Ted Turner Hooked by American Oceans

Recalling his days as an avid sailor, Ted Turner admitted that he used to sing “The Oceans Belong to Me” in the shower.

“No one can own them,” the broadcasting entrepreneur said as he accepted the American Oceans Campaign Partners Award on Monday night at the Beverly Hilton. “My wife, Jane, and I work very, very hard to try to make the world a better place,” he said.

AOC President Ted Danson acknowledged the presence of his children, Kate and Alexis, with his ex-wife, their mother, Casey Coates Danson, in the audience of supporters of restoration and preservation of America’s oceans. Casey Danson is a co-founder and vice president of AOC.

“Next year, I think there should be children at all these tables, because that’s why we are doing this,” he said.

“Now that I’m not doing ‘Cheers’ and I can’t just write a big check, I find it easier to ask people to help,” said Danson, who describes himself as “the emotional voice” of the advocacy organization.

Also present for the dinner of salad, salmon and strawberries were Danson’s onetime “Cheers” cohort Kelsey Grammer; Gregory and Veronique Peck; Sam Elliott and Katherine Ross; Mariel Hemingway; Rob Reiner; AOC board members Joanna Kerns, Robert Sulnick and Mark Ryavec; former astronaut Buzz Aldrin; Jane Fonda, and her stepmother, Shirlee Fonda.

“Try not to be eating and keep smiling,” the sleekly groomed Jane Fonda said as she instructed Larry King’s wife, Sharon, on the art of looking good for the mass of photographers milling around.

King, the evening’s emcee, trotted out the same collection of Yogi Berra jokes he used when he was honored by the American Friends of the Hebrew University in the same ballroom in February, but, luckily, they seemed foolproof.