‘A Time for Heroes’: the Real Stars Are the Kids

Meryl Streep ran a bowling game. Annette Bening took charge at the ring toss. Shaquille O’Neal instructed kids at basketball. Debbie Allen taught dance. Michelle Pfeiffer and Sandy Koufax took turns heading up a baseball game booth.

The casting didn’t always make sense, but you can be sure that the annual Pediatric AIDS Foundation “A Time for Heroes” fund-raiser Sunday afternoon was not your ordinary country fair.

The annual event on the grounds of the sprawling Brentwood home of Ken Roberts, the former Robert Taylor ranch, is heavily populated by entertainers and sports stars. Many come with children and nannies in tow. Among ticket buyers were studio chiefs Sherry Lansing, Peter Guber, Mark Canton, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Alan Ladd Jr.

Even Jason Priestly, who attracted a lineup of kids impatiently awaiting a photo op, was impressed. “Hey, there’s Jimmy Connors. Hey, there’s Warren Moon. And Anne Archer. And Michelle Pfeiffer. I get like a little kid out here,” he said. “The turnout is unbelievable.”

Magic Johnson, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Candice Bergen, Billy Crystal, Cindy Crawford, Richard Gere and Michael Richards of “Seinfeld” (with his hair tamed) were among the volunteers explaining the intricacies of games like “splish splash” and “fish pond” to the PG-13 crowd. Peter, Paul and Mary, Sheila E and Little Richard entertained.

“You can’t be a parent and not do it,” said Bergen, departing her post at “super strike.” “I postponed a trip to New York to be here. I’m really grateful for the opportunity to participate.”

“I come every year,” said Ladd. “It’s an extraordinary thing Elizabeth does. Extraordinary woman.”

Elizabeth, of course, is Elizabeth Glaser, who received tainted blood during a transfusion when her daughter, Ariel, was born and has been HIV positive for 12 years. Ariel died of AIDS, and Glaser’s son, Jake, 8, contracted the virus in the womb. Glaser co-founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation with Susan Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis in 1988.

People magazine and the Milken Family Medical Foundation underwrote the event, and no one seemed to enjoy it more than Michael Milken. His foundation has sponsored the afternoon for three years, but this was his first time there.

“I had been detained for the last couple of years,” said the convicted junk bond king, who was in prison. “It’s different being here than having my daughter tell me about it over the phone.”