Guess Who’s Coming to Gay-Rights Dinner : Arts: Fund-raiser for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force draws a Who’s Who list. It follows strife between the industry and activists.

Amid a climate of increasing criticism of how Hollywood depicts gays and lesbians, some top power brokers in the entertainment industry will gather on Saturday to support the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an organization that advocates an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The gesture by leading players such as Creative Artists Agency Chairman Michael Ovitz, Warner Bros.’ Chairman Bob Daly, ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger and others toward the gay community comes at a time when activists are challenging the film and television industry about depictions of gays and lesbians as murderers and victims, but rarely as positive characters.

This year, activists questioned why the serial murderer in “The Silence of the Lambs” had to also be a transvestite, and in April, protesters disrupted the shooting of “Basic Instinct”--a film from Carolco Pictures that stars Michael Douglas--objecting to its story of lesbian murderers.

But about the same time that protesters tackled “Basic Instinct,” hundreds of key executives in Hollywood quietly received a personal letter from leading show business attorney Alan Hergott seeking support for a dinner to benefit the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Washington-based organization working for equal rights for lesbians and gay men.

Response to the letters surprised even Hergott, a partner in the entertainment law firm Bloom, Dekom & Hergott.

“This event is a real breakthrough,” Hergott said. “There have been any number of Hollywood-based AIDS fund-raisers, but the Hollywood power elite has never gotten behind any event of any magnitude to support gay and lesbian civil rights.”

But apparently the cause wasn’t something the participants wanted to sound off very loudly about. Efforts to reach many executives whose names appear on the invitations were unsuccessful.

Whether the silence was out of fear that Hollywood might take heat in some conservative or religious quarters for coming to the aid of an openly gay cause was something Hergott did not care to address. But he did say the organizers sought no advance publicity for “security reasons.” The $250-per-person event for 300 persons at a home on Los Angeles’ Westside is sold out.

The list represents a virtual Who’s Who of Hollywood, from nearly every major motion picture studio, TV network and talent agency. In addition to Ovitz, Daly and Iger, they include:

CAA President Ron Meyer, Orion Pictures President and Chief Executive William Bernstein, producer David Geffen, Triad Agency partner Nicole David and William Morris Agency executive Roger Davis.

Also MCA Inc. President Sid Sheinberg and MCA Motion Picture Group Chairman Tom Pollock, Fox Inc. Chairman Barry Diller and 20th Century Fox Film Corp. Chairman Joe Roth, Paramount Communications Inc. President Stanley Jaffe, Tri-Star Pictures Chairman Mike Medavoy, International Creative Management Chairman Jeff Berg and President Jim Wiatt.

And CBS Senior Vice President Peter Tortorici, Walt Disney Studios Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and Touchstone/Walt Disney Pictures President David Hoberman, MGM/Pathe Chairman Alan Ladd, Columbia Pictures Chairman Frank Price and Perry Simon, NBC Entertainment prime-time program executive vice president.

“I do think it’s significant to the extent that it is a great list of people,” said Diller. “I’m hopeful that this will be a clear signal to anybody who believes that this is a subject that the entertainment community is not interested in.”

“There are a lot of things going on between the gay community and the motion picture and TV industry,” Hergott said. “Everyone has suffered a huge impact from AIDS and any number of groups have been trying to raise the consciousness of Hollywood about the depiction--and lack of depiction--of gays and lesbians in movies and TV. Anyone who goes to the movies and watches TV knows we have a long way to go.”

To many, Saturday’s benefit dinner may seem to come out of the blue after at least a year of contentious relations between the entertainment Establishment and some members of the gay community.

Some gay activists have inflamed relations with a spate of “outings” earlier this year, in which they revealed the homosexuality of actors and others in Hollywood. The industry has also been rocked by a series of articles discussing gays within the show business power structure, including a cover article in the national gay publication the Advocate on “Homophobia in Hollywood,” and another in the L.A. Weekly titled “The Hollywood Closet.”

The most visible conflict between gays and Hollywood came in April during filming of “Basic Instinct” in San Francisco, when protests became so acrimonious that arrests were made.

“Hollywood never seems to come up with a realistic depiction of lesbians and gays,” said Hollie Conley, who participated in the protests, along with members of the Queer Nation and ACT UP organizations.

Carolco Pictures won a court order to keep protesters away and rejected changes proposed by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, who acknowledged his original script contained “certain insensitivities” toward the gay community.

Filming eventually moved to Los Angeles, continued filming uninterrupted and is tentatively scheduled for release by Tri-Star Pictures at Christmas. Representatives of Carolco Pictures are not taking part in Saturday’s benefit, but Tri-Star chairman Medavoy is a member of the host committee. Medavoy did not respond to requests for comment.

Unlike this year’s depictions of gays in mainstream movies as murderers and stereotypes, activists have praised last year’s “Longtime Companion” for its positive portrayal. It earned Bruce Davison an Academy Award nomination in the supporting actor category but was ironically rejected for distribution by major studio executives. The Samuel Goldwyn Co. finally backed the movie.

“I have been keenly aware that many gays and lesbians feel Hollywood is an unsafe place to work,” Hergott said. “My experience has been a positive one, as an openly gay man, so I wanted to make a point of asking the employers to support a gay civil rights organization, hoping to send a message to gays and lesbians in the industry.”

Those on the Host Committee Include . . .

Jeff Berg, Nancy Daly, Bob Daly, Barry Diller, David Geffen, Lawrence Gordon, Robert Iger, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Alan Ladd Jr., Mike Medavoy, Judy Ovitz, Michael Ovitz, Peggy Pollock, Tom Pollock, Katherine Price, Frank Price, Donna Roth, Joe Roth, Lorraine Sheinberg, Sid Sheinberg and Jim Wiatt.