A Time for Giving

The Smoking Gun sleuths have been digging into IRS filings, uncovering the most recent tax filings for the Michael Douglas Foundation, and posting them on www.thesmokinggun.com. The tax returns describe monetary wedding gifts that Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones received when they got married last November at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

The Hollywood couple had told their guests that in lieu of presents, guests could donate to a charitable trust set up in the name of their then-newborn son, Dylan.

Quite a few people decided to give a little something. Cash gifts totaled $142,000.

Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith gave $1,000, as did Anthony Hopkins, the David Geffen Foundation, the Perelman Family Foundation, Oscar de la Renta and Jack Valenti. Albert Finney gave $1,500 and the DeVito Family Trust was even more generous, giving $2,000. Oliver Stone decided $500 was appropriate, as did Barbara Walters.

Italian designer Nino Cerrutti gave $5,000, and English singer Mick Hucknall gave $2,700. Some of the bride’s friends and family, many of whom live in Swansea, Wales, gave gifts that were more down to earth, in the $50 to $100 range.

The idea of the foundation was to teach Dylan about charitable giving, said Allen Burry, a spokesman for Michael Douglas. “He’s not allowed to use it for college, or buying CDs,” said Burry. When Dylan comes of age, he will be able to distribute the money among charitable causes. “The idea was they would start him off very young,” he said, “so he could learn about the art of giving.”

Speaking of giving, Smoking Gun also uncovered a little-known charitable foundation set up by Bruce Springsteen to aid low-income New Jersey families. Over the last five years, the foundation has donated almost $120,000 in grants of up to $10,000 in house repairs to needy families. Springsteen hasn’t been “trumpeting his own good deeds,” said the Web site’s editor, William Bastone.

A family that had new floors put in by the foundation was not told the identity of its benefactor until the contractor revealed it, said Bastone.

Perhaps Dylan Douglas will look to the Boss for advice on charitable giving when he grows up.

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Lewinsky Shutters

Bernard Lewinsky, father of Monica, told us his nature photography paid off emotionally during the years his daughter’s name became synonymous with the scandals of President Bill Clinton.

During “the crisis,” Lewinsky said, he was bombarded by news media devouring his daughter’s personal life. “For me, the darkroom was a place I could go and sort of submerge myself in the intricacies of producing a photograph,” he said.

His frustration surfaced in the way he printed his photographs at the time. He used much bolder colors. “That same photograph printed during a more mellow part of my life had a different feel,” he said. As a medical resident in San Francisco in 1970, Lewinksy met Ansel Adams when the famous photographer visited Mt. Zion Medical Center’s nuclear medicine clinic for cancer treatment. “I didn’t have much to say to him at the time,” said Lewinsky, a radiation oncologist. “Many years later I met his wife and saw his darkroom, and the whole mystique about Ansel Adams just blossomed.”

Lewinsky, 58, took up the hobby as a child. For years Lewinsky has taken photography vacations. He displays his dramatic landscapes in his three San Fernando Valley clinics to help distract cancer patients from their pain.

In January, Lewinsky’s work will be part of an exhibition, “The Healing Arts,” at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Santa Monica.

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A Military Premiere

Owen Wilson told us his comedic roles didn’t make him first choice to play the daring naval pilot shot down in Bosnia in “Behind Enemy Lines.” An actor best known for his work in “Shanghai Noon,” “Zoolander” and “Meet the Parents,” Wilson said, “I don’t know if they were thinking of me.” In fact, some reports say, “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek was in the running for the role.

To prepare for the role, Wilson lived with pilots and trained at Lemoore Naval Air Station in the San Joaquin Valley.

During Saturday’s premiere in San Diego, Wilson zoomed in from Point Mugu in an F/A -18F Super Hornet jet--the same plane used in the film. While guests enjoyed a reception aboard the Nimitz aircraft carrier, which had just returned from active duty, Wilson’s plane, flown by a real Navy pilot, performed a few stunts in the air above them. The premiere was held for about 1,500 navy brass at a theater at the Naval Air Station North Island.