The L’Oréal Legends Gala began with a rousing endorsement Wednesday evening by actress Diane Keaton and ended in a smoldering performance by Bernadette Peters, who slinked out onstage in a sequined gown, sprawled across a piano top and sang a breathy version of the Peggy Lee hit “Fever.”
As the crowd of 960 industry executives, socialites, celebrities, Hollywood heavyweights and top-gun retailers sat down for dinner in the Whale Room of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, eight of L’Oréal’s highest-wattage spokespeople upped the glamour quotient of the event that raised $2.8 million for medical research to fight ovarian cancer. L’Oréal has been behind the event ever since Carol Hamilton, president of the L’Oréal Paris division of L’Oréal USA, and her boss, Joseph Campinell, president of the L’Oréal Consumer Products division, had lunch with Liz Tilberis, the late editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, who was then engaged in a losing battle with ovarian cancer. Tilberis died before the first event, called the Millennium Dresses Gala, in 1999, and it became a tribute to her memory. Faith Kates Kogan, the president of Next Model Management, then took the helm of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. The fund-raiser is held every other year and, over the last nine years, nearly $13 million has been raised. L’Oréal has been the underwriter for the three galas and this year the company’s name appeared in the title.
During an interview this week, Hamilton praised the work of Evelyn Lauder in the fight against breast cancer, and the L’Oréal executive said the ovarian cancer crusade is at a similar point that the breast cancer battle was 10 years ago. Awareness has been achieved, but there’s plenty of room for funding.
One of the five honorees of the evening, Peter R. Dottino, director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, said that 23,000 women will be diagnosed with the disease this year and 14,000 of them will die. The other honorees included Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar; Paul Charron, outgoing chairman of Liz Claiborne Inc., and environmentalist Cindy Harrell Horn and her husband, Alan.
During her opening speech, Keaton paid tribute to the fund-raising efforts, declaring that, “under the leadership of Carol Hamilton, L’Oréal Paris has dragged ovarian cancer out of the closet and into the light of day.”
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Her sentiment was seconded by Beyoncé Knowles, who quietly said during dinner, “L’Oréal is all about empowering women, and my music is all about empowering women. It feels good to use my celebrity for something good.”