• November 14, 1994
• Vol. 42
• No. 20

The Bash to Crash

A First Lady, a Duchess and a Starburst of Hollywood Royalty Take a Whirl on the Carousel of Hope

THE EVENING'S EMCEE, TONIGHT SHOW HOST JAY Leno, was surely understating when he quipped that the assemblage in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel was "the most select group of people in Los Angeles since the O.J. jury." To be sure, even Simpson's ultra-busy lawyer Robert Shapiro found time to join the cream of Hollywood at Marvin and Barbara Davis's biennial Carousel of Hope benefit for the Children's Diabetes Foundation. Arnold Schwarzenegger, suited up in his True Lies tux, joined Steven Spielberg, the Duchess of York, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, David Geffen, Magic Johnson and 1,260 others who paid up to $5,000 a ticket for an evening of dinner (poulet and veggies, topped off with baked Alaska) and entertainment (by Kenny G., Neil Diamond, Natalie Cole, Placido Domingo and Phil Collins). Tom Arnold was spotted clinging to his blonde date, Julie Champnella, at a pre-party auction, at which comedian Mike Myers allowed, "I can't believe I bid $3,000 on a dog (a Jack Russell terrier puppy), and we didn't get it!" Annette Bening; Frances Fisher, Clint Eastwood's live-in; and Maria Shriver giggled together in the ladies too, and fashion hawk Earl Blackwell blamed the Wonder Bra for so much excess cleavage in the room. "It's been overdone," he said. "There's no 'wonder' when you take it off." Meanwhile, guest-of-honor Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had winged in from the Middle East after witnessing the signing of the historic treaty between Jordan and Israel, wound down with Barbra and Fergie. Said Beverly Hilton owner Merv Griffin: "My hallways are filled with sand from the shoes of Secret Service agents."