Wassermans Make Pledge of $5 Million : Fund-raising: MCA chairman and wife make one of the largest single donations to Motion Picture and Television Fund.

MCA Inc. chairman Lew Wasserman and his wife, Edie, have pledged $5 million to the Motion Picture and Television Fund as part of a campaign to offset rising costs afflicting the organization, which provides a wide array of health-care services for the entertainment industry.

The contribution is one of the largest single gifts ever received by the fund, which was founded in 1921 by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and other celebrities of the day.

“The best thing I’ve ever done is to work for the Motion Picture Country Home,” said Edie Wasserman, whose involvement on the building fund committee dates to 1979. She is currently the co-chairperson of the committee that has raised more than $35 million toward expansion. “It’s a marvelous place and I love the work that is done there,” she said in an interview last week.

Best known for the retirement facility in Woodland Hills, the fund also supports a 256-bed hospital on the site and an outpatient clinic in Hollywood. More than 50,000 film-industry employees are eligible for its services.

In recent years, cost increases have outpaced contributions, and the fund has stepped up its money-raising activities. The Wasserman gift will be used for operating costs as well as for building development.

The Wassermans have for years been among the most prominent and powerful figures in Hollywood circles. Last December, Lew Wasserman, as MCA chairman, negotiated the $6.59-billion sale of MCA Inc., which includes Universal Pictures, to the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan. From the deal, analysts estimate that he will realize about $30 million a year from annual Matsushita dividends, plus his salary as chairman.

A spokesman for MCA said there is no connection between the Wassermans’ gift to the fund and the sale of MCA.

Edie said she and her husband have been contributing to the fund for years. “We’ve always felt this is a way of returning something to the community.”

With the $5-million gift, the Wassermans will have given a total of $11.6 million to the fund over the years.

She said that from the first time she visited the country home at the urging of her late mother, she knew it was something she wanted to assist.