![Leslie Moonves and wife Julie Chen](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-01.jpg)
Leslie Moonves and wife Julie Chen |
![Elie Wiesel and wife Marion](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-02.jpg)
Elie Wiesel and wife Marion |
![Freddie Roman and Dionne Warwick](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-03.jpg)
Freddie Roman and Dionne Warwick |
![Paul Shaffer and Ben Vereen](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-04.jpg)
Paul Shaffer and Ben Vereen |
![Robert Klein and Freddie Roman](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-05.jpg)
Robert Klein and Freddie Roman |
![Tom Jones and Lucie Arnaz](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-06.jpg)
Tom Jones and Lucie Arnaz |
![Freddie Roman and Norm Crosby](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-07.jpg)
Freddie Roman and Norm Crosby |
![Joseph Zappala and Tom Jones](../../images/front_page/fro_0908-08.jpg)
Joe Zappala and Tom Jones |
FRIARS FOUNDATION
CBS Honcho Relieved That
The Friars Didn’t Roast Him
Story by Nina Boxer
Photos by Tim Boxer
ESLIE MOONVES had no fear of being the
butt of barbs from the Friars last month at Cipriani 42nd
St. But as this was no roast, the CBS president and CEO gladly
joined Tom Jones and Natalie Cole as honorees
at the Friars Foundation Applause Award Gala where some 500 Friars
and fans cheered.
The comedians and singers who performed for Moonves
were duly respectful. Dionne Warwick, Lucie Arnaz, and
Ben Vereen performed. Natalie Cole would have sung
too, but she was home recovering from a liver transplant.
Robert Klein talked about his fourth
colonoscopy. Norm Crosby said he went to the bank to check
his balance and the clerk pushed him.
Another Crosby nugget. A woman sues for divorce
because her husband hasn’t spoken in five years. "Why not?" the
judge asks. "I didn’t want to interrupt her," the husband says.
Freddie Roman thanked Moonves for putting his
son’s show on the air. Freddie’s son, Alan Kirschenbaum,
executive produced Yes, Dear, which just ended a four-year
run.
In presenting Moonves with his award, Elie Wiesel
seized the moment to lecture the network honcho on something to
worry about.
"I would be afraid to be in your place of power,"
the Nobel laureate said. "I’d worry how my words would be
interpreted, or misinterpreted. Do you worry?"
True story from Lucie Arnaz. She and Laurence
Luckinbill had trouble with cable at their home in Weston, Conn.
The repairman was working on the TV set when he noticed a picture on
the wall.
"That looks like Lucille Ball," he said.
"That’s my mother," Lucie said.
"Amazing! You mother looks like Lucille Ball?"
Moonves, a New Yorker whose family Munweis came from
Ukraine and is a great-nephew of David Ben-Gurion, may not
have been worried but he said he was humbled.
"Television is not just entertainment," Wiesel
added. "It’s a vehicle for information. It must be transmitted with
sensitivity."
"This is not fair!" Moonves protested. "I’ve
received a lot of awards but never from someone like Elie Wiesel."
What’s Elie Wiesel doing with the Friars anyway?
"I joined the Friars for the humor," he said. "I
wondered what real humor is."
Stewie Stone, who emceed the awards gala,
offered an example when he told about meeting the pope.
"How is Tom Jones?" the pope asked.
"How do you know Tom Jones?" Stewie said.
"I don’t but his name comes up in confession a lot."
Moonves said CBS and the Friars have had a long
relationship, with such members as Walter Cronkite and
Mike Wallace. He mentioned that his wife, Julie Chen, the
CBS Early Show anchor, expects her first baby in October. "Our child
will be the first Jewish Chinese member of the Friars."