I AM BIG," FADED SILENT SCREEN STAR Norma Desmond declared in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. "It's the pictures that got small."
Perhaps. But if Desmond thought Hollywood glamor died with the '20s, she didn't see the star-filled crowd that turned out Nov. 30 for a preview of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical stage version of Sunset Boulevard at the Shubert Theater in L.A.'s Century City. Elizabeth Taylor, Billy Crystal, Clint Eastwood, Daryl Hannah, even Fabio turned up the megawattage for this gala, hosted by Marvin and Barbara Davis, which raised $1.7 million for the Children's Diabetes Foundation.
After the show—which features Glenn Close as Desmond—the audience strolled across the street for supper in the palm-tree-filled ballroom of the Century Plaza Hotel. But Hollywood will be Hollywood, and these celebs were less interested in eating than in checking each other out. Marveled Knots Landing alum Joan Van Ark: "Everytime you turn around it's somebody drop-dead, somebody incredible."
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