CHARITY WORLD'S CREEPY SIDE
By Richard Johnson
Tue Dec 14, 2:53 AM ET
FORMER fund-raiser Aaron Tonken drops the dime on Hollywood's greediest celebs in a blistering new book.
"King of Cons: Exposing the Dirty Rotten Secrets of the Washington Elite and Hollywood Celebrities" (Thomas Nelson) is a memoir by Tonken, best known as the organizer of a gala in Bill Clinton's honor attended by John Travolta, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, Whoopi Goldberg, Cher and others.
High school dropout Tonken conned millions out of rich nobodies who paid through the nose to rub elbows with stars and politicos at charity events. But rather than use the money for charity, Tonken would use it just to pay the stars to show up.
When Tonken got involved in politics, raising cash for the DNC and Bill and Hillary Clinton, he quickly fell afoul of campaign finance laws, which on top of his charity shenanigans landed him a five-year jail sentence for fraud. He's still in jail.
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FORMER fund-raiser Aaron Tonken drops the dime on Hollywood's greediest celebs in a blistering new book.
* One of his first jobs in Hollywood was as a houseboy at the rundown mansion of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Her husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, "seemed more like a queen," Tonken writes. Anhalt told Tonken his German shepherd's favorite pastime was to "kill" Jewish people.
* Tonken calls Joan Collins the "greediest, most irresponsible person in Hollywood." Natalie Cole, who once demanded $75,000 in cash to perform a single song, was a close second.
* Suzanne Sommers once threatened to trash him with a full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter if he didn't cough up a bunch of free jewelry and airline tickets.
* Liza Minnelli once nearly ruined a Recording Artists Against Drunk Driving event by showing up totally wasted.
* When Tonken briefly managed Roseanne Barr, whom he calls "a pig with rabies," she stiffed him for over $250,000.
* Civil rights icon Rosa Parks demanded payment and a Gulfstream IV jet to attend the Clinton toast. Tonken relates, "This led David Rosen, national finance director for Hillary Clinton's senate campaign, to joke that Parks 'came a long way, from the back of a bus to a G-4.' "
When Tonken said the best he could do was first-class commercial, Parks' assistant snapped, "What about Air Force One?"
birds of a feather flock together.