Fit to Be Tied--for Charity

In Hollywood, Imagine Films Entertainment founders Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are known as much for their casual style as for their hit movies. That the director-producer team made a suit-and-tie appearance as honorees at Friday’s March of Dimes fund-raiser at the Century Plaza was something of an event in itself.

“I didn’t know they even owned ties,” said CAA’s Michael Ovitz. “I think they stopped and bought clip-ons on the way in.”

Disney’s Jeffrey Katzenberg motioned toward Grazer, who was wearing an amorphous black suit, and said “it looks like he’s going to a funeral. Except his shirt is hanging out.”

The pair picked a good evening to dress up since the dinner that raised $450,000 for the charity’s Birth Defects Foundation had a major Hollywood guest list of 700 including Patrick Swayze, Lili and Richard Zanuck, Ivan Reitman, Marvin Davis, Jerry Perenchio, Jeff Sagansky and Jack Rapke.

There was an especially large turnout of execs from MCA/Universal (where Imagine is based), including Sid and Lorraine Sheinberg, Hal Lieberman, Perry Katz, Bruce Feldman and Tom Pollock, who raced over from the Hilton where Prince Edward was presenting Martin Scorsese with a British film award.

The Universal chairman mentioned that the prince now has an interest in producing films. “I thought he was going to pull out a script,” said Pollock.

The script for Friday’s fund-raiser had it begin as a March of Dimes style event then evolve into an entertainment industry party.

Ed Begley Jr. emceed the raffle drawing, March of Dimes board of trustees chair (and legendary soprano) Beverly Sills gave the keynote address on birth defects and Dr. Jonas Salk spoke via video on the charity’s work, before a highly energized performance by the two dozen acrobatic teen-age singers and dancers in Kid Power.

Then Hollywood took over. Screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel did a comic turn as they pitched (and sang from) the mythical “Babaloo and Lowell’s Christmas CD.” The comic peak came when the screenwriters introduced a video congratulations from the “president of the United States” (aka Phil Hartman). “Not only did I inhale at Oxford,” revealed the faux president. “I had a bong the size of a grain silo.”

After taped tributes from Keifer Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton, and live appearances by Randy Quaid, Jon Lovitz, William Baldwin and Chevy Chase, the performing ended with strong performances by Randy Newman, and the vocal group Take Six.

The evening ended when Howard and Grazer accepted the award and they revealed that “we’ve got 60,000 bucks-- cash! --and we’re buying Paramount.”

The studio could be in worse hands.