Groovin' to Motown and Garry Shandling

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/12/2001 at 01:59 PM EDT

The late Motown legend Marvin Gaye appeared thanks to a vintage video clip at a music industry fund-raiser on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot on Thursday night, reports Reuters. On a large video screen, the performer, who died in 1984, sang a soulful rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" -- and brought Thursday's black-tie crowd to its feet. Live performers included such Motown contemporaries of Gaye's as Smokey Robinson and the Temptations, as well as younger artists such as Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige, Melissa Etheridge and Johnny Lang. The evening raised more than $5.1 million for the City of Hope, a medical research and treatment organization. The honoree was Canadian media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr., executive vice-chairman of Vivendi Universal, whose Universal Music Group unit provided the evening's talent. The Sept. 11 tragedy was never far from everyone's minds, with Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. referring to a "new world order" and Bronfman hailing the new "pluralism" that has developed. Comedian Garry Shandling eased the tensions with laughter as he issued a challenge to Osama bin Laden: "If he wants to terrorize me," said Shandling, "get in line behind my mother."