| MAIN
EVENT
Burt Reynolds Raises
Heat
For Chernobyl Children
Text
and Photos by Tim Boxer
The
ladies were swooning over heartthrob Burt Reynolds. The handsome
actor was the centerpiece at a gala dinner and celebrity auction at
Sotheby’s in New York to benefit Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl (CCOC).
Singer-actress-impressionist Marilyn Michaels, who had one of her
paintings up for bids, told me she used to go out with Burt before her
present marriage. After meeting her former sweetheart she sighed, “He
just embraced me and I melted, melted.”
Marilyn, who has since found
happiness with heart surgeon Peter Wilk, said, “The only way to
find a perfect man is to give birth to one. Meet my son Mark.”
To ingratiate himself with Mark,
Reynolds did an impersonation of Gregory Peck. The 16-year-old was
not overly impressed. The talented kid showed off his impressions of Woody
Allen and Michael Caine.
“Genetics works!” Marilyn
exclaimed as Reynolds applauded.
Reynolds tried to impress a young
dinner guest with his screen credits.
“Have you ever seen Smokey and the Bear?” he asked
11-year-old Danni Falk. The youngster said no. “Well,” he said,
“next year it’ll come out with sound.”
The bidding became heated with
the offering of a dinner for 20 of your intimate friends with Dr. Ruth
Westheimer catered at your home by Foremost. I asked Dr. Ruth if she’d
given any advice to sex symbol Burt Reynolds. “No,” she replied. “He
gave me advice!”
Oliver Stone’s mother,
Jacqueline, said her son’s away making a new movie called, Beyond
Borders, starring Kevin Costner and Meg Ryan. “He’s
doing it for his mother,” she said, “because I’ve always wanted him
to do a love story.”
Celebrity chairman Jon Voight
presented the Children at Heart Award as tribute chairmen, Nancy
Spielberg and Gabriel Erem stood by.
“I am pleased to present this
award to my friend who has a great and handsome heart, Burt Reynolds,”
Voight said. If I may quote from the Talmud, one of the highest mitzvahs,
deeds, is to provide a person with work.”
“I am the only actor,”
Reynolds chuckled, “to be cancelled by all three networks.”
Voight also presented a
Humanitarian Award to Jonathan Durst, a board member of Chabad’s
Children of Chernobyl and co-manager (with brothers Douglas and Kristoffer)
of the Durst Organization, a real estate dynasty that has shaped the
midtown Manhattan skyline.
In its 10 years, CCOC has rescued
2,000 children from Ukraine and Belarus following the Chernobyl nuclear
disaster 14 years ago. The contaminated children were brought to Israel
for cancer treatment, rehabilitation and education. Although President Bill
Clinton recently announced that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
would be closed, people will continue to suffer the effects of the
radiation spill.
As
Burt Reynolds said, “I am here because of the children.”
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