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Stars pay £2,500 each to help the Old Vic
By Patrick Sawer and Tom Teodorczuk, Evening Standard 17.11.06
Body talk: Elle Macpherson will be among the lunch guests
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At £2,500 per head, it could be London's most expensive lunch.
Guests including Elle Macpherson, Jeremy Irons and Robert Lindsay will be among those tucking into lobster and roast beef at the charity meal for the cash-strapped Old Vic.
Trudi Styler, Sharon Osbourne, Sinead Cusack and Sir Philip Green will also be among those raising their glasses to the guest of honour, the theatre's artistic director Kevin Spacey.
Tuesday's fundraiser at Fifty, a private members club in St James's, is being hosted by Robert Earl, the founder of Planet Hollywood, and environmental campaigner Zac Goldsmith. The guests have been chosen for their enthusiastic support of the debt-ridden Old Vic, which Spacey joined in 2004.
They also include Eve Best and Colm Meaney, who are starring with him in the theatre's current smash-hit production of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon For The Misbegotten.
The meal has been described as a "lavish but traditional English lunch" of smoked salmon and lobster, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and bread and butter pudding with a tropical fruit platter to finish.
It will be prepared by Fifty's executive chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a veteran of New York's Lafayette restaurant whose fusion of south-east Asian and French cooking has earned him accolades worldwide. Fifty's bartender Salvatore Calabrese is creating a new cocktail called Flaming Old Vic, made from Rémy Martin Extra and his personal collection of Van Der Hum from the Fifties.
After eating, the guests will be able to bid for exclusive lots secured by Mr Earl, including a walk-on part in a "major Hollywood movie", which has a £100,000 reserve price.
Hollywood star Spacey, who has had mixed fortunes as artistic-director this year but intends to remain at the Old Vic for another nine years, waives his £100,000-a-year salary as a contribution to the theatre's finances.
He has set himself the task of raising £1 million a year for the theatre, which made a loss of more than £750,000 last year and had a debt of £400,000 written off in the summer. Mr Earl said: "I know Kevin Spacey, I've spent a bit of time with him and found out about the Old Vic's lack of funding and lack of government support, so I said I'd like to help"
Among the other guests will be Sally Greene, chief executive of the theatre, and Paul Kemsley, vice-chairman of Tottenham Hotspur. Ms Greene set up the Old Vic Trust and raised £1.6 million from shareholders in 2000 and £1.1 million in 2003 to help write off debts.
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Reader views (2)
I saw "Moon for the Misbegotten" the first week of October and it was . . . well, there really aren't any words to describe it. Fantastic? Incredible? They really don't do Kevin Spacey and Eve Best's performance justice. Suffice it to say that anyone who can possibly get tickets should go see this play. You will not be disappointed!
As for the fundraiser, I wish Kevin Spacey all the best with his endeavors for the Old Vic. It's a beautiful theatre and all of his efforts should be commended. I look forward to seeing future productions at the theatre.
- Kelly Hanby, Jacksonville, Florida (USA)
I'd love to go to the 'Old Vic' It's over the other side of London for me, but send me a programme. Let's try and think of some fun and good things to do there too!!
- Edi Williams (Woman!), London, England
