Mazda to Sponsor Charity Golf Tournament
Mazda North American Operations, the Irvine-based importer and distributor of Mazda cars and trucks, has decided to take the movie industry under its wing.
The company will sponsor the Michael Douglas & Friends Celebrity Golf program to benefit the Motion Picture & Television Fund.
The event, which will air April 11 on ABC-TV just before the network’s coverage of the Masters golf tournament, will feature a number of top Hollywood actors competing in threesomes at the Ocean Trails Golf Course in Palos Verdes.
Among those signed on are Douglas, Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, Samuel L. Jackson, Jack Nicholson, Will Smith and Sylvester Stallone.
Richard Beattie, Mazda North America’s president and chief executive, said he committed the company’s support to the event because of a long-standing admiration for the movie industry and those who toil in it.
The Motion Picture & Television Fund, started in 1921, provides financial assistance, child care, health care and elder care for members of the acting profession.
Beattie, who grew up in England, says he was inspired by American films in his youth and believes that the film industry is Southern California’s “window to the world.”
Sponsoring the televised event also will give Mazda a window for showing off its top-of-the line Millenia luxury sedan, which will be the official car of the Douglas & Friends tourney.
