Tony Randall, Tony Danza, Tony Bennett | 
Donald Trump and friend | 
San Domenico Palace, Taormina, Sicily
(Watercolor by Tony Bennett) | 4 Tonys Gather at Bistro Benedetto
To Support American Cancer Society Story and Photos By Sharyn Weintraub
OSEMARY CLOONEY, who performed at the American Cancer Society’s dinner dance at New York’s Pierre Hotel, broke up the audience when she recalled the time she had knee replacement surgery. She gathered all her grandchildren to explain what happened. She told them her new knee was half plastic and half metal. Little Harry ran to the kitchen, grabbed a piece of paper of the refrigerator door, and tried to stick it on grandma’s knee. Diana K. Feldman, special events chairman of the American Cancer Society’s eastern division, billed the dinner dance as Bistro Benedetto. She could very well have called it Bistro Tony, as four Tonys graced the Grand Ballroom. Tony Randall, Tony Danza and Antonia Bennett were there to salute Tony Bennett as he received the Humanitarian Award 2000 from benefit co-chair Ann Siegel. Tony, a show business icon for half a century, didn’t have to sing for his supper. His talented daughter Antonia did that – along with Rosemary Clooney. Tony, a world-renowned painter, donated an exquisite painting of San Domenico Palace in Taormina, Sicily, to beautify the cover of the souvenir program. Also on hand were such tony guests as Donald Trump, Helen Gurley Brown, Sherry Lansing, Joy and Regis Philbin, Grace Mirabella, Sumner Redstone, Ivan Seidenberg, Iris Cantor, and John Kluge among many others too numerous to contain on this page. The chairmen of the event – Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, Sidney and Caroline Kimmel, Herb and Ann Siegel, and Peter and Janice Worth were pleased that the dinner dance raised $500,000 toward finding a cure for cancer. |
