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A powerhouse lineup of
personalities from the worlds of Broadway,
Hollywood, politics, sports, media and
music will descend Monday, May 3
on Broadway's Kit Kat Club, 124 West 43rd
Street, for an American Red
Cross benefit to aid the victims of the
Kosovo war.
Kirk Douglas, Keith Richards, Art's
George Segal, New York Daily News
owner Mort Zuckerman, Ingrid Rockefeller,
Art Buchwald, Polly Bergen,
Dr. Ruth Westheimer and David Hasselhoff
are expected to participate in
the Red Cross benefit which will run 7 PM
to 1 AM.
The event was conceived and organized by The Lion
King's Simba, Jason
Raize, who is co-producing the event with
public relations maven Bobby
Zarem. Admission will be first-come, first
served (except for VIP
passes), but everyone must make some kind
of donation.
"I came up with the idea because we needed
to do something to alleviate
the pressure of the situation in the
Yugoslav region," Raize told
BroadwayNow. "As I watched the news every
morning, it slowly became
clear to me that we really needed to
respond to the event that are
happening out of there. When you see the
horrors people face, how their
lives are being torn apart, there's no way
you can continue to your
breakfast every morning without wondering
what we can do as a
community."
Raize said the Red Cross benefit is
intended to spur people to call the
Red Cross' 1-800-HELP-NOW line with a
donation.
The benefit, he said, will be "a big
social evening with people coming
and and going participating."
Ambassadors from Albania and Princess
Elizabeth of Yugoslavia are
expected to speak, along with New York
congressmen, senators and
political figures from the United Nations.
As the evening's program slowly shapes up,
Raize revealed that Art
Buchwald will wash dishes, Deborah Gibson
will perform, Gloria Gaynor
will sing "I Will Survive," Metropolitan
Opera star Aprile Millo will
perform an aria, Byron Janis will perform
on the piano, and American
Ballet Theatre stars Ethan Stiefel, Keith
Roberts and Angel Corrella
will dance several numbers.
"There will be a number of great events to
spice up the evening," Raize
said. "A deejay will be there to play club
music. It's a chance to get
together, see a show and come out support
1-800-HELP NOW."
Any form of donation, Raize said, will be
"greatly appreciated at the
event. There will be certain admission
passes available for a lot of
people to come in the club, but I think a
lot more money will be raised
through the Red Cross line than we would
ask from the public at the
door."
Other society figures expected to show up
in the event are HBO Original
Pictures president Colin Callendar, film
producer Stan Dragoti, record
publisher Denise Rich, film producer Keith
Barish, Mary and Mike
Wallace, Wendy and Leonard Goldberg,
Marquee Group president Bob
Gutowski, Ann and Mick Jones, Zoe Caldwell
and husband Robert
Whitehead, Fran and Barry Weissler, Pia
Lindstrom, singer Tom Postilio,
Minnestota Twin's Marty Cordova and Ragtime star
Dara Paige Bloomfield.
Even though this benefit is Raize's first
producing experience, he said
that he "definitely has strong interests
in causes. The entertainment
community is a very tight community," said
Raize. "It would be the
greatest gift that people in our industry
can give is that of
visibility. If we can take action, we can
motive people in the world to
do so also."
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