Starlight, Starlight

Jay Leno, minus his “Mr. Brain” routine and the amplified guffaws of “Tonight Show” bandleader Kevin Eubanks, did his darndest to joke it up with the best of them at the Starbright Foundation’s celebration of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a just-published reinterpretation of the always-prescient fairy tale. However, with John Lithgow’s funny hat-balance routine, Nathan Lane’s theatrical bellows and Robin Williams’ manic effluvia, Leno had his work cut out for him. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jeff Goldblum and Dr. Ruth Westheimer joined Leno and crew onstage at Storyopolis, the Beverly Hills children’s bookstore; the stars read the respective chapters they’d rewritten of “Emperor” for Starbright, the Steven Spielberg-chaired foundation that’s committed to improving, in creative ways, the lives of seriously ill children. And if laughter is a medicine, chuckle on.