It is an unfor­get­table event: the annual Lupus L.A. char­ity din­ner that raises aware­ness as well as crit­i­cal dol­lars for lupus research. It is always enter­tain­ing, but this year had to be the best night yet, because the Band From TV had the 2011 Lupus L.A. Orange Ball rock­ing the Bev­erly Wilshire Hotel, and folks were urged to get up and dance wildly for a great cause at the end of the evening. A big treat was see­ing Teri Hatcher join the mem­bers of the Band From TV, includ­ing her Des­per­ate House­wives hubby James Den­ton, Scott Grimes, Greg Grun­berg, Adrian Pas­dar, Anthony Rui­v­i­var (Third Watch) and The Bachelor’s Bob Guiney, for clas­sic rock-and-roll tunes.

Paula Abdul didn’t dance but she did call it “an awe­some event” and took the stage to receive the Loop Award for being a long­time friend of Lupus L.A. Abdul has helped bring aware­ness and fund­ing to the orga­ni­za­tion, and so the honor was well deserved, accord­ing to Dr. Dan Wal­lace. He co-chaired the gala with Cindy and Glenn Frey, Nancy Utley and his wife Jan­ice Wal­lace. For their devo­tion to the Lupus Research Insti­tute, the inspir­ing cou­ple, Debbi and Roger Cowan, was hon­ored with the Founders Award, pre­sented with pride by their daugh­ter Amanda.

Always gen­er­ous with his time and tal­ent for wor­thy events, Fred Willard played host for the night. With his won­der­ful comedic flair, Willard started off by look­ing over the Orange Ball crowd and say­ing, “There are more doc­tors in this room than a Mercedes-Benz deal­er­ship.” That was true, but one stood out among the rest: Dr. Iris Low-Friedrich from UCB Inc., who accepted the Med­ical Vision­ary Award. She said at UCB they start every project with the ques­tion: “How will this make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of peo­ple liv­ing with severe dis­eases?” With that man­date, ground­break­ing research is being done on effec­tive treat­ments for lupus. Mem­bers of the med­ical com­mu­nity on hand cheered, as did Adam Selkowitz, exec­u­tive coun­cil chair­man of Lupus L.A., who spoke of progress being made for the cause.

Also attend­ing the event was fun-loving Sharon Stone, who was there to sup­port her sis­ter Kelly, who has lupus. Another gor­geous blonde, Char­lotte Ross (Glee), and tal­ented actress Kel­lie Mar­tin, singer Howie Dor­ough, Mered­ith Mon­roe, Shante Broadus and Extra cor­re­spon­dent Terri Sey­mour were there as well.

Phill Lewis was a great auc­tion­eer, plus Jimmy and Don­nie Demers per­formed, and the amaz­ing work of wood sculp­ture artist Lee Sil­ton was on dis­play as the cen­ter­piece of each table.

The crowd in the ball­room went wild when Teri Hatcher bounced on stage and announced “I’m with the band.” The Band From TV is a pow­er­house combo of well-known actors cel­e­brat­ing music, and liv­ing out their own rock-and-roll fan­tasy. “We have fun while bring­ing clas­sic rock to life,” noted Scott Grimes, who added that Hatcher sings with them reg­u­larly. He was glad she joined them at the Lupus L.A. event because it’s Grimes’s choice char­ity. Grimes (from ER fame, now doing Amer­i­can Dad) explained that Band From TV was cre­ated to pro­vide fund­ing and resources for sev­eral char­i­ties around the world.

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To date, Band From TV has raised close to $3 mil­lion by appear­ing at spe­cial events over the past five years. And the actors, who are accom­plished musi­cians, have released a Band From TV CD with a bonus DVD called “Hog­gin’ All The Cov­ers Unleashed!” to raise even more money for char­ity. James Den­ton, who plays gui­tar with the group, said, “Every­body wins, and we have so much fun play­ing at being rock stars.”