When a Silver Star Meets Hollywood Stars

The signs read "Thank Our Veterans - Send Them to College.'' And when the emcee asked those in the audience who had once served in the armed forces of the United States to stand, they did:

Veterans like actors James Whitmore and David Hedison... and architect Frank Gehry... and writer Gore Vidal.

This was the Beverly Hilton Hotel, not an American Legion post, and Sunday's event promoted the Campaign for a New G.I. Bill, giving veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the same educational opportunities that the original G.I. bill gave to the likes of Whitmore, a World War II Marine who studied acting on the GI Bill after the war.

[Whitmore told the gathering that his roommate for two years was actor Jack Warden, ''and that was worse than my combat'' experience.]

The fact that a new G.I. bill has passed both houses of Congress by veto-proof margins, and that President Bush is reversing himself and withdrawing his objections, made Sunday's event seem less like a battle in progress and more like a last rest stop on the road to victory.

The TV crews turned out for the bill's celebrity supporters, Sally Field, Lisa Kudrow, Robin Williams, Tony Shaloub, Stefanie Powers and Swoosie Kurtz , all at the event emceed by Bob Balaban, who was prevailed upon to take the podium by his cousin, Judith Balaban Quine, one of the engines behind the Campaign for a New G.I. Bill.

But the celebrities saved their applause for young vets like Evan Aanerud from San Luis Obispo, a combat Marine and the son of a Marine recruiter, and now a college student who found that no matter where he enrolled, the $282 per month under an earlier act was ''peanuts no matter what college you go to.'' "After putting my life on the line for America, it would have been nice'' to get the benefits he said he was led to expect. Ditto Elizabeth Lahny, a Navy reservist who spent six months in Fallouja: "We as veterans are struggling."

The keynoter and big draw -- his name has been bruited about as a potential Obama running mate, and those are harder to find in LA than Oscar-winners -- was Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, a Vietnam veteran and father of a Marine who was in Iraq. Webb's most recent combat experience was dragging, shoving, pushing and nudging the new G.I. bill to and through the Senate.

He had just driven in from Riverside, where he visited an ailing uncle, a World War II veteran, and he was wearing LA-casual, not DC-pinstripes. Webb announced that President Bush would not be vetoing the bill, and he professed his ''surprise'' that the administration, along with "some senior Republicans, including one running for president,'' had opposed it.

For a few perilous moments after Webb's remarks, there were more cameras on Robin Williams than on Webb, who was standing virtually alone in a corner. But thankfully, one camera crew picked up the slack, and gave us an image for the ages: Senator Webb, combat veteran, United States senator -- being interviewed by MTV.