Cheeky Chevy Chase poked fun at billionaire philanthropist David Rockefeller Jr. in front of wealthy bidders at Christie’s auction house, joking that his “Sailors for the Sea” charity encourages people to “protect the ocean and molest young boys.”
Chase, the night’s emcee, caused a stir with the line as he introduced co-chairs Rockefeller Jr. and his filmmaker wife, Susan, onstage at Christie’s Green Auction Thursday night.
The “National Lampoon” legend quickly added, “I don’t know where that came from,” as the celebrity crowd which included Salma Hayek and supermodel Miranda Kerr burst into embarrassed laughter.
Rockefeller Jr., who founded “Sailors for the Sea” to educate the boating community about marine conservation, took the joke in good humor. His wife took the mike and uttered a stern, “Thank you, Chevy,” along with a mock sideways glare.
Chase also livened up the usually sober auction house by telling the crowd that to encourage outside bids, it had “high-speed Internet acc-ass [sic]. Did I just say ass? Why would they ask me to be here? I am the most inappropriate comedian in the world.”
He also cracked that the rating agencies that verified the auction lots “recently rated the Octomom after counting how many children she had,” and thanked Christie’s for “your kind words about me and my willingness to drop my fee to $300,000.”
Guests included Francois-Henri Pinault, Ted Danson, Jeff Zucker, Brian Williams, Candice Bergen, Daphne Guinness, CNN’s Alina Cho, Christie’s CEO Edward Dolman, John McEnroe, Sam Waterston, writer James Lipton and Miss Universe Stefania Fernandez. Artists Damien Hirst, Olufar Eliasson and David LaChapelle donated works for the live auction, which raised more than $1 million, while bidding for items such as lunch with Vera Wang continues at charitybuzz.com until May 6.