HOLLYTICS : Music and Star, Courtesy Athens

R.E.M., the rock band from Athens, Ga., may not be touring to promote its latest album, but it is heading for Los Angeles next month anyway--to push a politician. Lead singer Michael Stipe and the rest of the environmentally inclined band is sponsoring a reception and dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel on Sept. 3 for liberal Georgia Democratic Sen. Wyche Fowler, who faces a potentially tough reelection fight next year. Among the co-sponsors is another Athens native--actress Kim Basinger, the Georgia landowner who’s rarely found at political gatherings. Basinger will be the event’s hostess. “She likes the band, and she likes Wyche, and she wanted to be involved,” said one of the event’s organizers. Bad news for music fans: R.E.M. will mingle, but not perform.