Thursday, February 5th, 2009 was the exciting benefit launch
for THIS WORLD: THE VALUES NETWORK, which we had the pleasure to
attend, at the magnificent home in Beverly Hills of Mr. and Mrs.
Sassoon, C.E.O. of the great COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF. Any one
fortunate to live in beautiful Southern California, knows that
this place has the best coffee and tea of any chain outfit you
can find. Mr. Sassoon also has a few other stores, around 600
throughout the world. With his children busy playing tennis on
their enclosed court in the backyard on this rare rainy night in
L.A., we can see that his hard work has definitely paid
off.
Attending this great event, filled with hundreds of elite guests,
endless free food and drink, and many celebs, was Best Selling
Author, and enigmatic spiritualist MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, as seen
on Oprah, with her new book THE AGE OF MIRACLES, who gave a
great, motivating speach on why we must be in tune with the
spiritual, and the paradim shift happening in the world now and
heading up to 2012, when the Mayan Calandar ends.
Also attending was actress, and reality TV host RACHEL HUNTER,
who is also one of the hottest supermodels of all time, along
with her sister. Ms. Hunter proved to be a lovely person inside
and out, giving a heartfelt speech about the importance of love
and family in her life. We had the pleasure to speak for a few
moments with Ms. Hunter.
THE HOLLYWOOD SENTINEL: Hi Rachel, I'm Bruce
Edwin, thank you for being here. It's so nice to see you, it's
nice to meet.
RACHEL HUNTER: Thank you Bruce. What do you do?
(we discuss work) briefly)
THE HOLLYWOOD SENTINEL: Moira, this is Rachel
Hunter. Rachel, this is Moira Cue. She's a singer and an artist,
she does painting.
RACHEL HUNTER: Oh, great! That's nice. It's nice
to meet you.
MOIRA CUE: You're beautiful.
RACHEL HUNTER: (laughs) Thank you.
THE HOLLYWOOD SENTINEL: Wow, I love that art
work (looking at an art piece hanging before us).
RACHEL HUNTER: (we both admire one of Mr.
Sassoon's paintings on the wall). Oooh, I do too! That is very
nice.
THE HOLLYWOOD SENTINEL: Yes, there is some
beautiful artwork here. This is a beautiful home.
RACHEL HUNTER: It really is, it's lovely.
(Rachel Hunter goes on to speak in front of the crowd for about
15 minutes, then she ends), 'This may sound corny or cheesy, but
I had been laying down one night, and I woke up, and I realized,
my bedroom door was open, and my childrens doors were both open
too. And that just made me feel so good. (referring to how her
children are not living behind closed doors, not hiding things
from her, and how they have trust and communication (her bright
eyes teared up), so this organization is very important to me. My
family is every thing to me, and this is a really important
thing. And I thank every one for listening to me and having me
here tonight.'
What a class act. Rachel Hunter should make her children proud.
We earlier met some one else as equally cordial, with more
charisma than you can imagine.
THE HOLLYWOOD SENTINEL (Bruce Edwin): Hello! Mr.
Mayor! It's a pleasure to meet you (shaking hands). I'm Bruce
Edwin.
LOS ANGELES MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA: Hello
Bruce! It's great to meet you. How are you doing tonight?
BRUCE EDWIN: I'm great! I'm even better
now!
THE MAYOR: (laughs). Excellent. Good to hear.
Thanks for being here.
BRUCE EDWIN: My pleasure. (Moira Cue walks up).
Mr. Villaraigosa, I'd like you to meet one of my clients, this is
Moira Cue. Moira, this is the mayor.
MOIRA CUE: Pleasure to meet you. (shaking
hands)
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: Hello Moira! How are you
doing tonight?
MOIRA CUE: I'm well, thank you.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: Just well?! Not
fantastic?!
MOIRA CUE: (laughs) O.K. then! I'm
fantastic!
I later have the pleasure to speak with The Mayor about one of
our films.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: Wow! You go now! Look at
you! That's very impressive. I wish you the very best with
that.
What should be known about Mayor Villaraigosa, is that he not
like some of the arrogant, indifferent, change with the wind
politician. His roots were in helping minoirties, as a Latino
himself, and in assisting labor unions and laborers throughout
his career in Los Angeles. When he speaks with some one, he gives
them all of his attention, and he is as down to earth as can be.
He later takes the mic, and addresses the crowd.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: I have about four other
events to go to after this (it's by now already about 8pm), but I
wanted to come here, when Rabbi Boteach asked me, because this is
a very important idea and organization to me... Now, some may ask
me, or wonder, well, look at your life, your family is broken up,
your mairrage ended. What do you know about family? (The crowd
was riveted) And my answer is, I know I have made mistakes, I
know I have done some things wrong with my family, but the thing
is, I am trying to do the right thing now. I make time to spend
Friday morning having breakfast with my children. It might not be
as long as I would like, because I have meetings, but it is
better than I was doing before. And it is important. It makes a
difference. It is important to them, and it is important to me.
And I think we should all be doing this, just to sit down as a
family and spend quality time together.
He goes on discussing how his single mother raised he and his
family, taking public transportation, struggling to work two
jobs, putting food on the table, and yet sitting down together as
a family.
THE MAYOR: I believe very much in THE VALUES
NETWORK, and what Rabbi Boteach is doing. And I want to thank you
all for being here. Thank you very much.
As we sit listening to to the speakers, a lovely woman sitting
behind me is called up as all applaud for her. I turn around. It
is the thin, gentle looking MARIANN WILLIAMSON. Yet when she
speaks, her petite figure is overcome by a booming power of
presence and command in the dynamic eloquence of her voice. Her
every word is powered by soul, by her force. She speaks an
intriguing speech, commenting on Rachel Hunter's remark,
indicating agreement with her statement about her family and the
doors being open, and then she later recites a quotation from one
of her books, A RETURN TO LOVE. She states;
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our
darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be
brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you
not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not
serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so
that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all
meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the
glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's
in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated
from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.'
Wow! No wonder Oprah loves this woman! I had the pleasure to
speak briefly with Marianne WIlliamson, and as we shook hands, I
felt that she was calling forth an angel himself to read my aura.
Whew! This woman is intense!
Earlier, after kind words from our host of the evening, MR. SUNNY
SASSOON, who kindly demanded that he could not speak until his
wife was found, and invited to be introduced and acknowledged as
well, lest he not hear the end of it, and who admitted that she
was really the one largely responsible for the entire night, and
a great deal of their success, the young, charming CEO gave the
mic to the founder of the events organization himself, RABBI
SHMULEY BOTEACH.
Now, SHMULEY BOTEACH is not a tall man, and he will be the first
to tell you that. But what he lacks in height, he makes up for in
a thunderous, preacher like voice. Here suddenly, as the 'love
prophet,' as he calls himself, began his lecture, I felt like I
was in church among friends. The large packed room of total
strangers became a small packed room that felt like kindred
souls, (VIP souls none the less, but still)! souls seeking to
learn, trying to be better. Over there was the mayor of L.A,
behind me here was Marianne Williamson, across from me in those
tall shiny black heels was supermodel Rachel Hunter, and here
before me was the rabbi, Shmuley Boteach. What more could you ask
for?!
Shmuley, who has a name so great it almost makes you want to be
Jewish if you're not, (or at the very least brush up on your
Yiddish), is the New York Times Best selling Author of KOSHER
SEX. He also has a great new book out now titled THE KOSHER
SUTRA, 8 Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring
Passion for Life (hardback, © 2009, Harper One), and is
probably the coolest Rabbi I have ever met, save perhaps next to
his rabbi dad, who gave me a godly pat on the chest that could
have doubled for some unkwnown Kaballan or Masonic ritual.
In his latest book, The Kosher Sutra, Shmuley scolds men for
exerting all of their sexual energy on porn, instead of watiing
for their lady, and to deliver more with her, and failing to make
things more exiciting with her in the bedroom. He blames an over
sexualized society on making nudity and sex less exiciting, and
he blames hyper consumerism for being a cheap replacement of
feelings, sex, and bonding. And he blames television, after
comically reminding us to watch his award winning TV show SHALOM
IN THE HOME on TLC, and to tune in to his daily national radio
program, THE RABBI SHMULEY SHOW on OPRAH & FRIENDS, XM Satellite
Radio.
Named the most famost rabbi in America, by Newsweek, he has
debated at Oxford, great minds including Professor Stephen
Hawking, Shimon Peres, Deepak Chopra, and Mikhail Gorbachev to
name a few. He has published numerous books, including HATING
WOMEN: AMERICA'S HOSTILE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE FAIRER SEX. With
Shmuley's THIS WORLD, THE VALUES NETWORK program, his mission is
to 'TURN FRIDAY NIGHT INTO FAMILY NIGHT,' with the noble idea
being to shut of the TV and other electronic devices, and get the
family or friends together over dinner, and just talk about life
and live it. As social creatures, with many millions who have
drifted farther and farther apart from a sense of family,
community, and communication, unless it is some fake virtual
reality in a chatroom, blog, or social networking site on the
net, this is an important thing, and while seemingly simple on
the surface, it is powerful and important.
Debate, social change, and knowledge can be shared or fostered
communicating live, in person, with others. This lies at the
bottom of what Shmuley is intending to influence, for us to
become active creators in our life, not merely passive spectators
controled by what societal media programs and says is valid. It
is about taking control of our minds and lives for at least one
evening, and remebering that when the most successful people in
the world are on their deathbed, and ask what they wish they had
more time for, they do not say television, they do not say work,
they do not say awards or careers or money. No, they say loved
ones, they say, FAMILY. This is the power of what Rabbi Shmuley
is wisely working on instilling around the world, the power of
family and friends, the power of love.
- Bruce Edwin
www.shmuley.com
www.fridayisfamily.com
www.coffeebean.com
www.rachelhunter.com
© 2009, The Hollywood Sentinel