Newman Center Salutes Publicist

Most celebrity clients expect their publicist to stay in the shadows while keeping them in the limelight. But Friday night at the Beverly Hilton, Paul Newman and wife Joanne Woodward nudged Warren Cowan, chairman of Rogers & Cowan public relations firm, into the spotlight as honoree at the Scott Newman Center’s 10th anniversary black-tie gala.

Cowan, who is their publicist and one of the founders of the center, was selected because “he was one of the few people who never vacillated,” said Newman. “He stuck with us through adversity and frustration and all those other good things.”

Cowan was tapped for the role in a project that’s very close to his clients’ hearts. Named after Newman’s son who died of an accidental alcohol and Valium overdose in 1978, the center works at persuading Hollywood not to glamorize drug use, sponsors community out-reach programs and produces drug-abuse prevention films. The gala provides about half the center’s annual budget.

This year’s affair, underwritten by Burger King, brought in more than $400,000. In addition to ticket sales, another source of revenue was a silent auction with a half-dozen high-ticket items. Chevy Chase purchased three of them, including a trip to the Bahamas and a race car ride with Newman. Actor Martin Short will be pleased to know that Chase, always looking after an absent friend’s social life, put Short’s name down for his winning $1,500 bid on a dinner with Vanna White.

The heart of the evening was the show produced by Jack Haley Jr. and George Schlatter. Both are Hollywood veterans who have a strong feel for what this kind of gala requires.

“The goal of evenings like this is to raise as much money as possible,” said Schlatter. “And get people home before the 11 o’clock news.”

That was a formidable task considering the depth of the talent. The show, emceed by Chase and Sidney Poitier, began with the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, followed by the H.B. Barnum Gospel Choir and a stand-up routine from comic Michael Colyar. Woodward introduced one of the center’s films, followed by two songs from Richard Marx. The show was almost stolen by Four Boys and a Babe, a group of rap dancers aged 6 to 9. It was like seeing what M. C. Hammer would have been like in grammar school.

Paul Newman got a big laugh when he introduced himself as “Salad King of New England as well as poet laureate for Route One in Port Chester.” He then read a poem he’d composed for Cowan that went in part:

Unlike most other movie czars,

he had no gift for selling cars

or carving people’s jugulars.

The show continued with a piano duet by Jack Lemmon and son Chris, Rosemary Clooney’s rendition of “Our Love Is Here to Stay” and roast-like tributes from John Forsythe, Cornelia Guest, Cowan’s ex-wife Barbara Rush and Dick Van Patten.

Among the 750 guests were Merv Griffin, Barbara and Marvin Davis, Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker, Alan Ladd Jr., Judy Ovitz, Altovise Davis, Wendy and Leonard Goldberg, former Kentucky Gov. John Y. Brown and wife Phyllis George, Joanna Kerns, Lois January (star of the 1937 anti-drug film “The Cocaine Fiends”), Jenny Craig, Monty Hall and Carl Weathers.

Despite the celebrity-filled crowd, what caused a near riot among paparazzi was Imelda Marcos strolling through the hotel lobby as guests were leaving. The Philippines’ former first lady signed dozens of autographs and posed for pictures with tourists and souvenir-seeking publicists.