Human Rights Heroes Honored

Hollywood heavyweights gathered Tuesday in Beverly Hills at the 1999 Human Rights Watch Dinner to honor four people who have devoted their recent lives to a variety of international rights endeavors. The activists, however, had mixed feelings about celebrating such heart-wrenching work.

“It’s hard to be recognized for something you have suffered,” said Sofia Prats, honored for her efforts to bring former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet to justice in connection with alleged crimes that include the murder of her parents.

We asked master of ceremonies Anthony Hopkins how he first became interested in the cause of human rights and he snapped: “Well that would take a long time to explain now, wouldn’t it?” (Somewhat chagrined by his unpleasant tone, we can only hope he was kinder to those he was about to honor.)

But enough about Hollywood egos, the real stars of the evening were the activists: Prats, Sevdie Ahmeti, who documented human rights abuses in Kosovo, including the pervasive rape of Serbian women by Kosovar Albanians; Boia Efraime Jr., a teacher and psychotherapist assisting families traumatized by the civil war in Mozambique; and Aloys Habimana, whose fiancee was killed in the 1994 civil strife in Rwanda and who is helping prosecute those accused of genocide.

Lorraine and Sid Sheinberg, Barry Diller, Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Lyn and Norman Lear and Edie and Lew Wasserman were among those who chaired the event. We also spotted proud papa and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti taking pictures of his son, Eric, a California Human Rights Watch committee member. Garcetti the elder, running for reelection next year, slipped his business card to nearly everyone in the room . . . from honorees who live in Africa to Hopkins, who lives in Pacific Palisades.

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In much lighter news, readers of Vogue magazine this month may notice there is what some consider a glaring omission on the cover, which features every supermodel for the past three decades . . . except L.A.’s own Cindy Crawford.

It has been reported that Crawford refused to do the gig because Vogue couldn’t guarantee she would be on the front page of the three-section fold-out cover.

Crawford’s publicist says that was only part of it. “Cindy had her baby July 2 and the shoot was Sept. 10. When they originally asked her to do it, she said ‘No’ because it would be too soon to travel with the baby,” explained Annett Wolf. But Vogue kept calling. Crawford reconsidered, asking for details about the layout. Because photographer Annie Leibovitz would have creative control of the scene, Crawford was told the posing order would not be determined until all the models had gathered in the studio. And with that, she bowed out.

Feeling rejected, humiliated, like a big fat loser? Chances are L.A. resident Laura Kightlinger has you beat. In “Quick Shots of False Hope: A Rejection Collection” (Spike/Avon, $12.50), the comedian recounts her most embarrassing moments: “gonged” during high school talent show while dancing to “Car Wash,” fired from her first job as a polyester-clad Ponderosa Steakhouse waitress.

“It’s a collection of true stories chronicling my personal legacy of disappointments and failures from awkward adolescence to awkward adulthood,” she explains in a voice reminiscent of Janeane Garofalo. “The book is for anyone who has ever been on antidepressants.” (This should mean big readership in Los Angeles, no?)

Kightlinger lives in our fair city, where she is a writing consultant for NBC’s “Will and Grace.”