| EVENT REPORT 06.04.08 10:00 AM |
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| Film Treatment |
| To mark its 15th benefit, the Whitman Walker Clinic dreamed up a Hollywood-themed gala, with streaming searchlights, faux paparazzi, and waxen celebrities. |
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Community-based health organization Whitman Walker Clinic marked its 15th annual benefit on Friday night at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, and rolled out the red carpet for 300 guests, with an extravaganza complete with large outdoor searchlights and faux paparazzi. “The event makes our supporters feel like stars," said the nonprofit's associate director of special events, Mike Wilkinson, who produced the event with Jenna Mack of Event Emissary. “I wanted to bring the glamor of L.A. to D.C.”
Wilkinson also wrangled celebrities Jennifer Lopez and Johnny Depp, or at least their wax doppelgangers, courtesy of Madame Tussauds Washington, D.C. “They were delivered a couple hours before the event to avoid melting,” he said. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | The benefit covered the tables and staging in red, gold, and purple.
Photo: Lance Freeman |
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 | The custom-made centerpieces reflected the evening's "Hollywood on the Hill" theme.
Photo: Lance Freeman |
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 | Ridgewells catered the event, serving an antipasto salad wrapped in cucumber as the dinner's first course.
Photo: Lance Freeman |
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The predinner reception took over the venue's rear Green Rooms, where guests could check out the silent-auction items and munch on passed portobello mushroom and red pepper satay, as well as cheese tortes with sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts, courtesy of Ridgewells. At the same time, V.I.P. ticket-holders mingled in the upstairs balcony, which offered panoramic views of the Washington Monument and the National Mall.
In the main space, Ridgewells dressed the tables with all-gold settings, including sheer gold organza with swirl patterns laid atop red and purple twill. Syzygy Event Productions created custom-made, two-foot-tall "Hollywood on the Hill" centerpieces depicting searchlights topped with tragedy and comedy masks. And during the program, featuring The View’s Joy Behar as the comic headliner, guests dined on Tuscan short ribs with Gorgonzola demi glaze and macadamia-encrusted red snapper with chutney.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct that the table settings were provided by Ridgewells.
—Robyn Mincher
RELATED TOPICS
Whitman Walker Clinic, The View, Joy Behar
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