A Warm Turnout for Fire and Ice Ball

Lilly Tartikoff called it her “coming out party,” and the second Fire and Ice Ball to benefit the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program was nothing short of a Lillyfest.

The program’s head cheerleader, Tartikoff, was on the receiving end of myriad kudos throughout the $500-per-person black-tie, celebrity-crammed dinner at the Beverly Hilton Wednesday night. She was even the surprise honoree, though one of her mandates was never to have honorees at this event.

But her work in getting the initial funding for the UCLA program early last year, plus spearheading other related projects didn’t go unnoticed.

“She’s a very smart girl,” said Ronald O. Perelman, president of Revlon, the program’s corporate backer. “All the projects she’s suggested to us make a lot of sense, and they fill a vacuum that has to be filled.”

Tartikoff’s “coming out” for about 950 of her close, personal friends was the first time in a year she has made an appearance at a public event. Her priority has been her 9-year-old daughter Calla, who, with her father, was seriously injured in a car accident last January. Brandon Tartikoff, the new chairman of Paramount Pictures, has recovered. Calla is still undergoing physical therapy, but Lilly assured the crowd, “one year from now, Calla will be Calla, as she was before.

“Tonight there is cause to celebrate,” she added. “We are celebrating life and great science. Brandon and I are celebrating Calla’s life, her determination and her courage.”

She called the evening a “milestone” for the UCLA program, which is engaged in clinical trials of treatments for breast and ovarian cancer.

The ball netted about $300,000 for the program, and Revlon made an additional gift of $800,000.

Besides the fund-raiser, Tartikoff has added other projects to her agenda. “Once a Year . . . For a Lifetime” was an educational film about breast cancer that was televised across the country. A Spanish-language version is being filmed.

Another spinoff was Project Awareness, a pilot program done in conjunction with the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program, the YWCA and the Cancer Research Foundation of America. Conducted in four U.S. cities, it targets low-income women and takes them through seminars, mammograms and follow-up care.

Explained Tartikoff in an interview before the ball, “I flew to New York and met with Ronald (Perelman) and said, ‘We’ve done the ball, let’s do the next thing. Let’s educate the women.’ Women are dying unnecessarily of breast cancer, across the board--low-income, high-income women. There’s just an awareness problem.”

Tartikoff said Revlon is sponsoring the Project Awareness pilot program. It’s hoped that other cities will find their own funding and carry out more programs.

The egalitarian, no-VIP room event drew Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, Iman, Priscilla Presley, Leslie Nielsen, Theresa Russell, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Dana Delany, Raquel Welch with Bob Evans, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Robert Stack, “Cheers” stars Ted Danson (sans hairpiece), Kirstie Alley, George Wendt, Rhea Perlman and Kelsey Grammer; Fred Dryer, Charles Bronson, Eva Marie Saint; “L.A. Law” cast members Susan Ruttan, Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, Larry Drake and Susan Dey; plus TV and movie studio bigwigs, including Barry Diller, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jeff Sagansky, Warren Littlefield and CAA’s Michael Ovitz, plus Dr. Dennis Slamon, chief of hematology/oncology at the UCLA School of Medicine and director for clinical research of UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“I keep thinking,” Tartikoff said, “This is it. OK? This is the last thing I’m going to do. I’ll call up Ronald and say, ‘This is it, this is the last project.’ And he just laughs.”