Whoopi Is Starlight’s Modest Hero

Give celebrities humanitarian awards and they usually wax profound about the meaning of charitable work and go on and on about how deeply moved they are.

Give that award to actress Whoopi Goldberg and she’ll stand there in her tuxedo and scuffed Reeboks, dreadlocks flying, and say: “(What I’ve done) isn’t any great shakes. It’s just sorta what you’re supposed to do.”

That was Goldberg’s response to receiving the Starlight Foundation’s humanitarian award at its annual gala fund-raiser held Saturday at the Century Plaza.

‘How Rough Has it Been?’

“It’s very strange to hear people talking about the things I’ve done,” she said. “I have a very healthy daughter, and I never had to think about what it would be like to see her through a life-threatening illness. I’ve lived below poverty, but I’ve never lived in a dumpster . . . I mean, how rough has it been?”

Her candid remarks came after a long evening that included a carnival, cocktail reception, auction and entertainment. It was all to benefit Starlight, started six years ago by actress Emma Samms and her cousin, entertainment manager Peter Samuelson.

The organization grants wishes to critically, chronically and terminally ill children and happily boasts it has never turned down a wish.

Co-sponsoring the event was People magazine, which, in honor of its 15th anniversary, made a $100,000 donation to Starlight’s wish-granting program.

Said the magazine’s publisher, Elizabeth Valk, at People’s cocktail reception: “On our anniversary we thought it fitting to share our good fortune. We were very careful and looked around for the right kind of organization. It’s extremely well-run and its principles are in the right place.”

Samms praised Goldberg’s work with AIDS organizations and her participation in Comic Relief, and proudly ticked off the evening’s entertainment: Chaka Khan, Little Richard, Bob Goldthwait, Milli Vinilli. “This year,” she said. “Starlight gets hip.”

The carnival’s midway games kept guests occupied for two hours, winning prize after prize and stuffing them into shopping bags. (If you were uncoordinated, you got a consolation prize just for trying.)

There was also a silent auction for celebrity-decorated chocolate eggs, donated by Fazer Confectionary. As the bids closed, Jaclyn Smith’s egg seemed to win the top bid at $275, while Meryl Streep’s went for $100. Pity poor Mayor Tom Bradley and Sen. Alan Cranston. Their eggs, with a minimum bid of $10, had no takers.

A live auction of six celebrity eggs drew big bucks; former president Ronald Reagan’s sold for $3,000; Bette Midler’s for $2,100 and Goldberg’s for $4,300.

Watching John Moschitta’s rapid-fire auction patter were Arsenio Hall, Frank Stallone, Lisa Hartman, Jackie Jackson, Marlee Matlin, Gordon Thomson, Mary Frann, Joan Van Ark, Steve and Candace Garvey, Goldberg’s “Star Trek” co-stars LeVar Burton and Wil Wheaton, Father Maurice Chase, Howard Davine (president of the board of directors of Starlight’s Southern California chapter) and deposed junk bond king Michael Milken.

Starlight Update

Samuelson, Starlight’s international president, updated the audience on the foundation’s progress and announced a new project: Starlight Express, a program that will provide hospitalized children with state-of-the-art entertainment facilities. Research now is beginning to prove, he added, that positive surroundings can have a positive effect on a child’s mental and physical well being.

Two pilot programs have been chosen, one at County-USC Medical Center. Starlight plans to build more around the country as funds become available. Milken and the Capital Fund Foundation racked up some good-guy points for funding the first two Starlight Express sites.

By the time Goldberg (or “Whoop” as her friends refer to her) received her award from Debbie Allen, some of the audience had already drifted out the door. But the majority stayed to the bitter end, as the honoree thanked everyone who had come to honor her tonight.

“I’d walk on water for this lady,” she said of Samms. “And please remember that I am available. ‘Cause kids are tomorrow.”