Honorable honoree
The event: The Women’s Guild Cedars-Sinai honored TV’s Judge Judy, a.k.a. the Honorable Judy Sheindlin, at Monday’s “Woman of the 21st Century” awards luncheon and fashion show at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The scene: Models strolled through the ballroom, showing off Escada’s spring-summer 2015 collection, as guests had what was billed as a “two martini” spa lunch. (Rather than denoting an alcoholic indulgence, the menu featured a pea soup opener and coconut sorbet dessert in the characteristic stemware, bookending an open-faced chicken sandwich entrée.) The program: Christine Devine of Fox 11 News stepped onstage as emcee, after a welcome by luncheon chairs Wendy Goldberg and Lorette Gross. Guild President Hella Hershson then presented a check for $1 million — proceeds from the past year’s fundraising — to Arthur Ochoa, Cedars-Sinai’s vice president, community relations, who accepted on behalf of the hospital, noting, “This has the advantage of being a real check and not a big [prop].” The crowd: Luncheon guests included, among others, TV personalities Cynthia Bailey and Yossi Dina, actress Florence Henderson, philanthropist Lynda Resnick, Beverly Hills Vice Mayor John Mirisch, former California First Lady Sharon Davis, authors Robert Tanenbaum and Amy Ephron, “Blue Bloods” producer Leonard Goldberg and event co-chairs Valerie Quote of note: “So what is the 21st century woman?” Sheindlin said, wrapping up the awards ceremony. “The answer is easy. She’s anything she wants to be.”
“I never viewed myself as a woman lawyer but as a lawyer. I never viewed myself as a woman judge, but as a judge,” Sheindlin said.
She also had advice. “Women in business want to be liked more than they want to be respected. That’s a big mistake,” she said. “I could name a lot of people that everybody knows, that nobody likes in this town. But everybody respects them, and they’re all very successful. And if you had to ask them, ‘What do you want? To be liked or respected?’ They say, ‘I’ve got enough friends. I can pay for a friend.’ ” The numbers: The luncheon and show raised $300,000 for Cedars-Sinai. Since the guild’s founding in 1957, the group has contributed more than $40 million in support of clinical and scientific advances.