SAG Appeal

CONCEPT: Garden party at the home of Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna to benefit the Screen Actors Guild strike.

*

KVETCH, KVETCH, KVETCH: “Don’t squeeze the Charmin and don’t squeeze the actor,” someone yells during the backyard ceremony, summing up the picketing union’s demand to reinstate residual payments for actors in commercials (plus participation in cable, Internet, etc.). While the strike probably affects the waiters here more than the guests, the benefit brings many stars out (some from residual-subsidized retirement) in a show of Norma Rae solidarity. “I owe a lot to this business and I’ll do everything that’s necessary to keep it going,” says James Coburn. Valerie Harper calls the conflict “an assault on middle-income people. What we have is NAFTA and WTO. We have companies building factories in countries like Mexico and Thailand. They have child labor in some of those places.” Huh? Shoebox-sized Altoids containers on every table at least keep the harangues halitosis-free. “If my presence can help, I’m happy to lend my name and my heart,” says relative youngster Lou Diamond Phillips, who, like many actors here, subsisted on commercials early in his career. “I used to march with Cesar Chavez. This ain’t tough rabble-rousing. It ain’t like sweating in the grape fields.”

*

HEY, YOU’RE THAT GUY FROM . . . “I’ve seen dozens of people I thought were dead,” says Robert Blake, a SAG member since his “Our Gang” days. Surely he’s not talking about Warren Beatty, Kevin Spacey, Richard Dreyfuss and David Hyde Pierce, who mix it up with Tom Selleck, Tom Bosley, some “Barney Miller” cops and that lady from the Psychic Friends Network commercial. Connie Stevens donates not only her time, but also her line of beauty products for the goody bags. Gary Busey shows up with wife Tiani a mere two days after the couple filed for divorce. And what could the presence of Gloria Allred mean for the intransigent corporate honchos? “I’m here in my union capacity,” says the beradvocate. “I was required to join SAG because I appeared on the ‘Leeza’ show a number of times.” For many, it’s also a chance to catch up with old friends and, perhaps, even make new contacts. “I haven’t been affected by this [strike] because nobody wants me to do a commercial,” admits veteran actor Charles Durning. “But I’m available. Anybody listening? When this is over, I mean.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

What’s The Score?

CELEB QUOTIENT: American Movie Classics meets Nick at Nite. If the Walk of Fame were a picket line, it would look something like this.

WOW FACTOR: Other than the venerable guests, there’s a band, a garden and, oh, yeah, Renee Taylor’s hat.

CHOW LINE: Trays of smoked salmon pizza, Italian sandwiches and Tommy Tang’s spicy chicken peanut salads leave a generous residual . . . appetite.