Flying High at East West Fund-Raiser
The Scene: “L. A. Dance,” a benefit dinner-dance at the Airport Hyatt for East West Players, a 25-year-old Asian-American theater. The Hyatt is as close as you can get to LAX without passing through a metal detector.
Who Was There: Four hundred dinner guests, plus a few hundred more for the dance. On hand were event chair Glen Umeda; East West artistic director Nobu McCarthy; actors Robert Ito of “Quincy,” Tamlyn Tomita and Yuji Okumoto of “Karate Kid II”; and playwrights Beth Henley and Philip Gotanda.
The Chow: Getting this close to the airport creates apprehension about dining; just the proximity to airline food can be unsettling. At the cocktail reception, actor Billy Bob Thornton said he expected “polyester Cornish game hen.” Ironically, Cornish game hen was served and it was quite good.
The Buzz: Finding substantial work as an Asian-American actor is next to impossible. Joan Chen’s role in “Twin Peaks” is “to die for” in the words of actress Marilyn Tokuda.
Quoted: Mexican-American artist Gronk on his connection to Asia: “My ancestors came across the Bering Strait a long, long time ago.”
Entertainment: Comedian Charlie Laborte, the Pacific American Ballet Theatre, singer Darrell Yoshihara and the L.A. Dancers.
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
