Partying With Oscar : EL RESCATE : Annual Benefit Remembers a Good Friend

Long before the first mention of “Schindler’s List” at the awards ceremony, throngs were coursing through the amply laden food tables on the patio at the Mondrian Hotel for El Rescate’s seventh annual Academy Awards benefit.

This year, the Central American immigrant advocacy organization held its fete in conjunction with Rock the Vote to honor the late activist Patrick Lippert.

An El Rescate supporter and founder of Rock the Vote, Lippert died of AIDS-related complications in 1993.

His parents came to the party to accept a posthumous award from California Secretary of State March Fong Eu in honor of Lippert’s humanitarian work.

The evening raised $20,000.

“Patrick was a very good friend and activist around the AIDS and the Central American issue,” said Oscar Andrade, El Rescate executive director.

Acting as emcee for the evening’s musical lineup, which swung to a decidedly Latin beat, was comedian/actor Cheech Marin.

He introduced entertainers Sangre Machehual, Culture Clash, members of Soul Vibrations and Darryl Pupose.

“It’s the oldest Oscar party now in existence,” Marin pointed out. “It has that cachet and it also draws the politically aware and it draws the future of the country and the future of the entertainment community. And the fact that it’s spearheaded by a Latino organization is momentous.”

Mixed in with the hundreds of Hollywood’s politically aware and generally youthful party-goers was a smattering of familiar faces from movies, TV and pop music, most notably actors Michael Madsen and Ian Ziering from “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

The much-whispered-about arrival of an Oscar-toting Bruce Springsteen never, sadly, materialized.