Kerry at Simons’ star-studded fund-raiser

NEW CANAAN, Conn. – Singers Paul Simon and Edie Brickell hosted a $1 million fund-raiser with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry Friday night, but when it came to music there were only the sounds of silence.

Simon and his wife Brickell did not perform at the fund-raiser although Simon spoke to the crowd gathered under a tent on his lawn. He praised Kerry’s “illustrious life of service.”

“History has placed John Kerry in the middle of the most crucial presidential campaign since the days of Vietnam,” Simon said.

Among the guests were actors Richard Gere and Chevy Chase and producer Lorne Michaels. Half the money raised will go to Kerry’s campaign and the other half to the Democratic National Committee.

Kerry said he and Simon were in the same place in the 1950s, playing in a band. “Now let me put the right spin on it tonight – between us we’ve won 16 Grammys,” Kerry said. “It goes without saying that there is a little difference between us.”