Gloria Steinem, Salma Hayek Pinault honored at Equality Now event

The event: Kathy Griffin hosted “Make Equality Reality,” a fundraiser for Equality Now, which advocates for the rights of women and girls around the world. The comedian deemed the subject to be so serious that she asked feminist Gloria Steinem, who along with with actress Salma Hayek Pinault was one of the evening’s honorees, if it was OK to make people laugh.

So during Monday’s ceremonies at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, Steinem spoke onstage about the significance of laughter. “It happens when you learn something. It’s an ‘aha’ — it’s like an orgasm of the brain,” she said, describing laughter as an expression of the freedom that the organization is working toward.

A leader of the women’s rights movement since the 1960s, Steinem is a journalist and political activist. Hayek, an advocate in the campaign to stop violence against women, is married to Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering, the luxury conglomerate that is parent company to Gucci, an event sponsor along with Skype.

The scene: Videos documented the organization’s work, while a trio of young actors chronicled today’s injustices. But Griffin kept her narrative light, bouncing from subjects such as her friendship with the late Joan Rivers, the Kardashian culture and her 50th birthday a few years ago, when she enlisted Jane Fonda to help her meet Steinem, whom she called her “girl crush.”

Griffin offered a few opinions, too. “Let’s talk about feminism,” she said, “I am sick and tired of these young gals not owning this word.”

The crowd: Record producer Quincy Jones, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, actresses Mia Maestro and Daphne Zuniga and the organization’s global executive director, Yasmeen Hassan, addressed an audience of actors, philanthropists and activists, including Dana Delany, Rosanna Arquette, Rafael Amaya, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Hill Harper, Chloe Flower, Nicole Scherzinger, Mae Whitman, Priyanka Chopra, Paul Reiser, Dawn Olivieri, Lynda Resnick, Irena Medavoy, Jim Toth, Barbara Guggenheim and Joss Whedon. Sue Smalley and Paula Ravets co-chaired the dinner; Raining Jane performed.

The numbers: Tickets began at $1,000 with tables at the “Catalyst of Change” level going for $50,000. About 300 people attended the event which raised almost $600,000, organizers said.

Quotes of note: Speaking of her dreams as a youngster of becoming an actress and maybe one day winning an Oscar, Hayek said, “You know what? Life has given me always much better things than anything that I ever asked for, because I would have never, in my wildest dreams, imagined that Equality Now would give me an award for the work that I have done with so much passion on the same night as one of my heroes — Gloria.”

“This is much better than the Oscars,” she added.

Concluded Steinem at evening’s end, “If you think about the human race as a bird with two wings, you understand that if one is damaged or broken, no one can fly. So we are here tonight … to make sure that once again — as in times in the past — once again the human race can fly.”

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