Palm Springs Attendees Remember Ronni Chasen

Despite what appears to have been an egregious first-name typo in the background (pictured), songwriter and long-time Ronni Chasen client Diane Warren paid tribute on Saturday night to the slain publicist at the Palm Springs International Film Festival while accepting the Frederick Lowe Music Award.

The following day, in the pages of the The Desert Sun, event chair Harold Matzner went into detail about how crucial Chasen had been in helping him build back up a festival that was near bankruptcy in 1999. The trick, he says, was convincing Hollywood celebrities and LA entertainment media to attend.

Ronni was a very powerful person in Hollywood. She had tremendous credibility, believed in the future of the awards gala and the film festival, and put her support behind it.

She was able to get us enough of the Hollywood flair to attract quite a bit of press. I think the ET sponsorship that Earl Greenburg and I brought to the festival was critical; that was about eight years ago… Ronni was a big deal in this equation. Her death has been a tragic loss for the entire festival, and for Hollywood.

Beverly Hills Police have yet to make their final pronouncements on the Chasen investigation. However, one important piece of information shared last month that did not get the media attention it should have is that the weapon used in the attack, a .38 caliber revolver, is designed to keep fired shell casings inside the chamber. This would explain the absence of such evidence at the crime scene.