No Stars, No Pizazz, No Press

It was a Los Angeles party planner’s nightmare: Mickey Rourke, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze and other celebrities were confirmed to attend an exhibition for celebrity portrait photographer Harry Langdon at a tony Beverly Hills restaurant. Although 1,500 people turned out, few celebs showed: former “Gilligan’s Island” castaway Tina Louise, one-time Prince protegee Apollonia and actress Michelle Phillips.

The press wasn’t happy that the expected A-listers didn’t show; the publicists had to soothe the ticked-off press; and the party didn’t generate as much coverage as was hoped.

“You’re just so on edge about people showing up,” says Kathleen Rogers of the Venema Group, a publicist who has worked on other events with better turnouts. She says she was brought in two weeks before this event and had nothing to do with the guest list. “It’s never guaranteed, and you don’t know until the time comes who will show up. Hollywood has always been a town where who’s who always counts. People want to be seen at parties where there are big names.”

It’s an undisputed fact of the crowded, competitive L.A. party scene that celebrities are a necessity for an event to pull in major media coverage and, if it’s a fund-raiser, sell tickets.

“The celebrity factor has always been the case,” says publicist Josh Baran of Josh Baran & Associates, whose firm has worked on projects for groups such as Heal the Bay, the Rainforest Foundation and nonprofit radio station KUSC.

“There’s so much competition for charity dollars, and so many events, that often the edge is the element of fame. Who are they going to see? It pulls whether we like it or not. I wish the issue would pull people. I once had the most ludicrous situation--I was working on a march for the homeless, and the media wanted to know what celebs could I deliver. We got some coverage, but if I had had Martin Sheen or Bette Midler I would have gotten five times the coverage.”

Cathy Fischer, a Josh Baran alum who recently formed her own firm, the Fischer Group, agrees. “There are the benefit wars, and sometimes you’ll have a case where there will be three major events the same evening, and you’ll call ‘Entertainment Tonight’ and they’ll say (whether they cover it) depends on who the celebrities are. Or someone will say, ‘That’s great, I believe in the cause, but I can’t send you anyone because my crew is out covering the Bob Hope Classic. . . .’ It’s shallow, but it’s Hollywood, it’s glitz and glitter.”

The public’s insatiable appetite for new stars keeps the A-list changing fast enough to give diligent celeb-watchers whiplash. Grown-up brat packers Judd Nelson, Robert Downey Jr. and Emilio Estevez were once superhot draws, but now their status has cooled.

Current flavors of the month include Madonna (better if she’s with any current flame, best if she’s with the flame and comedian Sandra Bernhard), Roseanne Barr, Cher and Sting. Elusive celebs like Robert De Niro, Katherine Hepburn, Jack Nicholson, Prince, Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep and Michael Jackson are always in demand, as is perennial favorite Elizabeth Taylor.

And look what a stint in court has done for Zsa Zsa Gabor: The media used to yawn when her name was on a guest list; now they can’t wait to photograph her.

Any combination of those celebrities could pique the interest of “Entertainment Tonight’s” supervising producer Barry Berk, the show’s former field producer and veteran of many Hollywood parties.

“We base covering a party on a couple of factors,” he says. “We look at the guest list, see what kind of star power it has. A lot of times it’s the cause, something we feel we want to cover because of the charity or the uniqueness of the event. . . . Not everybody has to be an A-player for us to show up at a party. Viewers like to see how people are dressed, what they’re eating, what kind of venues they go to.”

The more elusive a star is, the bigger the draw and the harder it is to get him or her to show up. As Fischer puts it, “You want to get ones that don’t go out for the opening of every door.”

Celebrities can become mere commodities when there is something to sell and events become a business proposition: How much exposure will the star get, and what caliber of celebrity can a magazine put in its party pages?

And what if the stars know next to nothing about the group they’re supporting? A few minutes of coaching before the press conference will do the trick. They get the exposure and the group gets coverage.

“There are some celebrities who really care and want to contribute, and there are some who just show up for the photo opportunity,” Fischer says. “I think the press knows who they are.”

Do reporters care if a rock musician out stumping to preserve the ozone layer doesn’t even know what an ozone layer is?

“I don’t think they really care,” says Fischer, “because they’re really looking for the sound bite.”

Want to entice a star to show? Pay them. Some organizations reportedly do; almost none will admit it. Most stars are “comped” tickets to an event (so is the press), some are delivered to the party in limos.

There are truly dedicated celebrities who do more than show up for photo opportunities and hors d’oeuvres. Sting holds concerts and press conferences to save the rain forests. Meryl Streep testifies in Washington against pesticides and Ted Danson campaigns to clean up the ocean. It’s easy for them to pull in other star friends for more support.

“In general, celebrities are very important to us,” says Harlene Marshall, former president and now second vice president of L.A. chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. “On a superficial level it creates an excitement about the event, but more important, celebrities serve as role models. They give credence to things. In our case, very often the celebrities who commit to us are sincerely concerned and committed about drunk driving, and in a lot of cases they’ve either been victims themselves or know people who have been.”

For an organization like the local chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, currently pushing for a higher profile in the community and taking strong stands on animal rights issues, supportive, dedicated celebrities can be an asset.

Still, Renee Sheranian, the group’s vice president for development, stars are “sort of the frosting on the cake. The real leadership comes from the corporate and community leaders and philanthropists. The celebrities draw the crowds, but quite often they lend more their time and talent than money. Still, that’s valuable.”

Actress Betty White has been a longtime supporter of the SPCA; more recent converts include Cassandra Peterson (better known as “Elvira”), actor Robert Wagner and artist David Hockney.

There are times when party planners would gladly settle for five B-list celebrities who do appear rather than a confirmed A-list star who decides to skip the event at the last minute.

It happens all the time, and those who have been on the party circuit even a short time knows that a “confirmed” guest list is meaningless. Unless a star is being honored, there is no guarantee he’ll show up at all.

Even celebrities slated to host an event aren’t required to show. And a star-studded dinner or honorary committee list on an invitation is an indication the stars lent their names to an organization, not that they’re going to appear at the party.

“We do the best we can with that,” says Josh Baran. “We hear from their publicists, and then we put out a list of people expected to attend. Sometimes we have 100% attendance, sometimes 0%. Sometimes people say ‘yes’ because they were asked by the right person, and then they get tired and don’t show up.

“We take it with a grain of salt,” he adds. “I did an event for Meryl Streep when she was (protesting pesticides). It was a small brunch at a private home, and every single celebrity that RSVP’d showed up. Some people came to support Meryl, but it was an issue they deeply cared about.”

Publicists call other publicists or agents to persuade their clients to attend an event, using whatever contacts they have. The larger public relations firms often stock parties with their own clients.

Says Fischer: “From the celebrity’s point of view, (being associated with a charity group) can build an image in the public’s eye.”

Showing up too often, however, can backfire, leaving jaded reporters snickering about the starlet who shows up to the opening of a filing cabinet.

It happened to actress Whoopi Goldberg, who was roundly criticized for stepping out too frequently when she was Hollywood’s Hot New Thing.

Years later she still smarts from the remarks.

“I used to like to go to a lot of stuff, but I got hassled for it. People made nasty comments about me going to everything. You don’t want to read that kind of stuff about yourself.

“These were dreams for me,” she explains, “to be able to go to parties and look at stuff like that. Who knows how long Whoopi is going to last? I wanted to look at it all, and I was honored to be invited. If you can do something for somebody as well as have a good time, I challenge anyone who has an interest in Hollywood not to go.”

She’s since cut down on parties, but still receives some 100 invitations a week from charity groups alone. Unfamiliar organizations are checked out by her staff, and Goldberg says she tries not to be comped when asked to show up.

In recent years she’s aligned herself with organizations like Comic Relief, the Starlight Foundation and the AIDS Project Los Angeles. “I lend my name to a lot or organizations to save the whales, save the world, leave the gorillas alone, let’s make sure the rain forest is OK; these are things I’m concerned with.”

Goldberg sees firsthand what showing up does for an organization. “One of the most clear responses has been to Comic Relief (the yearly comedy concert to raise money for the nation’s homeless). People come up to me and say, ‘Whoopi, you and Robin (Williams) and Billy (Crystal), we send checks in for you guys.’

“Also, I have this thing,” she says, “that I’m going to wake up and people are going to say, ‘Whoopi who?’ This is a very strange business, and I want to make sure that in case someone takes my home away, I have a shelter.”