that will support Boys Clubs of America’s efforts to set up new Boys and Girls Clubs in Southern California. The event is Tuesday at the Century Plaza--and it honors Dinah Shore and Tommy Lasorda. O. J. Simpson takes the occasion to get inducted into the Boys Clubs of America Alumni “Hall of Fame.”. . .

Thursday, Walter Cronkite gets the spotlight in New York, as People for the American Way presents him its annual Spirit of Liberty Award. It’s at Roseland, and, perfection, Peter Duchin is playing “all evening.” . . .

American Film Institute’s Jean Firstenberg, Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin will chair the Friends of Tel Hashomer Sheba Award Dinner Dec. 8 at the Beverly Hilton. Honored will be Marian Rees, an Emmy winner last year for her “Love Is Never Silent.” . . .

Tyrone Power never looked better, on the slickest save-the-date card in years, as Time Inc., Home Box Office and People magazine say to hold Dec. 3 for the party and preview of the exhibit “Hollywood: Legend and Reality” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.