Hollywood Elite Toast MCA Exec at Dinner

CBS Entertainment President Jeff Sagansky delivered the pithiest line Monday evening as Tom Pollock received the Humanitarian Award from the entertainment industry division of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The event raised $340,000--”or 42,167,000 yen. We figured it out,” announced dinner chairman Sagansky.

Pollock is a vice president of MCA and chairman of the company’s Motion Picture Group. As everyone in the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s International Ballroom knew as well as his or her own production schedules, Matsushita Industrial Electric Co. of Japan is discussing the acquisition of the entertainment conglomerate.

Yen talk was otherwise verboten. “People are making the normal kind of conversation,” insisted MCA president Sid Sheinberg, who was deep in discussion with state controller Gray Davis about Mikhail Gorbachev’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Pollock, who was joined by his wife. Peggy, three children and parents, said the honor was “the first--or, the only--award of this kind I’ve accepted. They ask all the time, various groups,” he said, adding that the NCCJ, a nonprofit human relations organization that aims to eliminate racial and religious discrimination, was a “wonderful cause.” Besides, Pollock told the crowd, Sheinberg approached him about accepting this one, and “we all know how persuasive Sid could be.”

The crowd of 800 was surprisingly low on stars but top heavy on independent producers, attorneys, directors (Ivan Reitman presented the award) studio and network heads, including MCA chairman Lew Wasserman, Paramount’s Frank Mancuso, CBS’ Howard Stringer, Warner Bros.’ Bob Daly, and agents, including Jim Wiatt, Peter Benedek, Phil and Bob Gersh, plus a large contingent from Creative Artists Agency led by Michael Ovitz.

Bob Newhart provided the entertainment, eliciting laughs when he remarked that he wasn’t offended when Spike Lee was chosen over him to star in Universal’s “Do the Right Thing.” “I think Spike was the perfect other choice.”