The cost of transporting and lodging musicians for the event, including the 82nd Airborne Chorus from North Carolina, an Army band and other musicians, cost $165,000. The dinner for 350 people at the Beverly Hilton – which was attended by Hollywood celebrities, Pentagon officials and lawmakers – came to $76,000, senior Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Thursday, in answer to reporters' questions.
Cohen honored Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, with the first Citizen Patriot Award for his supposed advocacy of the military in films.
Bacon said the cost of the dinner was roughly in line with the per-person cost of dinners Cohen routinely puts on in Washington for visiting foreign leaders. The dinner cost a little less than the cost of one minute of TV advertising time on prime time, Bacon said.
"This was spent to help promote a good image of the military on the part of the entertainment business," he said.
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