A Hunger for Stardom

The latest fund-raising trend among the rich and famous is to mimic the poor and obscure.

A sound stage at Sony Pictures Studios will be the site Thursday of the second Hollywood Hunger Banquet, a benefit for Oxfam America.

Before dinner, lots will be drawn. Some of the guests will get a three-course meal at banquet tables; others will eat tortillas, rice and beans at wooden tables, and the majority will sit on the floor and eat rice with their hands and drink water.

(Unlike many genuine poor people, the stars and studio execs on hand will not have to contend with spoiled food or typhus-infected water.)

The event is designed to demonstrate the inequity of food distribution around the world.

Expected to participate are Mel Gibson, Dustin Hoffman, Cybill Shepherd, David Byrne and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The Hunger Banquet is being emulated by others who also have eaten few meals of rice and water, including students at La Jolla Country Day School and the Claremont Colleges.

Raving Maniacs

Raves are the rage these days on L. A.’s nightclub circuit.

All it takes to attend a rave is a flyer from your local hip record store (or coffee shop) and a wild hat.

The flyer will give you an address or a number to call to get the location ( a la underground clubs) of a dance-till-dawn costume festival complete with hyped-up “rave” music. That’s a mix of technopop and house.

Originating in Europe, raves have hit L. A. especially hard. At Vertigo recently, top rave artist Moby performed his MARS-FM hit--”Go!” with punk-like energy.

A packed-in crowd gyrated robotically. The hats were tall and the fashion, well, anti-mall.

Huge, crazy velvet hats were vogue, while striped stockings and shirts also alluded to that Cat-in-the-Hat look.

Sterling Acquisitions

A new book titled “London on 1,000 a Day (Before Tea)” does sound excessive, especially during these dismal economic times.

But co-author Ferne Kadish insists the title is tongue-in-cheek, even though she does highlight how to acquire some of the finer things in London life, including a script typist (well, one never knows) and a company that rents evening gowns (starting at 60), just in case an invitation to a formal do arrives unexpectedly under your door.

If you feel like pampering yourself further, you can be coiffed by Paul and Linda McCartney’s stylist, John Freida.

And Kadish lets readers in on how to obtain a two-week visitor’s membership to the pre-Hollywood Morton’s restaurant, now a private dining club (to avoid the written application, pay 35 and show your passport).

And that cup of tea? It’ll set you back 2 (about $3.60) at a top-notch London hotel.