Legitimate benefit

H'wood gives its regards to B'way

By CLAUDE BRODESSER

NEW YORK -- There was grandeur aplenty at Gotham's Plaza on Monday night, as the National Actors Theater held its very tony dinner. Indeed, artistic director Tony Randall emceed, amid a host of celeb supporters of the stalwart classical theater producer.

Dinner was delish, but so much more enjoyable with a fly-by from "Late Show" funnyman David Letterman, who took the time to tickle the well-formed paunches of corporate donors with the "Top 10 Signs You Love Broadway a Little Too Much." (No. 3: When you were 16 years old, your mother found a stack of Playbills under your mattress.)

Paul Newman, the Sockarooni Sauceman himself, and wife Joanne Woodward were both on hand, bravely dealing with the mix of corporate bigwigs and a crush of rent-a-tux admirers.

Also seen making the rounds was Harry Belafonte. And even though Broadway's biggest booster, Rosie O'Donnell, found herself canceling with a last-minute case of the grippe, the celebrity auction carried on nonetheless: $21,000 would have bought you Randall to butler a private party. A bid of $3,000 would have bought you dinner with Randall and a night at the opera. Even Letterman's Top 10 list garnered a healthy $1,500 from a young, out-of-work actress who vowed to pay it off in increments of $100. After winning the bid on the famously blue-carded list, the young bombshell who would only identify herself as "M," gasped: "I feel like I just saw Diana killed in the tunnel!"

The NAT kudofest raised more than $900,000.