Daphna Ziman says that if the Writers Guild of America strike forces the cancellation of next month’s Academy Awards, her Children Uniting Nations organization, which aims to help suffering kids worldwide, would feel it in a major way.
Ziman, founder of punk rock label Unicorn Records and wife of former Arden Realty titan Richard Ziman, said that her charity’s annual Oscar night event draws a big Hollywood crowd, which in turn brings in the media.
“It’s the only time we have the luxury of speaking to the media en masse,” said Ziman, who founded the group. “So many celebrities come it enables us to really get the message across.”
Still, the fundraiser will go on, even if the awards don’t. In addition to actors, Ziman said the King of Ghana and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia have RSVPed.
“The entertainment industry includes a lot of actors from broken homes with difficult childhoods and they are very supportive,” she said.
Blogger Bash
How about a little Hollywood gossip to accompany your business plan?
Last week, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was a featured attendee at Twiistup, a presentation by nine startup tech firms that are seeking venture capital. This wasn’t your usual three-piece-suit affair in a hotel ballroom. The event was held at a nightspot, the Air Conditioned club in Venice, and lasted until midnight. About 350 people attended.
Why Hilton? Twiistup looks for companies at the intersection of media, entertainment and technology, explained Nicole Jordan, who is director of public relations at the Rubicon Project and who helped organize the event. “If it weren’t for the Internet, Perez Hilton wouldn’t be a global name. So it seemed appropriate,” she said.
Whether it was the investment opportunities or the glam factor, the event sold out, with an additional 200 people on the waiting list.
Presidential Perm
Westside hair-loss specialist Dr. William Rassman stoked some lively debate on his BaldingBlog.com by pointing out that Americans have not elected a bald man to the White House in 50 years.
“Now Bill Clinton, that was a magnificent head of hair,” said Rassman, director of the New Hair Institute. The front-runners for the Democratic nomination are similarly still graced with healthy heads of hair, but the race is far more interesting on the GOP side.
Mitt’s Romney’s mane should beat Rudy’s Giuliani’s occasional comb-over any day (people don’t quite trust comb-overs, Rassman contends), with Mike Huckabee a strong dark-haired horse. But don’t count out John McCain, as voters in New Hampshire demonstrated this month.
“Somehow, I think he can rise above his hair,” said Rassman of the straight-shooting U.S. senator’s retreating halo of cottony white.
Rassman had his own bald spot restored at his then-wife’s insistence some years back. “She thought it was poor marketing for my practice not to have it fixed,” he said.
Staff reporters Joel Russell and Deborah Crowe contributed to this column. Daniel Miller can be reached at [email protected].
