Gest One More Time: A Gala to End All Millenniums in N.Y.
By ROBERT OSBORNE
The Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK - David Gest, a fellow who has produced more than his share of galas and extravaganzas throughout the past two decades (raising considerable funds for various charities en route), has decided to not let the year fade away without delivering one more biggie before the millennium. Come Dec. 4 in Manhattan, he's going to produce this year's American Cinema Awards as "An All Star Holiday Gala Starring Whitney Houston,'' guaranteed to be a hot year-end ticket and geared to raise additional funds for the Whitney Houston Foundation for Children as well as Gest's ACA Foundation. The honorees that night will be an illustrious group: The robust Anthony Quinn, who will receive the ACA's Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award (Gregory Peck will be flying in from the West Coast to present the honor to him); Rodney Jenkins and Kevin Briggs, to be honored for Distinguished Achievement in Contemporary Music; Jimmy Webb, getting a nod for Lifetime Achievement in Songwriting; and former Doobie Brothers lead singer Michael McDonald and his wife Amy, who will receive the 1999 Leo Jaffe Achievement Award, named in honor of the late chairman emeritus of Columbia Pictures. Additionally, the ACA's annual Gloria Swanson Humanitarian Award will go for the first time to two major movers and shakers from the field of radio: Tom Poleman, senior vp programming at WHTZ/Z100, and Frankie Blue, vp operations and programming at KTV/103.5. The things that always make a Gest gala worth writing home about (or writing a column about) are (a) the powerhouse entertainers he consistently lines up for these events and (b) the celebrity guests he gathers from all over the world to add glamour and wattage. Claudia Cardinale will be coming from Italy and John Mills from England, along with a major contingent from the West Coast, flying courtesy of American Airlines and American Eagle, co-sponsors of the event. But the piece de resistance will be the headliners who will be entertaining the crowd that night in the Marriott Marquis' Broadway Ballroom, among them Whitney H., the equally hot Marc Anthony and Brian McKnight, Michael Bolton, Petula Clark (during a two-week hiatus from her touring "Sunset Boulevard'') and others, including Sunday, a singing group discovered by Houston and just signed by Capitol Records. That night, Gest will formally announce the creation of an Alzheimer's Wing to be located at the Actors Fund of America Home in Inglewood, N.J., and named in honor of longtime ACA supporters Quinn and Jaffe.