A Night for Seeing and Being Seen : Gala: The National Conference of Christians and Jews honors Rupert Murdoch, and Lew Wasserman comes in for his share of kudos.

At the National Conference of Christians and Jews 29th annual Entertainment Industry Humanitarian Award dinner Wednesday at the Beverly Hilton, the official honoree was Rupert Murdoch. He’s the CEO of the News Corp., which owns, among other valuable objects, 20th Century Fox, HarperCollins publishing and TV Guide.

The unofficial honoree was Lew Wasserman. He chairs the board of MCA and, as chair of this year’s NCCJ dinner committee, Wasserman is the one who did the inviting to the $500-a-plate repast. His involvement made the affair the most financially successful in the history of any of NCCJ’s 63 offices. Close to $1 million was raised.

Wasserman explained the dinner’s success: “One reason is we had a great honoree. . . . “

“And the other is you had Lew Wasserman raising the money,” interjected his wife, Edie, who co-chaired.

There was a third reason for the evening’s success. As it attracted a good portion of Hollywood’s elite, it was a great night for pressing flesh, being seen and whispering congratulations--the mating dance of the entertainment industry.

There were moments in the pre-dinner schmooze-a-thon when the powers-that-be glided to each other’s tables with swarmlike intensity. So much so that Wasserman had a hard time getting the dinner started. Finally, a booming invocation by the Rev. James Lawson quieted the crowd.

A short video on the NCCJ’s work preceded the beef-and-salmon dinner. Then emcee Chevy Chase introduced the Fly Girls of “In Living Color.” Jim Carrey followed with a comedy act. Then came a compilation of video congratulations featuring characters from “The Simpsons.”

Interspersed with praise from Mel Brooks, Shirley MacLaine and Danny DeVito were comments from Bart Simpson, Homer Simpson (“Rupert Murdoch? Isn’t he one of those U.S. presidents that are hard to remember, like Ronald Whatshisname?”) and Montgomery Burns, the show’s malevolent nuclear power plant owner. (“Rupert Murdoch. Kissing up to the do-gooders again. I’m not surprised.”)

NCCJ president Gillian Sorensen made the award presentation to Murdoch, who gave a brief speech. “When people all over the world talk about modernization, what they mean is Americanization,” he said. “It is to America that this emerging world looks.”

He addressed his remarks to an 1,100-strong crowd that included Marvin and Barbara Davis, Margie and Jerry Perenchio, Lorraine and Syd Sheinberg, Terry and Dennis Stanfill, Gray Davis, Joe Roth, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Wendy and Leonard Goldberg, Jennifer and Al Teller, Bob Daly, Robert Iger, Jeff Sagansky, Anne and Frank Johnson, Jane and Michael Eisner and Brandon Tartikoff.

One of the more sterling aspects of the evening was its rapid pacing. Because of it, Murdoch had finished speaking by 9:30. He was last seen walking hand in hand with his wife, Anna, down the Hilton’s brick driveway, unable to locate their car.