MALIBU, Calif. — In an elegant white tent at her oceanfront Malibu compound, Barbra Streisand sang and former President Clinton spoke to a crowd gathered to raise funds for women’s heart health.
Guests paid as much as $100,000 per couple to support the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the intimate fundraising dinner Thursday at the home Streisand shares with her husband, James Brolin.
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The singer donated $10 million to create the research and treatment facility at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and solicited million-dollar donations from wealthy friends she called personally. Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, NBCUniversal chief Ron Meyer, designer Donna Karan and actors Josh Brolin (Streisand’s stepson) and Diane Lane were among the donors and guests.
Streisand said she was motivated to contribute to women’s heart health because she “can’t stand inequality, whether it’s about civil rights, gay rights or gender discrimination.”
Heart disease kills more women each year than all cancers combined, but most of the research on the disease has been conducted on men.
“Even in scientific research, women are still treated as second-class citizens,” Streisand said, “and to me, that’s just unacceptable.”
So she raised her voice and opened her wallet, and invited her friends to do the same.
“It’s kind of a selfish thing, because it’s actually very fulfilling, to do something like that that’s larger than me or my career,” she said.
“Think about all the good that we’ll do, all the good that will come of it, because of your extraordinary generosity,” she said.
Clinton, who was welcomed with a standing ovation, saluted Streisand for her commitment to women’s health.
“I never thought anybody could care a lot about more things than I care a lot about. She makes me look like a heartless dumb piker,” he said. “Unless your heart has been taken out of your body, you need to care about this.”
Clinton said that the issue of heart health and equitable research goes beyond politics.
“Our country has always believed in being not only a laboratory of democracy but a laboratory of science and advancement, and you can’t do that with a straight face and leave women out,” he said.
‘All is well’ with Lewis after brief hospitalization
NEW YORK — A publicist for Jerry Lewis said the 86-year-old comedian is resting at his hotel after spending two nights in a New York hospital.
Lewis was hospitalized Tuesday due to low blood sugar after forgetting to eat or drink.
Publicist Candi Cazau said Lewis was taken to the hospital as a precaution just before he was scheduled to receive an award from the Friars Club. He also was set to present Tom Cruise with the group’s Entertainment Icon Award.
Cazau said Thursday “all is well” with Lewis and he’s preparing to return to work.
She said Lewis is beginning three weeks of directing rehearsals for a new musical based on his 1963 film “The Nutty Professor.”
Griffin’s place on the market
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — The desert home of the late media mogul Merv Griffin has been put up for sale for $9.5 million.
The Desert Sun reported Friday that the 39-acre property in La Quinta features a 5,000-square-foot home and an equestrian compound with a racetrack and a lagoon.
The Moroccan-style estate was put up for sale last week.
Gerald and Betty Ford’s home in Rancho Mirage sold for nearly $1.7 million in March.
Griffin died of prostate cancer in 2007.
Top troupers plan to price tickets at $16
LONDON — Jude Law, Judi Dench and Daniel Radcliffe are among the A-list actors signed up for a new London theater troupe, which hopes to attract new theatergoers by offering hundreds of $16 tickets for each performance.
Simon Russell Beale, Sheridan Smith, David Walliams and Ben Whishaw are also part of the company formed by director Michael Grandage, who led the award-winning Donmar Warehouse troupe for a decade until early 2012.
On Friday, Grandage announced a five-play, 15-month season beginning in December with a production of the musical “Privates on Parade.”
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