Men Join Women for Pro-Choice Fund-Raiser

“I think it’s big of me to be here, because in my marriage I have very little choice,” writer-actor-producer Joe Bologna quipped as his wife, Renee Taylor, just grinned.

Choice was the buzzword Thursday evening for a gathering, heavy with Westside liberals, called “Men Joining Women for Choice.” Sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women, the event kicked off the organization’s campaign to keep abortion legal in California.

Even politicos Kathleen Brown and Midge Costanza were impressed by the heavy male turnout.

“Men never felt that they were welcome before,” said Costanza, an assistant to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979.

Refreshed by cappuccino, Penguin frozen yogurt bars and assorted desserts, the standing-room-only crowd (there were no chairs) perched on the staircase and balcony in the vast atrium of Diane and Stephen Reissman’s new 14,000-square-foot “Mediterranean villa” in Holmby Hills.

Guests heard pleas for human rights from actors Theodore Bikel, Rita Moreno and Jed Allen, KGIL talk show host Carole Hemingway, and Sammie Moshenberg, director of Washington operations for the Jewish women’s council. After some patter from comedian Tom Dressen, event co-chair Olive Gallagher ended the evening on an odd note: She stood up and crooned a solo that she and a friend had written for the party. It turned out she was taping the program and her performance for her cable talk show on Channel 37.