Watch Christine Baranski Name-Drop Dozens of Fellow Glamorous Actresses (for a Good Cause) | Playbill

Film & TV News Watch Christine Baranski Name-Drop Dozens of Fellow Glamorous Actresses (for a Good Cause) The Tony and Emmy winner is hosting the Stage & Screen auction, featuring collections from Audra McDonald, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Patti LuPone, and more, to benefit The Actors Fund.

Christine Baranski made her April 21 Late Night entrance in peak diva fashion, and the level of glamour only went up from there.

The Tony and Emmy winner stopped by to chat with Seth Meyers about her latest fundraising mission: the Stage & Screen auction, presented by Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers and benefiting The Actors Fund.

Baranski's inspiration for the event, to be held April 28, is more relatable than her ultra-glamorous demeanor: quarantine-induced spring cleaning. "It was my idea last spring when I came out of the closet—meaning my own closet—thinking, 'Gee, two weeks off from work? Why not clean some closets,'" she told Meyers. What followed was perhaps less relatable: "I realized I had these beautiful, hand-beaded gowns that I wore for awards shows or big events, and I was holding onto them for sentimental reasons, but they were taking up space, and I thought, 'You know, if I gave them away now, maybe to an auction house or something, I could make some money.'"

The performer ran with it, recruiting her friends (also glamorous, "a lot of them who only go by one name") along the way. The catalog includes attire and artifacts from the collections of all sorts of divas: Cher, Meryl Streep, Dolly Parton, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Celeste Holm, Bette Midler, Debra Monk, Laurie Metcalf, Cherry Jones, Andrea Martin, Audra McDonald, Lauren Bacall...and the list goes on.

Other lots showcase the guys, such as the suit Alan Cumming wore when winning his Tony, an autographed "Broadway Baby" manuscript from Stephen Sondheim, and the chance to be escorted to the first return performance of The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

"Their life is hard, and it’s eight shows a week," Baranski says of the spectrum of folks aided by The Actors Fund. "But to shut it all down and to have Broadway be dark—and not just Broadway but all of the country, regional theatres, concert halls, all of the performing arts have been affected. So The Actors Fund has been amazing. It’s a huge national organization…it’s been an enormous lifeline to people."

For more of Baranski's musings and memories from The Glamorous Life, watch the additional clip below. Visit Doyle.com to browse the lots.

 
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