Scopus Plays a Trump and Honors a Griffin
Timing is everything, especially on the social circuit.
Just look at mega-millionaire developer Donald Trump. Saturday he announces plans for razing the old Ambassador Hotel and possibly building a 125-story skyscraper, then Sunday he’s presiding chairman at the sold-out Scopus Awards at the Beverly Hilton as his rival-cum-buddy Merv Griffin receives an award.
With Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poitier, Gregory Peck, Dina Merrill Hartley, Aaron Spelling, George Burns and Israel Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin crammed into a room for an informal press conference, it was Trump who commanded the spotlight.
After all, it’s not every day that capitalism’s poster boy shows up west of the Mississippi, along with thin-armed glamour wife Ivana. And wasn’t it a bit unusual to be at a dinner honoring a former business rival?
“When that was on, that was bitter-enemy time,” explained a jovial Griffin, at his own newly refurbished hotel to receive the 1990 Scopus Award from the American Friends of Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He was referring to the fierce battle the two engaged in over the Resorts International hotel in Atlantic City, which Griffin bought from Trump in 1988.
“As Donald explains it,” Griffin continued, “we became friends when we were judges at the Miss America contest. The joke always has been that I voted for him and he voted for me and some girl won.
“Really, we became great friends and have been ever since. All you have to do is get the lawyers out of the way and everything good happens.”
Griffin speculated that Trump’s L.A. wheelings and dealings would “terrify a lot of people, but I think it’s going to be super.”
Don’t look for the Trumps to make a splash on the local social scene. “I’m tired of the social scene,” declared Trump. “I’ve had enough social scene in New York to last me for a lifetime.”
Added Ivana, a fixture on the New York party circuit and permanent resident in the glossy pages of W magazine: “We really don’t care about the social scene. We care about our friends and family, and that’s really what matters.”
Tables that went for $10,000 each were crammed into the Hilton’s ballroom. Proceeds will provide 500 scholarships to students attending Hebrew University.
Behind the dais (which included former President Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Sidney and Joanna Poitier, Clint Eastwood, Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach, Defense Minister Rabin and wife Leah, Barbara and Marvin Davis, Eva Gabor and dinner chairmen Harvey Silbert and Albert Gersten) was “MERV” in huge black letters over silver tinsel, reminiscent of a prom in a high school gym.
Rabin presented the award to Griffin, who will also have a performing arts building named after him on the Hebrew University campus.
