That rationale, however, doesn't sit well with some.
"To find out people were being paid for their services, and paid exorbitantly, is disillusioning," said Marsue MacNicol, who helped arrange for her husband, actor Peter MacNicol, to appear at a Family Celebration without any remuneration.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday December 23, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 39 words Type of Material: Correction
Charity events -- Not all of the charities and institutions mentioned in an article on the front page of Section A on Dec. 8 about event promoter Aaron Tonken had knowledge of his plans or his dealings with celebrities.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday December 26, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 93 words Type of Material: Correction
Aaron Tonken -- A Dec. 8 article about event promoter Aaron Tonken on the front page of Section A said Bill Cosby had been sent a contract by the William Morris Agency stating that he was to receive a luxury sedan for a charity event. A Steve Lopez column in the California section Dec. 10 made a similar reference to the car. The article and the column should have made it clear that the sedan would have been for Cosby's use only as transportation to and from the event, which never was held.
As for the payment to the Fords, MacNicol said: "I think it's outrageous."
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Honoring a Star
The making of charity galas is among Hollywood's least visible cottage industries.
For those in the entertainment business, such gatherings often are an extension of business conducted over lunch at the Grill or the Ivy.
Being honored helps define positions in the Hollywood hierarchy, and attendance at certain soirees honoring the powerful is a given. When agent Michael Ovitz was at the zenith of his power in the early 1990s, his Aesculapians Ball benefiting the UCLA Medical School was mandatory for agents, producers, executives, directors and stars.
To be sure, some Hollywood fundraising efforts are perk-free zones.
Gary Gitnick, whose youth-mentoring Fulfillment Fund has honored such moguls as Sumner Redstone and featured such acts as the rock band the Who, said the 27-year-old charity didn't compensate celebrities to appear or perform. But agents still ask occasionally.
"I tell them we just don't pay and won't use charity dollars for those purposes," Gitnick said. "We've survived."
Reeling in a major celebrity is a must for most fundraisers because it triggers a chain reaction of donations.
Honoring a star means every studio that wants him or her in a movie will be purchasing a table as well as an ad in the program booklet lauding the star. Honoring a studio chief brings in money from those who do business with the company and fills chairs with stars who appear in its movies and TV shows.
But some doubt that the stars are worth what they often cost. As volunteer administrator with the Corie Williams Scholarship Fund, which provides college tuition money for inner-city youth, Marsue MacNicol said her program had been short-changed by celebrity payments.
"We could have tripled the number of kids we support each year," she said, if the famous hadn't bitten into her group's share of the $1.5 million collected at a Family Celebration.
For his part, Aaron Tonken gained a footing in Hollywood by approaching aging entertainers and second-tier stars who were flattered by his attention -- and eager to profit from his venture into organizing charitable events.
