When Jane Fonda throws a party, everyone shows up.

Case in point: the star-studded, sold-out preview benefit, Art for a Safe and Healthy California, which the Oscar winner and activist hosted in Beverly Hills on April 9. The goal of the event was to raise money—more than $10 million, reps said on Wednesday morning—and awareness in support of the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California, a grassroots initiative fighting to prevent an environmental safety law from being overturned in November.

“They told me Jane Fonda wanted to speak to me before we started the event. Who says no when Jane Fonda wants to speak to you?” joked featured performer John Legend to the crowd. “I think everybody is here in this room because Jane Fonda asked you to be here.”

Other VIP attendees agreed, like Chelsea Handler, Maria Shriver, and Judd Apatow, who praised Fonda’s organizing abilities and recognized the importance of the cause.

“She’s an indefatigable force in every way. But especially with climate change in the last few years and her Fire Drill Fridays, and everything she’s brought attention to, it is very admirable,” said Handler. “I’m so grateful that I have the time in my schedule to show up and support it. [Climate change] is not going away, so we have to get better at dealing with it.” 

Shriver spoke about Fonda’s decades of activism as well as the importance of raising awareness about the public health issues tied to environmental problems. “The thing that’s inspiring to me is that she never gives in or gives up. And for women in particular, I think she is an inspiring figure,” she said of Fonda. “We have an issue of chronic disease in this country. We have an unequal health care system, and people are living next to things that make them sick. That’s not right. It shouldn’t be the case. Bringing up the environment as a health issue and connecting the dots for people makes it real and very of the moment.”

Writer-director Apatow, who attended with his wife, actor Leslie Mann, admitted he is “a sucker for charity events,” and applauds the effort that goes into them. “I appreciate when people put in the effort to do things like this because it’s a massive amount of work,” he said. “We didn’t have to bug all these painters to donate paintings. We just get to show up and look at them.”

A major draw of the benefit, held at the famed Gagosian gallery, was the opportunity to view and purchase some of the donated artwork on display. (The rest will be auctioned in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale during their marquee sale week in May, while a second set of works will be presented for sale in an exhibition this summer at Gagosian’s Beverly Hills gallery.) The Art for a Safe and Healthy California benefit features work from leading contemporary artists including Karon Davis, Charles Gaines, Frank Gehry, Alex Israel, Marilyn Minter, Catherine Opie, Christina Quarles, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Ed Ruscha, Kenny Scharf, Hank Willis Thomas, and Jonas Wood.

Fonda was excited by each friendly face that greeted her, visibly grateful for the wide showing of support from her peers. She spent most of the evening saying hello and giving hugs to her many VIP guests, including several artists whose donated work adorned the gallery walls.

“What excites me is that we sold out,” she said. “Some of the paintings have already been bought. All the money from tonight goes to the Campaign for Safe and Healthy California. And a lot of the artists that donated are going to be here tonight.” 

Although the vivacious octogenarian was very much in her element moving about the crowded room, Fonda admitted that she wasn’t happy to be fighting over SB 1137 again, which Governor Gavin Newsom has already signed into law. “I feel very pissed off about it. People have fought for [this] for almost a century,” she said. “There are almost 3 million people in California that live next to a well, and about 700 organizations have been focused on this. And they fought like hell. Oil, for centuries, has ruled California, and no governor had been willing to touch it until Governor Newsom. And so when he signed the bill, we were so happy. And then to have the oil companies trying to overturn it is unconscionable. They have to be stopped.”

Fonda said she encouraged everyone, whether in attendance or elsewhere, to spread the word and to invite friends and family to join the cause. “Talk about it. Let everybody you know, know,” she said. “Donate [if you can], but also if we have awareness, we win. Because truth is on our side, so we just have to get the word out.”

Two newer recruits to the cause are Legend and Chrissy Teigen, who served as cohosts of the event with Fonda, Larry Gagosian, Eric and Wendy Schmidt, and others. The couple said they were inspired to get involved in the campaign after learning about the harrowing, life-altering impact proximity to oil wells is having on millions of Californians.

“Chrissy went to a really great event at Jane’s house, and was so moved by the stories of the people who’ve been affected by this particular issue. She came home telling me how moved she was and we wanted to do what we could to help,” said Legend, who also performed four songs. 

“I was shocked to learn things that I’d never heard before,” added Teigen. “It was a fiercely private party to [shed light on the issue] and to educate. I came back so upset and motivated.”

In addition to the famous faces in attendance, the crowd heard moving speeches from frontline community activists who have been key contributors to the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California in speaking out about the effects of living near oil drilling.

Twenty-two-year-old activist and cancer survivor Nalleli Cobo was born and raised in a California community in direct proximity to an oil well. Cobo endured debilitating nose bleeds and asthma as a child and was diagnosed with stage two reproductive cancer at 19. “I was forced to choose between my reproductive system and my life,” she said.

Dr. Lorenzo Antonio Gonzalez, a street medicine physician with the LA County Department of Health who specializes in care for unhoused Californians, said, “Beyond the visible drilling, what we’re looking at is the invisible pollution that is causing bodily harm, pulmonary issues, cardiovascular issues, reproductive harm. There is power in unity, but it is participation that makes the difference.”