A drive-through red carpet. Gift bags with masks and hand sanitizer. Waiters knocking on car windows to deliver boxed gourmet dinners.
This is the celebrity charity event in the age of COVID-19. On Friday night, 90 cars zoomed onto the roof of The Grove parking lot for a drive-in screening of Mad Max: Fury Road benefitting the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project.
The evening, a joint effort of Theron’s nonprofit, the Caruso property and event agency CH Cre8tive, offered an inventive response to a current dilemma: At a time when philanthropic dollars are more desperately needed than ever and traditional gatherings are verboten, how do you plan the kind of party that makes people open their pocketbooks?