Yet Again, Green Acres Is the Place to Be
INVITED TO: Chrysalis Foundation’s First Annual Butterfly Ball at the Green Acres Estate in Beverly Hills.
WHERE THE BUTTERFLIES ROAM: “I’m really excited. All of this is my idea,” says actress Rebecca Gayheart, acting hostess at this Venetian-style summer ball. The lush setting is merely the backyard of supermarket magnate Ron Burkle’s palatial Mediterranean spread. As Gayheart tells it, “I basically stalked him until he agreed to provide his house for free.” Burkle’s abode remains off-limits for the duration, but the exterior is impressive enough. “It’s like another league--a beautiful home,” comments actor Owen Wilson. “I think I could put my house in the Jacuzzi,” adds Russell Simmons, Def Jam co-founder and a co-honoree tonight along with Universal Pictures production presidents Scott Stuber and Mary Parent. Simmons’ brother, Run-D.M.C.’s Rev. Run, also represents. “I was out here promoting our new sneakers,” he says. “Russell’s being honored and we’re touring together, selling these sneakers.” You can cut the synergy with a knife, but the real purpose of this $500-a-head affair is to raise money so that Chrysalis can continue to help the homeless find meaningful work. “We got to get real and grab each other’s hands and hold each other,” says Uberproducer Quincy Jones, his eye firmly on the prize. “It means something when people outside the zone reach out. That’s what my whole life has been about.”
MONEY TALKS: “You ever see that movie ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ with Nicolas Cage?” asks the evening’s testimonial speaker, a Skid-Row-addict-to-office-tower-paralegal Chrysalis success story. “That was me.” (Actually, sitting a few feet away, there is Nicolas Cage.) His remarks, which follow a fashion show by Jack Nicholson’s designer daughter, Jennifer, keep things real before the usual round of charity speechifying. Simmons sprinkles his plea for the less fortunate with NC-17-quality locutions. “Thanks, Russell, for opening up the house, I didn’t know we could curse,” announces emcee Cedric the Entertainer before unleashing the mother of all expletives. The crowd thusly amped, director Brett Ratner cajolingly homes in on the four-and five-figure pledges, and the room turns giddy with philanthropy. Sir Anthony Hopkins, who takes his third turn as Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter in Ratner’s upcoming “Red Dragon,” offers a gallant $25,000. Cage gives up $20,000. Even unexpected arrival Macy Gray pledges $5,000, helping cap the evening’s total at $350,000. “I came because my boyfriend is the deejay,” says the helium-voiced R&B; siren. “I gave because I used to live in my car.”
*
Celeb Quotient: **
More suits than stars, but at least the wattage is high.
Wow Factor: *
Great grounds alone do not a rager make.
Grazing Level: **
A three-course breast of chicken deal courtesy of Wolfgang Puck. Could be jazzier, but who could complain when people in the world are starving?
Rating Scale:
1=ho-hum 4-yowza