Cigar Dinner Raises $80,000 for Charity, page two

Posted: September 29, 2009

On the day of the meeting, Fuente asked Garcia if he had the right clothes to wear to the visit with the president.

"I said, 'I brought a guayabera,'" Garcia recalled, referring to the Cuban dress shirt. Fuente, nattily draped in a white jacket, began to chuckle from the crowd. "So, it's about five in the morning. We're going to get up very early to drive into [Santo Domingo] and I get a knock on the door to wake me, and it's Carlito who asks for my guayabera to have it ironed. I told him it's okay, but he says, 'No, let me have it.' I say, 'It's okay.' He says, 'No, let me have it.' I said, 'Okay!' He was, like, threatening me because I wouldn't give him my guayabera."

Garcia got ready, and when he went to the breakfast table, Fuente wasn't there.

"And I say to his lovely wife, 'Where's Carlito?' And she says, 'He's in the room there, ironing your guayabera.' So, I go to the room," Garcia said, "and Carlito's there ironing my shirt. And I say, 'Carlito, I appreciate it, but I know how to iron.' He says, 'It's okay, I'll iron it.' I say, 'I know how to do it.' He says, 'LET ME IRON THE SHIRT!' I said, 'Okay, you can iron the shirt.' As it turns out, Carlito's favorite thing to do in the world is to iron. He started to talk to me about the art of starch."

When the two got in the car, Fuente became concerned, Garcia said.

"'You're not going to wear the guayabera while you're in the car, are you?' What do you mean? 'Well, the seat belt, it'll wrinkle your shirt.'"

Fuente insisted that he lend Garcia a shirt for the ride. When they got to the president's office, Garcia related to Cigar Aficionado that he got more bad news about his sartorial selection. President Mejia looked at Garcia's guayabera and asked, basically, where Garcia had gotten the "crappy" shirt. Mejia looked at Fuente and suggested he take Garcia to a good Dominican shirt shop to get a proper guayabera.

Ultimately, Garcia got permission to shoot the scene at the palace, during which rebels attack the palace. But only on the weekend.

Mantegna and Reiser played auctioneers after dinner was served, as Bobby Newman, Cynthia and Wayne Suarez, and numerous showbiz luminaries made the rounds and the bids.

A private concert by Cuban-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval went for $9,500 after Sandoval gave a short display of what the show could be like.

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