Focus on a wheel survivor
At a benefit at the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, guests’ wineglasses were half full in more than one respect. While much of the talk was about cancer, the focus was squarely on living, with black-tie guests sporting yellow rubber bracelets inscribed with “live strong” in honor of industrial-strength cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.
The occasion was Saks Fifth Avenue’s Unforgettable Evening, which raised $1.8 million for the Women’s Cancer Research Fund administered by the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The dinner brought together some otherwise unlikely bedfellows -- four Nobel laureates and such Hollywood power couples as honorary chairs Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks as well as Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg, although the director was away working on his next film, “War of the Worlds.”
Wilson and Hanks appeared excited, emerging from a cocktail reception with the scientists. “These guys just told us something that blew our minds away,” said Hanks, who has turned out for the event with Wilson since it was founded nine years ago. “It’s top secret. If we tell you, we have to kill you.”
Some bloodless minutes later, the secret was out. The coalition between science and Hollywood is working to develop noninvasive blood tests designed to screen for breast cancer at an earlier stage, when long-term survival rates are above 90%.
The EIF launched the Women’s Cancer Research Project last year to bankroll the search by 16 scientists at seven institutions. Dr. Richard Klausner, chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation oversight committee, told the crowd of 700 that the progress of the Human Genome Project could be tapped to “make sure that the diseases that kill us can no longer hide.”
Hanks auctioned off an autographed racing bike and a ride with six-time Tour de France champion Armstrong as well as with three Nobel laureates and comedian Robin Williams, who performed.
Two bidders won at $70,000 a pop. Later, Jay Leno auctioned off the “actual” pen Armstrong used to sign the bikes for $5,000 more, even though he insisted on being a stickler for truth in advertising. “This pen retails for $1.29, so there’s a little bit of a markup,” he said.
The star of the evening was Armstrong. Wilson praised him as an inspiring friend and, with Capshaw, presented him with the 2005 Courage Award for his advocacy of cancer research after his bout with testicular cancer. Later, Armstrong’s partner, singer Sheryl Crow, performed.
As he looked around the room, Armstrong summed it up. “I was blessed with an illness that was ... easy to monitor in terms of tumor markers. Even eight years later, I still have fear that I’m getting sick again. But it’s simple for me. I go to a doctor and say, ‘I don’t feel great, take my blood.’ And they know immediately whether I’m relapsing. That’s the key to success here.”