Peg Yorkin

The hand-lettered sign over Peg Yorkin's office in West Los Angeles warns: "Absolutely No Soliciting." It's not to be taken too literally. On Wednesday, Yorkin told a Washington news conference that she was making a $10-million endowment and gift to the Feminist Majority Foundation and the Fund for the Feminist Majority, a sister organization that she co-founded in 1987.

Everybody knows about Jay Leno's taste for topical humor. Far fewer are aware that his wife, Mavis, has long been one of Hollywood's most influential behind-the-scenes activists on behalf of women. For more than a decade Mavis Leno has made the plight of Afghan women her particular case and this month she and the organization in which she plays a pivotal role -- the Feminist Majority Foundation -- will hold what amounts to a coming out party for the next round in this cause.

Artist Ed Massey and feminist activist Peg Yorkin have joined forces to provoke a coast-to-coast discussion of rape. In a five-city, monthlong exhibition of "Morality/Mortality"--an installation of life-size painted-polyurethane foam figures that graphically depicts the grisly aftermath of a sexual assault--the Los Angeles-based team hopes to shock their audience into confronting societal attitudes toward a brutal crime.

The long and tangled journey of the abortion pill to the United States--expected to culminate with its introduction here later this month--began with the zeal of two women, who marshaled a force of moneyed activists to do for themselves what the major pharmaceutical companies would not.

Imagine how angry Peg Yorkin would be if she'd had to go to work for a living. HOLLY WHITE Los Angeles

Producer Gale Anne Hurd ("The Terminator" and "Aliens,") has made a $50,000 challenge grant to the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women. It is Hurd's second consecutive grant to the workshop, which develops women directors. Workshop alumnae include Lee Grant, Karen Arthur, Dyan Cannon, Nancy Malone, Marsha Mason and Randa Haines. The seventh workshop cycle, beginning in the fall for 12 women, also is being sponsored by a $140,000 donation from the Arts & Entertainment Network.

Peg Yorkin's $10-million endowment will fund the Feminist Empowerment Center, a think tank that is designed to build strategies to get women to the decision-making tables, such as corporate and foundation boards, and legislatures. The largest single expenditure, however, will support the foundation's campaign to bring the controversial French abortion pill, RU-486, to the United States or to develop a similar pill here.

Everybody knows about Jay Leno's taste for topical humor. Far fewer are aware that his wife, Mavis, has long been one of Hollywood's most influential behind-the-scenes activists on behalf of women. For more than a decade Mavis Leno has made the plight of Afghan women her particular case and this month she and the organization in which she plays a pivotal role -- the Feminist Majority Foundation -- will hold what amounts to a coming out party for the next round in this cause.

The long and tangled journey of the abortion pill to the United States--expected to culminate with its introduction here later this month--began with the zeal of two women, who marshaled a force of moneyed activists to do for themselves what the major pharmaceutical companies would not.

Slipping out early from the office last month, more than 300 of the city's most prestigious stockbrokers descended on the VIP room of Rick's Cabaret, a swank "gentlemen's club" that has heralded a nationwide boom in upscale adult entertainment. Dressed in pin stripes and gray flannel, they sucked down free cocktails and gorged on a buffet of stuffed crab.

Artist Ed Massey and feminist activist Peg Yorkin have joined forces to provoke a coast-to-coast discussion of rape. In a five-city, monthlong exhibition of "Morality/Mortality"--an installation of life-size painted-polyurethane foam figures that graphically depicts the grisly aftermath of a sexual assault--the Los Angeles-based team hopes to shock their audience into confronting societal attitudes toward a brutal crime.

So Peg Yorkin, the $10-million woman, has an IQ of 168. One can only puzzle over why she didn't tap into this massive intellect before she trashed the feminist movement by making feminism seem synonymous with whining and self-pity. One thing she did do brilliantly was (to) insult hard-working, successful people of both sexes. Since Olduvai Gorge, there have been eminent women in all generations, including those who came of age in the 1950s. They found a way to get ahead and make something of themselves despite the savage importunities of men, an achievement that escaped Peg despite her genius IQ. Peg Yorkin is very angry.

Peg Yorkin's $10-million endowment will fund the Feminist Empowerment Center, a think tank that is designed to build strategies to get women to the decision-making tables, such as corporate and foundation boards, and legislatures. The largest single expenditure, however, will support the foundation's campaign to bring the controversial French abortion pill, RU-486, to the United States or to develop a similar pill here.

The hand-lettered sign over Peg Yorkin's office in West Los Angeles warns: "Absolutely No Soliciting." It's not to be taken too literally. On Wednesday, Yorkin told a Washington news conference that she was making a $10-million endowment and gift to the Feminist Majority Foundation and the Fund for the Feminist Majority, a sister organization that she co-founded in 1987.

Producer Gale Anne Hurd ("The Terminator" and "Aliens,") has made a $50,000 challenge grant to the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women. It is Hurd's second consecutive grant to the workshop, which develops women directors. Workshop alumnae include Lee Grant, Karen Arthur, Dyan Cannon, Nancy Malone, Marsha Mason and Randa Haines. The seventh workshop cycle, beginning in the fall for 12 women, also is being sponsored by a $140,000 donation from the Arts & Entertainment Network.

Did Barbara Isenberg, Susan Loewenberg, Laura Zucker and Peg Yorkin belong to the same sorority in college or something? Seems like I can't read a theater piece in The Times without seeing the same coterie of names. P.S. There are theaters in Burbank, too! KATHY HITCHCOCK Burbank